We were looking for a place still open to have late lunch after our intensive grocery shopping and came upon this place called Restoran Kah Kah Loke recommended by my brother-in-law. Personally, I have not visited Kah Kah Loke before but they have been around for over 20 years with 6 outlets in the Johor state and have their fair share of fans. I have read that they have over 10 outlets on other sites but they don’t show up in google anymore so I am not sure if those other outlets have closed
We visited the outlet at Bandar Baru Permas Jaya and I had missed taking a picture of the signboard from across the road. With a bright red signboard, you can hardly miss Kah Kah Loke although, the signboard states bitter gourd soup, they sell more than just bitter gourd soup. Many will have given them a miss if they dislike bitter gourd
Nestled amongst a row of shophouses, Kah Kah Loke is painted in bright yellow with an old school coffee shop vibes complete with marble tables and wooden stools. Relatively spacious, the coffee shop can house 12 – 15 tables of customers
As we were having quite a late lunch around 2pm, the shop was fairly empty with just us and another table of diners. It was right in the middle of the afternoon but the shop was pretty cooling with multiple fans switched on. The only problem was the lack of service staff as some of them might be on afternoon break
There is a huge menu installed on the wall so you can actually look at that menu to pick the dishes to order, for those who prefer a closer look, they do have a printed menu which the staff will bring to your table when you wish to get your order. From soups to meats and vegetables, Kah Kah Loke serves a variety of Chinese-styled popular home-cooked dishes
The first dish that was served was the Kah Kah Loke speciality fried pork. With a nice crispy skin and deeply flavoured and tender pork, this dish was delightful as a snack or with plain rice
The next dish was the sambal sweet potato leaves which were pretty general in taste and flavours. The vegetables were soft but I felt that the sambal was missing a kick from the usual belachan versions
The next item was the Hakka steamed pork belly with yam. Cooked with fermented beancurd ( Nanru), the flavours were distinctively Hakka. The pork belly was well balanced between fats and lean meat with the sauce fully infused into the meat. The yam was cooked till soft but not mushy. This is the perfect dish to go with many bowls of white rice. As a half Hakka, I cook this dish at home as well so for my own personal taste, this is a tad on the salty side
The last dish is the star item of Kah Kah Loke which is the bitter gourd soup. This was so good I forgot to take a picture before my companions spilt the soup into many bowls so I had to grab a picture from the web. The bitter gourd was sliced extremely thin and cooked with pork slices which provided a sweet base to the soup. The bitter gourd added a refreshing taste to balance out the meaty flavours. As the bitter gourd was sliced thinly, there was hardly any bitter taste left
Overall, the dishes from Kah Kah Loke were very homely and down to earth. While they were not top restaurant quality in terms of environment or plating, they do provide a good meal resembling our favourite home-cooked dishes which will leave you feeling all warm and satisfied like after having dinner at mum’s place. We spent under RM 80 on all the dishes which is around SGD 20
Address: 22, Jalan Permas 10/5, Bandar Baru Permas Jaya, 81750 Masai, Johor, Malaysia
Operating hours: 11 am to 9 pm ( Closed on Mon)
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 