Old China House

I am huge fan for Nyonya food when it comes to Asian cuisine. According to Mum, there's the Northern (Penang)  and Southern Nyonya (Melaka). Based on my liking, I love the Northern Nyonya more. However, I am not able to really differentiate but I know the difference if it's the otak-otak (my favourite!). I remember reading one of Flavours magazine issue that was featuring a Nyonya restaurant somewhere near Sunway Giza. It's called The Tranquerah. Wanted to try that place but to travel there is a little far. Then I went online to the TimeOut K.L. website to just browse through what are the nice place to eat. Then I saw this Old China House which is just located near Petaling Street which is fairly near my place. Read the review for the place. Apparently to all comments for this restaurant is that it serves the best Nyonya food in KL! 

I got pretty excited to go and try that place. So one fine Sunday, I planned to go there for dinner with Him and Mum. Helped him do some house chores and snuggle with his lil not-so-fluffy-anymore Schnauzer. Made reservations for 8pm :). 

Apparently, His mum wanted to bring him there to try last time and he didn't want to as it looks like a scary place. He then labelled that restaurant a Ghost restaurant. I couldn't understand why at first. When we arrived, the place looks pretty decent and to me, it was no where close to being scary lol. The environment was nice but very crowded. Not really surprising, but it was infiltrated by western tourists. That's somehow a bad sign. 

I can now tell why it can be quite a scary place already lol. At night, it is nicely lighted up that creates a nice ambience but picturing it in the afternoon where it's not too nicely lighted up, it really looks scary with all the old portraits of the Kapitans and their families, old furnitures and with dim lightings. It just reminds me of the horror movies hahaha! 

The food price is not that expensive for Nyonya cuisine in my opinion. But it still all depends on the quality of food. We ordered a fair amount of dishes such as Ju Hu Char, Chicken Kapitan, Kangkung Belacan, Sotong Sambal with Petai and Cencalok Omelette. Both Him and Mum ordered white rice and being the unhealthy me, decided to go for the coconut rice. I can never resist anything that has Santan lol!

Basically, the food was very bad. Super disappointed. And I've learnt the lesson to never fully believe food reviews unless reviewed by fairly professional food critics =.=! The food has no lovely aroma of the spices and herbs. The Chicken Kapitan was very salty and the chicken parts given was bad. The Kangkung served was mainly just the stems. Even the dai-chow fries better ones. The Sotong Sambal does not even have the sambal taste. Squid was quite overcooked resulting the rubbery texture. Ju Hu Char lettuce was so not fresh that it has wilted spots all over. The Cencalok Omelette is basically and omelette with a handfull of salt with a tiny pinch of cencalok. My coconut rice wasn't fragrantful at all. Basically, it's an overall bad experience. It'll be my first and last time back to this place. 

Next destination for Nyonya food will be the Tranquerah. I sincerely hope that the food there will have a certain standard to even claim that they serve Nyonya food.