Old School Meals

Compiled by RENITA CHE WAN


THIS may not be the discovery of the year, but it may as well be the rediscovery of the year.

One rainy Saturday night, en route to Jalan Alor’s Wong Ah Wah in Kuala Lumpur for dinner with the gang, blogger qwazymonkey suddenly thought of Woo Lan Restaurant.


Tasty variety: The different dishes you can find at Woo Lan Restaurant.

To his surprise, none of his friends have ever been to (or heard of it for that matter) this legendary restaurant. So, they made a detour and headed for Brickfields.

Woo Lan, which is housed in a nice air-conditioned and brightly lit establishment, is tucked nicely in a quiet corner of Brickfields.

It wasn’t until a couple years back when qwazymonkey started getting his regular blind-massage therapies that he found this place again by chance.

“After a session, I was hungry and stepped into this place. I looked around and saw some rather familiar dishes. I happily ordered and ate. I’ve only returned once again for dinner out of laziness to go any where else after a massage,” he wrote.

Now his decision to dine at Woo Lan Restaurant was no mistake. He ordered everything that was recommended by the “Si Tau Poh”, and no matter how many dishes he ordered, the Fried Mee Suah is still a must.

“This has got to be one of my all-time favourite noodle dishes. I do miss it every now and then, but never really took the effort to get my butt here ever since I stopped my massage sessions.

“It’s a simple dish and subtle in presentation. But do not be fooled by its unappetising appearance. This signature dish is quite the con-artist. The flavourful combination of gluten starch, Chinese cabbage, pork, prawn, crunchy seaweed, fried egg that were held together by ‘some’ lard is just droolsome,” he added.

All in all the dinner was satisfying. He couldn’t agree more with his friend when she said that the place serves rather traditional village-tasting food and it’s not very often that he gets such cooking in this big city of ours.

Based on the taste of the food alone, they wouldn’t mind driving out of the way every now and then to savour some “good ol-skool” (old-school) dishes.

“Despite whatever I’ve said, do try the food there when you can. Just do not expect to pay the price of your neighbourhood Tai Chow.”

Woo Lan Restaurant is located at No.19, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur.