Foon Yew Laksa • San Lou — Restaurant in Johor

Most Johoreans know about the well loved Foon Yew Laksa, which has been operating since 1976. Even the Crown Prince of Johor, Tunku Ismail and his wife were seen patronising this stall.

I had arrived at this food park at 9am on a Saturday. There is a total of five food stalls with ample parking space here. The stall may appear unassuming from the outside, but you will be surprised by the crowd once you step in. The seats are casually scattered under the trees, whereby the environment is rustic and tranquil.

There was a short queue at this Yong Tau Food (YTF) stall, which was fast and orderly. The stall operation resembled a school canteen, whereby you select your desired dishes at the counter, followed by the staff cooking them for you. The counter showcases a wide variety of more than 30 dishes such as Oysters, Prawns, Squids and Black Quail Eggs which caught my eye. At the ordering station, I chose Laska with Yellow Noodles. I was also asked by the staff if I wanted Cockles and Bean Sprouts, which I accepted. I waited for 10 mins for my food to arrive.

My bowl of Laksa with about 10 ingredients costs RM23. The gravy is not as spicy as I expected, which suited me. If you need more "kick" in your Laksa, you can add their homemade Sambal to your heart's content. Although the Curry Laska tasted average like a watered-down version of Laska, the handmade ingredients are fresh and tasty. I will come back for this delicious bowl of YTF if I am in...

The food is ok, can't say it's better than Singapore or even better than average in JB/customs area. I ordered something that ended up to be 22RM while my wife's was 8RM. If I compare what I ate and what I paid, I would rather be sitting in Suntec City's Harianns over a bowl of their laksa at 11sgd. At least they got their laksa correct and the ingredients much better for that few dollars extra. The laksa gravy here feels like they didn’t use any dried shrimp which is one of the basic ingredients. It’s great if you dislike shrimps but it’s definitely a watered down version of laksa.

In fact it’s safe to say you can walk into any coffee shop in Singapore that sells laksa and you’ll find it better. And the price is probably cheaper just that they may not have so many types of yong tau hu ingredients.

The ambience is obviously not good as you would expect obviously since you're sitting alfresco style under beach umbrellas next to a regular JB car park with some stalls opened next to it. But what is bad is that their tables are infested/covered with ants. Literally covered with ants and I am not exaggerating. So you’re eating whole ants are running about on your table and you wonder if that container of chilli on the table had been eaten by ants before.

Service wise the people are friendly, not necessarily helpful.

Don’t bother coming here, really, whether you are singaporean or Johorian I’m sure you can get better food...

I've visited here once ages ago and this is my 2nd time visiting. Cant remember how the impression was previously. Arrived around 1215 and it was pretty crowded, could see the amount of bowls stacked up for preparation as I was sitting near the stall. Right in the middle of the day but the place was rather shady so it wasn't really hot. It is outdoor seating but guess would be a problem when it's raining. A good variety of Yong tau foo available for selection. Can see many different sizes of bowls depending on the number of items selected. Ordered 2 bowls with about 7 items each and 2 drinks cost us 41 RM. Would say this is probably on the slightly expensive side as would probably expect this price when dining in a mall. Nonetheless the portion was really big. This time round the gravy was okay but was not impressed. Seemed less flavourful now, more used to the ones which is more coconuty. The cockles were really fresh and the pieces of Yong tau foo was relatively bigger than the normal ones. The preparation of food was a little uncomfortable for me, the beehoon was drained from a pot of hot water into a basket which was placed on the floor right outside of the toilet entrance. And there were some food items placed close to the garbage bins and there were crows scavenging food in the bins. I didn't have any stomach upset but am not sure if this would for people with...