Kui Lam Pork Noodles, Machi Pork Noodles, and Mama Love Pork Noodles – of all the three famous zhu yuk fan in Cheras KL, we were quite satisfied with the latter two but not Kui Lam. We didn’t plan to try it out initially due to the mediocre reviews read from blogs. However seeing the crowd and popularity the shop has, we thought there’ surely something that Kui Lam is good for.
Visited the shop last weekend at around 9AM. As usual, finding parking was hassle, plus there’s a morning market nearby. Drove further down, and walked to Kui Lam. Queue already started but not long, just two group of customers in front of us. Not too sure whether the tauke was afraid that customers will run away seeing the full house, or he didn’t want to keep them waiting for too long, he requested us to “dap toi” with other customers. Erm, our intention to leave triggered his attention? We didn’t mind sharing tables with others, as we did so sometimes in kopitiam. Just, not feeling comfortable as the table was quite small. Made us felt like we’re in Hong Kong.
Not surprise that the boss already stood behind us waiting to take down orders. We haven’t even look at the menu. So just “cincai” ordered soup pork noodles with mixed ingredients (*all zhu yok fan can be ordered this way right we guess. Hehe.) and a dry version. Wanted to have “lou shu fan” and “zhu yok yun” but before we informed, the tauke said “gon lou mei fan, cham cham liu” and wrote it down . So speechless. A bit pissed of already, so just let it be. Afterall is a local shop normal practice – busy, quick, “efficient”.
Kui Lam menu actually has a proper selections for their pork noodles. You can choose to have mixed ingredients, or just your favourite parts such as minced pork, meat balls, minced meat & sliced meat, minced meat & pork intestine, minced pork & pork livers. Add on RM1 for egg, vegetables or deep fried pork lard.
Waiting time was more than 30 minutes, as expected. Sadly, the pork noodles didn’t worth the wait. Soup was just not right, lack of depth, lack of sweetness. It was so pale and we didn’t like the taste of lettuce in it. Sorry to say, almost tasteless.
Dry version which had a bowl of broth served separately was still OK, as we got to taste some flavours.
We weren’t impressed with the minced meat patty either. Worst went to the pork intestine, rubbery, overcooked. Chew for quite a while and it was still in shape so we just swallowed it.
The best thing for Kui Lam Pork Noodles was probably the egg with runny yellow yolk. Probably something hardly to go wrong with also.
In short, we weren’t too sure why this shop can be so packed for breakfast and lunch. Personally, the taste wasn’t up to our liking, Mama Love and Machi are way better. But for portion and price, you may go for it as it is quite reasonable for huge bowl. Not coming back.
Photographer: Summerkid
Write-up: Summergirl
Kui Lam Restaurant 桂林豬肉粉
26, Lorong Lobak,
Jalan Kas Kas 2, Taman Cheras,
Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.
Opening Hours:
8AM till sold out (usually after lunch)
Closed on Sundays
