Pan Heong Restaurant • Batu Caves — Restaurant in Selayang Municipal Council

N05 River Prawn Wat Tan Hor 大生虾滑蛋河 = RM170.00 SST = RM10.20

When I was doing my Research about Eateries around the Batu Caves Area in KL,  this Eatery interestingly came up. Its really a Big Kopitiam Styled Non-Airconditioned Tze Char Place that looks like its Very 老字号.  Just from the Looks of it, this place certainly looks like its been around for Many Years already.

What surprised me was that even at 9.00am on a Tuesday Morning, there were actually Alot of Customers!  By 10.00am the Whole Place was Already Almost Full House!  Just check out my Video to see what I mean!  This was Especially Unusual especially for a Tze Char Eatery on a Weekday.  Other than me probably the Only Tourist, all of the Customers look like Locals.

Really Impressive Place too as you can see from the Photos,  and is the type of Really Famous Place patronized by Celebrities.  The Staffs are Friendly, Polite and Welcoming and I particularly liked that there is also a Canto Community Feel about this place as everyone were talking in Canto.  It was nice to converse with them in Canto myself and reminds me very fondly of my time in Hong Kong.

The 大姐 that took my order was Very Friendly  and I thought it was especially Amusing that she looked Visibly Stunned herself when I ordered this Dish Solo.  She even gently reminded me that its a Very Big Dish of which I just told her to proceed.  Anyway it took 7 Mins to serve up.

N05 River Prawn Wat Tan Hor 大生虾滑蛋河 = RM170.00

Due to Text Limit Constraints, I won't go into details describing every Ingredient here. If you are interested to know more, come visit my Facebook Food Blog: "A Solo Singaporean's Guide to JB Foods (And More!)" to view the Full Review with Photos.

Conclusion and Closing Thoughts

I'll be honest, at the Price of RM170 (S$52.00), this is Very Expensive.  Even the SST Tax of RM10.20 is equivalent of 1 Average Meal!  The Dish itself as you can see is actually Very Basic.  Its literally just 2 Big Fat River Prawns resting on a Bed of Wat Tan Hor and Gravy.  What you are really paying for at this Price are the 2 Giant River Prawns.

Having said that, the Quality of the Gravy is Really Good.  It has a Solid Seafood Base and as I mentioned tasted like it was made from a Very Good Quality Seafood 高汤 Broth.  There is alot of work done for this Gravy and it is not your Typical Downstairs Kopitiam Level of Tze Char Hor Fun.  This is Atas Restoran 酒楼 Level.

As for the 2 Giant River Prawns,  I really can't tell if they are worth the price since this is the 1st Time that I've eaten such Giant Prawns.  I really don't know if the Asking Price of RM85.00 (S$26.00) for Each of them is really worth the Price.  Only People who have eaten such Giant Prawns regularly will be able to tell, so I would appreciate if anyone can provide their inputs if this is considered Affordable.

I'll also be honest, for such an Expensive Prawn, I wasn't really blown away by its Taste.  Its certainly Visually Very Impressive thats for sure, but I thought I was just eating a Larger Prawn that's all.  Maybe I don't have a Delicate "Rich People" Taste,  but this tasted just like a Regular Prawn, albeit a Much Larger one.

Texture was even Soft Type, not Bouncy Firm although I'm also not sure if its because such Giant Prawns Texture is like this.  I do like the Tomalley tho, that was Uniquely Creamy compared to Regular Prawns.

End of the Day, I am still very impressed with this place.  The fact that its almost Full House on a Weekday Morning shows how Popular this place really is.  I can't even imagine how much more Crowded if you were to come on a Weekend!

Thanks for Reading. Come join my Facebook Food Blog: "A Solo Singaporean's Guide to JB Foods (And More!)" to view the Full Review...

Food is cheap. So is their service attitude.

They have a queue system, not one that make you feel excited to countdown the parties infront of you for your upcoming feast but one that make you feel like the peasant you are (to them). They chain up the entrance. The bright orange, plasticy ones.

Ordered the Tiger Prawn Wat Tan Hor. One bite and was totally relieved that we didn't splurge and go for the bigger prawn.

There was 'wok hei' but only isolated to some of the strands of the noodles. Apart from the 4 prawns and a few slices of ginger (yes, ginger isn't cheap). They seem to forget or omitted the other regular ingredients and aromatics found in a classic 'Wat Tan Hor'. I normally wouldn't go for the complimenting soy sauce and chopped garlic but by the end of it, I have polished and dried off the sauce plate.

Coming to this point of my rant I have to apologize that I didn't take a photo of the food. For one, I am not much of a 'camera eats first' kind of person, but also maybe thanking the heavens that I didn't have to burden my phone's auto white balance as the food was paler than Dracula on a diet during a lunar eclipse.

Any foreign worker 2 weeks into his job in a mall food court could have done a better job. Don't get me wrong, I have worked with a few and they are good.

What irked us the most was that halfway through our meal, some staff members were scampering and hurriedly wrapped a table in a table cloth. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a group of 4 or 5 gentlemen came in from what seemed to be after a round of gold was ushered to the table. Attires do give you away sometimes. They even got a bowl of hot water to rinse down the tableware while just moments ago we were figuring out if that black speck from inside our bolw could be scrapped off with our fingernails. Spoiler; we weren't successful.

'Best' part of the experience was that this lady who I presume to run and most importantly owns the place proudly wears signs in 3 different languages stating their stand in how you place your orders. This I couldn't resist but to take a photo. Attached.

Bottom line: Food mediocre, even if in an apocalypse Staff members very friendly. It's the owners that need to wake up and face reality

Note to owners: there are more successful and proper restaurants that have decent to proper service, Don't mind if you can't cook (don't blame you, I could give you pointers. PM tepi) but service could...

I'll start this review by saying that if you want a pleasant and non-stressful experience in this restaurant, try coming slightly after the time that the restaurant opens for business or within an hour after opening time. Otherwise, you will be complaining along with the other reviewers here about the long queue as this place gets long queues and tons of people on the weekend close to lunchtime.

My family and I came here just slightly after the restaurant opened for breakfast, and stayed here for close to an hour. There was no queue, and the restaurant was half empty with our orders coming quite fast and service was good.

The food itself was very good and delicious, and the wantan hor is excellently cooked with fresh ingredients and the ingredients were generous with plenty to go around. I would recommend ordering more than the number of pax that you have on the table i.e. ordering for 5 pax when you have only 4 pax, because there will definitely not be enough to go around when everyone wants second or third helpings.

The porridge is also another good option, with fresh ingredients too and portion size again is very generous with enough ingredients. Both wantan hor and porridge was well cooked and the ingredients as well as the noodles for the wantan hor and rice for the porridge was well-balanced with the ingredients, with everything going well together and the ingredients did not overpower the dish itself. You can order the yau cha kwai as well, which complements the porridge nicely.

The lobak is only okay though, but was cooked well. There was not much meat included in the lobak, with the ratio of flour being more than meat, so I'll recommend that you make ordering the lobak optional. It's good for a try once but not as a repeated order next time. One thing to note, you'll need to order at least 3 strips of lobak as a minimum order, but the portion size for this wasn't too big. I think 3 pax can finish it easily or even 2 pax if one of you is a big eater.

All in all, the price for this restaurant wasn't too bad and comparable to KL standard, but your experience might differ. At the time of this writing, the price for 4 pax was RM101 for 5 portion size of wantan hor, 2 portion size of porridge and yau cha kwai, and for the lobak as well, with a pot of tea for 4 pax. It was a big meal and we did not have lunch after that, so you can assume that the portion size ratio was more than sufficient...