Restoran Ahwa Hokkien Mee — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

I don't write reviews like this very often but I had to for this one to save other people the pain. After not coming for many years, some friends and I decided to have dinner here last Sunday. We ordered from various hawker stalls here to have a variety of food along with the hokkien mee and wat tan hor.

This review is to particularly call out the terrible customer experience from the stall that sells braised duck. My friend and I spoke in Cantonese to order 1 serving of braised duck with 2 hard boiled eggs from the uncle. He was immediately extremely rude to us because he "expected" us to speak Mandarin. We then tried our best to reply him in Mandarin since we realised that was the language he preferred. But he kept on being very unpleasant as he misheard our order as being 'boneless' when actually we said we wanted it to be just the meat + egg with no rice. He scolded us further by saying that his meat will all have bone and started shoving the meat pieces in our face to show us the bones. To which we patiently answered to say that we are okay with the bones, just that we don't need the rice that comes with the meat as we didn't want to waste the rice since we already ordered noodles. He then raised his voice and told us to "self-service" by asking us to wait there and take the plate of braised duck and eggs to our table by ourselves. We obliged and said okay then waited for him to begrudgingly chop the meat for us whilst he continued to complain. We stayed patient as we sincerely wanted to try his food having had them when we were kids. To our shock, when he passed us the plate of duck and eggs, which were so measly in portion that it wasn't even 1 person's serving, he charged us a whopping RM13 for it. It was very uncalled for as he already scolded us for mishearing us in the first place, then made us wait at his stall to take the plate to our table by ourselves then charged us such a high price for such an unfair portion of food. The RM13 felt like a total scam because he didn't give us a decent serving of food nor did he provide any form of customer service. When we paid him, he gave us the change with an attitude, so ungrateful. Safe to say, I will never be giving him...

This has been one of my few recurring visit to this famous hokkien mee joint over the span of many years. Somehow the taste and flavors of the hokkien mee here just didn't manage to get me hooked. I recall one time that the wat tan hor tasted better than their famous hokkien mee but somehow, it was the other eay around for my visit this time. Not sure what happened but probably inconsistent cooking I suppose. For today, I ordered the hokkien mee, wat tan hor and also the fried belacan chicken wings from a neighboring stall. The wat tan hor had the right gooey comforting texture but the taste turned out a little plain for me. It also wasn't as fragrant as I hoped it would be with the eggy gravy and the fried hor fun. I did taste some wok hey in the hor fun though. The hokkien mee on the other hand was more delicious this time around. The dark luscious gravy sauce nicely coats every strand of the noodles and essential lard oil was present to give it the aroma we all know and love as well as to thicken the sauce. I requested for extra lard cubes/ chu yao zhar and it helped to add that nice crunchy texture with the burst of lard flavors as I savor my hokkien mee. Do not forget the sambal as it offers a fragrant shrimpy taste together with a spicy kick. The fried belacan chicken was commendable. It was nicely crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. I do however feel that the belacan taste can be amped up more. Overall, I feel that the hokkien mee was rather decent and so was the fried chicken wings. You might just fall in love with their brand of hokkien mee but I personally had better ones elsewhere. Also, I'm not sure what happened to the wat tan hor for my visit this time but probably not their...

Ah yes, dining excellence at its peak! Came here one last time thinking, "Hey, maybe it was just overpriced before." Silly me. Clearly, I didn’t realise I was stepping into the Michelin Starred Temple of Hokkien Mee Enlightenment.

RM14 per person? But of course! Who needs substance when you’re paying for the minimalist experience? Less than 6 pieces of cabbage (because who needs vegetables for health?), 6 wafer-thin slices of pork (sliced with love and air, apparently), a few bits of pork lard skin (crispy dreams), and then… the void. A zen bowl of mostly noodles and disappointment.

But wait – culinary masterpiece alert – grilled tofu! RM9 for two tiny pieces. Must be aged in Mount Fuji air and kissed by unicorns. Maybe there's gold flakes inside? Diamond core? An NFT embedded inside? Who knows!

And the service? Oh wow. A true soap opera live performance. One foreign staff yelling at another right in front of me, while I’m still holding my order slip, blinking in disbelief. "Diu lei ma Chao hai" – ah, the welcoming chant of this fine establishment. "You don’t know? Ask aunty to use handphone to key in order la!" – such professionalism, such poise. I felt like I was part of a reality TV drama I never asked to audition for.

Bravo. Truly an experience I’ll never forget – because my wallet cried, my stomach sulked, and my ears are still ringing. Can’t wait to...