Wong Poh Restaurant, Ara Damansara, PJ

It was Saturday and as usual, my wife and me will be slaving around the home with routine weekend chores and sending the boys for their classes. As Chinese New year is about 2 weeks away, more up keeping needs to be done.

After a hard day's work, we decided to have dinner together with my folks at one of our favourite restaurants for crabs, Wong Poh in PJ.

By the time we were there, the place already jam packed with Saturday night dinner crowd. Luckily we still managed to get a table in the air-conditioned section of the restaurant, good timing.

The first dish that came to our table was the salted steamed chicken drumsticks & thighs (RM40). The meat was tender and juicy, not overly salty, everyone like the dish.

Next up was the pork belly with preserved vegetables (mui choy) (RM26). Wong Poh's version of the meat was quite lean, with only thin layers of fats. This goes down well especially with my dad.

The fish of the meal was steamed Hong-Chou (ikan merah) RM 52.30, not sure of its English name. The fish is fresh, which can be easily tasted as its flesh was firmed and doesn't have the fishy smell. The preparation is very simple with some oil and soy sauce as a based.

We ordered the minced meat with local bean curd (RM16) because we wanted a gravy rich dish to suit the taste buds of the kids. However, this is a disappointment as the gravy tasted very bland.

As for vegetable, we ordered baby xx (RM15) stirred fried with garlic. The veges were crisp and not overcooked.

The highlight of any visit to Wong Poh will be the crabs (RM77). We ordered 4 crabs (around 2kgs), prepared in 2 styles. Their famous butter cheese (above) which comes with lip-smacking sauce as well as the 'kam heong' style (below).

As usual, the crab dishes will come in last. This is to allow the customers to enjoy the normal dishes first before attacking the crabs. So, it's important to leave some rooms for the crabs when you're at Wong Poh. All your fingers and maybe part of the hands will be stained with the delicious sauces coating the crabs. Nothing beats the experience of licking them off your fingers and putting them under the miniature hammers and gets cracking away.

The butter cheese crab was very good as always. The fried buns did justice to the sauce, soaking up to the last drop. As for the kam-heong, this was equally good with lots of dried shrimps and curry leaves.

The bill came up to RM251.60 for 8 adults and 3 kids (including rice and tea).

Restaurant's Info:

Restoran Wong Poh, No 36 & 38, Jalan BM 1/2, Bukit Mayang Mas, 47301 PJ, Selangor.

Tel: 03-7803 3527, 012-364 7010

Operating Hours: 11.30am-2.30pm & 5.30pm-11pm