Hau Kee Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

If you value a chef's mastery in Chinese cooking and ingredients quality more than anything else, this is the place to go.

This is NOT a place for anybody who is nitpicky about service quality, waiting time, ambiance and food presentation (maybe even cleanliness). But in my honest opinion, it still deserves a 5 star because of good control of wok hei and mastery of flavours.

What's really good here? The crabs are definitely a highlight. Although the price is a notch higher than most shops in the surrounding area, its quality is unmatched even when compared to some coastal-located restaurants. As you walk towards Hau Kee, you get bombarded by surrounding buntings and flyers that lists their seasonal CNY prices as RM88/kg for crab. When you enter Hau Kee, you would see pasted on its walls their seasonal price of RM140/kg (stated for medium size but the service staff mentions they only serve one size; he gestured a moderately small size to us but the actual size served was the size of my palm ~15cm wide) and that's a huge jump. You wonder if it is worth it. And I honestly think it is for the size (larger than average) and freshness. I have frequented some of the surrounding shops in the past. Their size is significantly smaller and the meat texture is just not even close in terms of freshness (sticks to the shell, difficult to remove).

Their signature is the buttery sauce crab but I think their chilli crab is really well done too. Both goes extremely well with their deep fried mantao. I do have to note that the way they cook is a little rough and less refined. Don't expect like a banquet restaurant, award winning oriental chef or hotel level kind of finish. Foods are prepared unevenly, sometimes you still get scraps from the previous dish they were cooking on the wok (we got free fatt choi with our garlic stir fried vegetable this round 😂, obviously came from the CNY signature dish from another table). Even for the chilli crab, the egg "flower" has been beaten so tough, I get these large chunks of egg white as big as my spoon 😂 But delicious as heck nonetheless. Salted egg squid, even the yolks were not fully dissolved in yet but still delicious. Can be a bit more crunchy but perhaps a matter of preference.

Talking about their garlic stir fried vegetables, that is very revealing of their chef's skill level. Iconic Cantonese cooking. Vegetables have definitely gone through a quick round in hot oil. Brings out its flavours entirely although a tad greasy.

If you go into the finer details like their sweet chilli sauces and sambal dips served on the side, it further reveals their attentiveness to flavours. No straight-out-of-the-bottle stuff here. Every dip has been further enhanced to complement the dishes served.

Cleanliness is subjective. Toilet was above average in terms of cleanliness. But tea stains on tea pot can be a shocker 😂

Prices are polarising as well. Some dishes are cheaper than the typical roadside stall (RM22 for squid, less than RM20 for vegetables) which is cheap for an air-conditioned Chinese restaurant like them. But some dishes like the crab can be very high. Check prices first before you confirm the order.

A few things to note: come early for parking, make a reservation beforehand, order all dishes at the beginning, there's a time limit of 2 hours for each booking slot and you might be rushed to finish at the end of the 2 hours to quickly finish your food, service can be not so great (but not entirely bad).

Overall I am satisfied with their quality. A lot of compromises when you dine here. But I enjoy supporting these no-frills but greatly skilled places. Taste feels old-school Cantonese cooking. None of that overly polished high...

Public Warning: This restaurant is dishonest and operates like a scam.

We came here for the first time on a friend’s recommendation — and deeply regret it.

First red flag: the menu had no prices at all. We weren’t told the prices while ordering, and when the bill came, the total was obviously inflated. We asked them to check, and they insisted three times the bill was correct. Only after we demanded they calculate it item by item did they finally admit their “mistake” and refund nearly RM50. That kind of overcharging doesn’t feel accidental — it feels intentional.

Then came the dish swap scam. We ordered lala (clams), but they had already sold out — and yet they still decided to serve us cockles without informing us, clearly hoping we wouldn’t notice and they could still charge us for it. One of our guests, thinking it was the dish we ordered, naturally scooped some onto her plate. When we told the staff it was not what we ordered, they refused to do anything about it, saying we had already “eaten it.”

This is not just poor service — it’s a dishonest tactic to push a sale.

No one apologized — not once. If they had just admitted their error, we might have let it go. Instead, one waitress gave us attitude and stormed off, while the rest stood their ground as if they had done nothing wrong.

To make things worse, even after the person in-charge agreed to remove the dish from the bill, they secretly added the price back into the final bill. That’s outright cheating.

Afterwards, we checked Google reviews and saw other customers had similar experiences of being overcharged or misled. Now we understand why.

A word of warning to future patrons: CHECK YOUR BILL CAREFULLY before paying. Don’t assume they’ll be honest. What happened to us didn’t feel like a one-off mistake… it felt like a setup.

Definitely would not return, and I strongly advise others to...

This is a well known restaurant and I have been wanting to try for years but finding a parking spot is near to impossible. Since it was a Saturday night, I booked a table and ordered dishes in advance. Thank god for that because it was full house and chaotic. Our reserved table was given to someone else by mistake but replaced with another immediately. We waited like half an hour for the dishes. The restaurant was noisy as in a normal crowded chinese restaurant. The carpark was turned into outdoor dining too. They had an impressive menu but without prices. It's indicated 'seasonal prices' on every page. For that I'm rating 1 star less. The food was fabulous. The homemade tofu with luffa was deliciously soft. The stir fried cockles with special sauce was good...spicy and a bit too salty. Kam heong sauce is always salty. An uncommon dish which I couldn't resist since I have a weakness for cockles. Homemade fish balls were so soft, bouncy and soup was flavourful. Lastly the braised pork belly with preserved veg was such a sinful dish. It melted in the mouth easily. If only we had some mantou (steamed plain bun) to eat with it. Thick rich sauce was a 'rice stealer'. Portion for 5 pax was okay. Price is above average. Cockles for RM40 is pricey. Service was good. Interior of the restaurant was simple. I'm already planning a next visit to try the eight...