AZR Mentarang Fresh Sekinchan — Restaurant in Selangor

This was my first experience with mentarang, so how does mentarang bakar tastes like?

THIS. has instantly topped my personal favourite seashells list. The taste on it's own was brilliant, without needing to season it, it was already flavoursome; juicy, soft yet chewy on some parts, with slight sweetness and natural saltiness that make your yearns for more! But let me tell ya, it is indeed on the pricier side as each may cost around RM 4-5. But taste wise, it easily surpasses oysters well at least for me.

As for my review for the restaurant:

Drove all the way here on weekend to taste the mentarang bakar and gladly it did not disappoint. There weren't too many customers, around 7 tables so we didn't wait for too long. We ordered mentarang bakar, tomyam campur and nasi goreng kampung and waited about 20 minutes.

The mentarang bakar was good, but I've tasted nicer and fresher from the nearby hawker. I especially love the tomyam memang power, very thick and flavourful! The drinks were fine, teh o ais limau and teh tarik. The were parkings available so it's convenient I'd say the premise appears clean The toilets were clean, soap were also provided. The ambience were alright, suitable for family gathering they played some songs in the background.

Cons and suggestions

There weren't menus available on the table, we have to walk all the way to the counter to see what's available. Since it was our first time there, we were clueless on how the ordering system work, or what's there on the menu. My suggestion is to immediately provide the menu upon customers arrival.

The staff weren't too friendly nor assisting. Upon receiving our food, the waitress who appeared lethargic only provided a set of cutlery to when clearly there were three of us, so we had to get up to retrieve it on our own. Suggestion: Train the staff to be more attentive, friendly and smile more while serving the customers.

Overall, we were satisfied with the food, would I come again?...

As a first-timer tasting mentarang, I would say the mentarang itself was good. It wasn’t fishy, fully cooked, and paired well with the sambal. However, there was some sand in it, which might have been overlooked.

Menu - Only ordered for grilled mentarang

Pricing - Maybe it’s standard? I’ve never tried other restaurants, so I’m unsure about the price. It was RM20 for 7 pieces, but I know the actual price is only RM15 per kg (raw). So RM20 for 7 pieces (not sure if it even reaches 1/2 kg) feels a bit pricey. But it's acceptable since it’s a dining establishment.

Service - 2/5. Their ordering system isn’t like other restaurants. Customers need to go to a table where there’s a staff member. That’s where the menu is, but most of the items were out of stock. I arrived around 5:30 PM, so I had to queue to order. The staff wasn’t friendly and left customers waiting because they were busy setting up a tablet. Maybe they were new to the system. But when it came to delivering food, other staff seemed confused about which table to deliver to. It wasn’t just my food; this happened with all the meals.

Location - It's by the roadside. It’s the second mentarang stall if you’re coming from Teluk Intan. We stopped here because we were eager to try mentarang, and according to Google, most places were closed (Sunday). So we kept searching, and when we saw the signboard, we decided to stop and try it. But there were more stalls ahead, so don’t worry if you miss the turn or overlook it.

I not really recommend it because the staff wasn’t friendly. I’m not sure if they were tired or what. But as soon as we entered, no one attended to us. I just thought that they were all tired from their work, but at least greet or smile at the customers?

If you want to try, go ahead. It’s up...

We were on our way home to Johor after visiting Nuha and Muadz in Seri Iskandar. We purposefully chose to travel on the WCE instead of the usual NS highway. At lunch time we were already in Sekinchan. It is time to take a rest after driving for more than an hour. We spotted this AZR Restaurant and decided to have our lunch here. Actually we have googled this place and they have quite good rating. Shafiq ordered for us mentarang bakar (mentarang is sea creature that can be found only on the coast of Selangor and Perlis), masak lemak cili api belangkas (horse shoe crab), sotong goreng celup tepung, telur dadar and kailan ikan masin. Mentarang bakar was tasty. First time makan mentarang. Belangkas was puzzling at first. What to eat from the thick armour skin? But later discovered the eggs implanted under the skin layers. Quite tasty though. Overall the lunch taste was good (5 stars) but the metal deck roof of the restaurant radiated so much heat on us and sweated profusely. I would suggest the owner to install ceiling in order to stop the radiating heat to make customers more...