Fish With You 鱼你在一起 @ STARLING MALL — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

Every time I pass by this restaurant the last couple of months, there have been long queues. So, needless to say, I was curious, but just not curious enough to wait in line. Not when there are so many other nice eating places in Starling.

So, when we walked by and noticed that there were only a couple of people in the queue, we decided it was time to give Fish With You a try.

Prices for the various fish soups start from around RM30 for a small portion. The small portions are recommended for 1 or 2 pax and each order comes with 2 side dish add-ons like tofu and mushroom that goes into the soup, and 1 rice. They use Dory fish but you can upgrade to toman for an additional RM8. Rice portions come with unlimited refills and you have the option of either white or brown rice.

We ordered 2 small portions to be shared by 4. One was the tomato soup and the other was the suanchai soup. We just stuck to Dory for both orders.

Both the broths were nice and the suanchai soup was only slightly spicy and numbing. I am glad they didn't overdo it with the mala like some places. The fish was on the soft side but that is normal with Dory. Furthermore, there aren't that many pieces of fish in the soup. Maybe I should have tried toman on one of the orders. But for the price, they should have used a slightly better fish like tilapia with fish that holds better when cooked in a soup. As it is, the soup is good but the fish is rather disappointing.

Ordering is self service at the counter but they will deliver your orders to your table. As for the tables, they are probably trying to squeeze in as many tables as possible but the tables are too small and not ideal. It is really difficult to share the soups when you need to keep moving the bowls around the small tables. The same goes for the tiny stools and the benches that line the walls. Those keep moving at the slightest shifting of weight.

The other problem I noticed is with the free flow rice. It is also self service and the place felt like a mad house with all the people walking around the already crowded restaurant. I shudder to think if an accident should happen that involved hot bowls of soup. At least serve the first bowl of rice to keep the walking traffic to a minimum. Not everyone needs a...

A very bad experience on 3rd of June. I went to take away a popcorn chicken at the price of RM 11.55(with tax included) by paywave at The Starling Mall. After a few minutes, it was ready and I left the shop with the take away food(in a bag). Once I left, I found that it is not popcorn chicken, it was crispy pork slice instead. Immediately, I turned back to the shop and asked if they gave me wrongly.

When I approached one of the staff (first guy), he attended me and checked for me. He went to another staff in orange shirt and passed the bag to him. The orange shirt guy took out cash (RM11.55) from his pocket INTSANTLY and told me, sorry, we dont have chicken today and left from my side. The first guy come back to me as I requested an explanation. He told me " I am not here when you take your order just now". I was stunned by his replied. Then I realized they actually knew that they gave me the wrong order but they decided to kept mum on it. They dint try to come after me when I left the shop to tell me that it was pork, not chicken.

I spoke to the head(girl with short hair) afterwards, she dint approach the staff to have further investigation. No explanation from her as well. As a leader of a shop, she is not professional at all. At the end, I left the shop with anger because 1） if chicken is not available, cashier(long hair tan girl) should have known about it, but she still proceed with my order 2) they should have come after me to tell me it is pork not chicken ( for those who know, not all people can take pork) 3) what if I am not going back to the shop, what to do with the cash in the staff's pocket? 4) the shop leader should have a higher ability in solving the emergency.

All in all, the service is TERRIBLE and I would say the staffs in Fish With You Malaysia are...

Now having eaten at both TaiEr and FishWithYou, one cannot help but make some detailed comparisons of their signature offering of SuanCaiYu.

Taste: TE uses better quality fish. FWY uses dory but offers the tastier and silkier toman (snakehead) at a slight premium. Both recipes appear to be quite similar but we found FWY’s more balanced, palatable but much ‘tastier’ (detected the MSG effects later). TE tasted ‘fancier’ with flower petals and other elaborate condiments. We also found FWY portions to be just right for two to share whereas TE’s regular was just too large even for four! TE’s complimentary tea service of mandarin peel with roselle is extra impressive whereas FWY just offers you plain hot water.

Service: TE is definitely much more showy, dramatic, eventful and experiential - if you like that sort of thing, similar to renowned HaiDiLao. FWY service is normal, more straightforward, mildly utilitarian and brisk, requiring you to order from counter, paying first then only going to your assigned table. But the food arrives promptly while the wait at TE was much lengthier (due to large crowds).

Pricing: The difference is like heaven and earth. TE tries to take SuanCaiYu into the realm of fine dining with prices to match, whereas FWY is more reasonable, competitive, “down-to-earth” and value for money if you can forsake all the fancy stuff TE offers.

Conclusion: It is obvious that both FWY and TE are targeting slightly different markets with their respective price point strategies. Whether TE can sustain their business with such premium pricing and quality remains to be seen in this competitive environment or until their novelty wears off. FWY’s advantage is their pricing accessibility and somewhat no frills but...