Water Cress Valley 西洋菜谷

Everyone travelling to Cameron Highlands will definitely arrange for 1 hotpot meal as it is one of the best feelings to enjoy steaming hot food in cooling weather. You can almost see a restaurant offering hotpot in every step you take in Cameron and even hotels offer hotpot dinner sets for their guests

I wanted a special hotpot experience in Cameron so I did extensive research by reading many local reviews and recommendations and decided to have lunch at Water Cress Valley. Opened in 2001, Water Cress Valley is a traditional charcoal steamboat restaurant and a working farm specialising in Water Cress vegetable

Located away from the buzz of central Cameron Highlands, the farm is closer to mid-hill and was perfect for our lunch as we descended to Ipoh. The entrance to the restaurant is a steep slope and might be tough for people with walking problems, but they have sufficient safety railings. Technically, it is possible to push a wheelchair down the slope but very slowly or by pushing the wheelchair backwards

One of the main reasons why I chose this restaurant was the fact that the steamboat is served in an old-school charcoal pot and the platform where the tables are located has a panoramic view of the watercress farm. With a great view of the mountains and a full view of the green farm with fresh air, this was a perfect vacation restaurant in my opinions

When you first enter the restaurant, they will let you choose the table you prefer and hand you the menu, once you decide on what to order, you can proceed to the counter to place your counter. You can order the base set depending on the number of persons in the group which includes; noodles, tofu, vegetables, egg, meat, fishballs, seafood and mushrooms. They also have a non-vegetarian set. For reference, the cheapest set for 1 to 2 persons is costed at MYR 75 for the non-vegetarian and MYR 65 for the vegetarian set

Apart from the set, you can also order add-ons like the entire snapper fish for MYR 60 or 70 ( I can’t remember), pork ball for MYR 19 or the Iberico pork collar for MYR 38. Everything else in the pictures came with the basic set. The best part of this was each ingredient came plated with watercress which can be cooked into the soup. The soup base was boiled with watercress and you add their special watercress soup pouch to enhance the flavours

Overall, the ingredients were very fresh and did not taste like it was laden with MSG. The price of the add-ons is slightly more expensive compared to the other restaurants offering steamboat in Cameron but I feel the quality does justify the price tag. Most importantly, there was an endless supply of watercress as the boss kept saying they could give more if needed. The soup base was nothing fancy but tasted naturally sweet from the fresh watercress and had a nice charred flavour from the charcoal. My nephew who never eats watercress fell in love with them after dining here. So for those who love a homely, old-school, humble steamboat meal, I highly recommend this place. What it lacks in fancy soup bases, it makes up with the light, flavourful and extremely addictive watercress soup

Side note: I bought their soup pouches and they are extremely convenient to use as well to replicate the wonderful flavours of their watercress soup back home

Address: Lot UT/KF/F 160, 159, Batu 44, 39100, Jalan Besar, Tringkap, 39000 Tanah Rata, Pahang, Malaysia

Opening hours: 11 am to 9 pm