Fat Mom's Restaurant — Restaurant in Borneo

Since watching so menu guests come to eat at Fat Mom's on YT I have been looking forward to this meal for some time and the food did not disappoint!

The jumbo tiger shrimp were magnificent, like small lobsters! The head was very juicy and sauce was very flavourful. Squid with salted egg was magnificent. We couldn't finish so brought then back to the hotel. Hours later, cold, soft and chewy... they were STILL amazing! When fresh, they were light, crispy and tender. The veggies stir fried with belacan were well done although nothing extraordinary. They have an EXTENSIVE seafood menu and inventory. Drinks were also refreshing and tasty. Price was reasonable and a good value. This restaurant fills up very quickly so coming early or making reservations is highly highly recommended. It is the most famous restaurant in town after all!

Overall, the food was great and Fat Mom had a nice smile while working quietly preparing veggies. The staff were very attentive and provided great service.

2nd day in Semporna, 2nd meal at Fat Mom's and another FABULOUS meal. Especially after a whole day under the sun snorkeling, there's no better way to finish the day than with a big seafood feast at Fat Mom's! We even met a new friend from Ireland on the excursion and invited her to join us for supper and show her how good the food is! She loved every dish and in fact the sotong with salted egg was so good the day before I had to order it again! All of the dishes were magnificently cooked again! Afterwards we were able to spend significant time chatting, taking photos and trading contacts with Fat Mom that made it just the most perfect experience! Looking forward to making it 3 for 3 tomorrow!

Our third meal in 3 days at Fat Mom's was the absolute BEST but not so much because of the food. That is a given! All of the seafood and vegetables were incredibly fresh as Fat Mom goes to the market to purchase the ingredients PERSONALLY every day. One of the highlights is their signature tofu which is a humble dish but masterfully prepared.

The reason why this was the BEST of our 3 meals was because Fat Mom recognized us right away and came over to say hello and joined us for dinner and regaled us with stories and deep conversation for the better half of our meal! We got to know her a lot better and discovered that in the eight and a half years she has been running the most popular restaurant in Semporna, she is also very humble, kind and generous philanthropist in town taking good care of her employees and she cares for (veterinary fees, regular food donations to dog pound, etc) and feeds most of the stray dogs in town EVERYDAY! In fact, the best meal is served at closing time at the back of the restaurant! All of the neighborhood strays know to come or a tasty meal of rice and chicken courtesy of Fat Mom!

This was easily one of our most memorable dining experiences and the cherry on top most once I mentioned how amazing her homemade hot sauce was, she quickly went to the back and prepared a large bottle for me to take home as a souvenir, courtesy of Fat Mom! Honestly, the world needs more people like her! Already looking forward to coming back! Thanks for...

First time visited this restaurant on weekday. So called one of the best seafood restaurant but the food really not up to expectations. Im local Sabahan and travel around Sabah plus West Malaysia. I must say the food is average/ below. Many seafood restaurants in other place (not semporna) taste better and cheaper. For those ppl from west malaysia, sorry to say the price inflation is sky high due to tourist. DO NOT USE SEMPORNA FOOD AS THE STANDARD IN SABAH! All the waterfront restaurants don’t allow tourists to bring seafood to the restaurant to cook. But their restaurant is run out of seafood everyday. Limited choice of seafood u can choose, yet they prohibit seafood from outside. sounds stupid right? The simplest dish such as vege also cook very wet and soggy. Yet i came here during weekday, not many tourists actually.

My advice to the tourists: Steam seafood is the best selection, here, because they all fresh. You can taste the seafood better. Do not choose other way to cook (eg sweet and sour laa, kicap laa), majority chef in semporna doesnt cook well in that. I tried other restaurants, to be honest, only steamed seafood taste the best.

The photos here: lao hu ban (tiger grouper fish- rm120/kg), tofu, salted egg sotong, scallop, 2 pcs of crabs, chicken, vege. Our group 6 ppl- overall rm255. Surprisingly a little cheaper than some other seafood restaurant...

Not many seafood options but consider buying from the fishermen and get the restaurant to cook. The price is reasonable but many expect dirt cheap pricing because of Semporna's reputation. They have to make a living too so find a balance in the prices.

We had recommendations for cooking styles and were very glad with the ginger steamed prawns (600g) and fish sauce bee hoon (S-sized). These were the freshest and tastiest dishes. Their signature tofu with (quite large) dried shrimps and stir-fried vegetable (both S-sized) was a tad salty for us but still tasty. The only dish which we couldn't quite sit with is the 5-spice fried mantis prawn (500g). The taste was unique but not to our liking. We had 2 cups of smooth avocado juice as well.

Staff and owners were friendly and there were some cats around who would paw at you for food. The balcony platform where you sit on overlooks the Dragon Inn and passing boats towards the jetty. Bring mosquito repellent along as...