Pudu Chan Fatt Wanton Mee @ Damansara Uptown

Founded in 1955.  Called it a day in 1996.  Revived in June 2017 (by the daughter of the original stall owners), Pudu Chan Fatt Wanton Mee @ Damansara Uptown is back after a 21-year hiatus!

Well, I've never known nor tasted this wanton mee when they were originally in Pudu, so I came here just wanting to taste this wanton mee with no comparison or inkling whatsoever of how it tasted once before.

Since they started as a wantan mee shop back in the days, the Wanton Mee with Char Siew and Sui Kaw @ RM8.50 was our first pick.  It came topped with some crispy fried lard bits and the dark sauce for the noodles is very dry.  The first time I tried this, I just had a few strands of it (off my son's bowl) and couldn't quite get the gist of the taste.

They were served with two pieces of plump and meaty sui kow.

On our second visit here, I managed to taste a whole bowl of Wanton Mee with Char Siew & Wanton @ RM7.30 on my own and I have to say the sauce doesn't taste like the usual (more savoury) wantan mee sauce I'm accustomed to.  If you're one who prefers a more saucy (and wetter) wantan mee (like me), then this one won't appeal to you as the wantan mee sauce is oily and dry.  I read that the original wantan mee sauce had been tweaked to appeal to the modern tastes of customers who wanted it sweeter.  A blogger friend (PhongHongBakes) mentioned that it tasted like hoisin sauce but I wouldn't really know since I don't eat hoisin sauce all that much.  I can't put my finger on what's the difference though I felt that there's a smell and taste of something like five-spice powder in the sauce (I may be wrong).

The char siew we got on both times were lean and meaty (compared to those I've seen on other blogs) and missing all the features of caramelised, sweet-sticky, melt-in-the-mouth, tender char siew...but, more importantly, it missed out on the taste of what I'd term as good char siew! :(

The plump and meaty wantans were ordinary.  The soup base for the wantan mee was also quite different from the the ones I've had before.  It's a bowl of more peppery and savoury tasting soup.

But I did enjoy the texture of their wantan mee even though the noodles are no longer the famed hand-made noodles they once were.  Well, they obviously found a good wantan noodle supplier.

I was attracted by the Lion Head Meatballs (Soup) @ RM8.50 not knowing what it was initially.  Again, I chose to have it with their wantan noodles and the texture also held up in a soup version.  I'm not sure why the pork lard bits were scattered all over the soup which made no sense to me to throw something crispy into the hot soup only for it to turn soft.

The lion head meatballs turned out to be just super-sized meatballs made with pork mince.  The meatballs were super meaty, juicy and it had a nice crisp exterior with a slight crunch from the vegetables inside.

I initially thought it was cabbage but the extra crunch and sweetness it offered made me think it had to be Chinese cabbage.

I'm not sure what goes into this flavour-packed broth but this delicious and well-boiled soup had a very distinctive taste which, if I were to make a calculated guess, I'd probably say dried oysters and scallops formed part of the ingredients for the soup.  I feel this is a good soup base which is different from the broth that came with the wantan noodles coz that one is more peppery.

I also tried the Curry Laksa with Chicken @ RM7.50, passable I thought, although it didn't meet my husband's standard (he has very high standards for curry laksa, you know).  Filled with poached chicken, bean curd puffs and fried bean curd sheets, the curry broth isn't among the better ones I've had.  The curry, though thick with a bit of sweetness, just didn't have that creamy, savoury flavour I adore in a good curry.  Well, at least the poached chicken was smooth and tender.

My husband opted for a rice dish of Homemade Chinese Pork & Liver Sausage with Fried Egg @ RM10.90 (I flipped the egg over so you could see the mouthwatering sausages).  I really liked the homemade Chinese pork sausage ("lap cheong") as this one was almost totally lean.  But when I tasted the homemade liver sausage ("yun cheong"), I loved it even more.  It had a fragrant Chinese rice wine flavour and was even more delicious than the lap cheong.  And, more importantly, you won't find bits of fat fillers in both sausages unlike the majority of the ones out there.

And when it's capped with a perfectly fried egg with frizzy crispy sides and a runny yolk...there was even more to love!  For your choice of rice, you can go white (aka plain rice) or go dark (aka with dark soy sauce)....I obviously have a 'dark side'...kekeke! :D  The dark sauce was less savoury than anticipated (for my husband, not for me) but nothing an extra drizzle of soy won't fix.  I enjoyed this so much, I packed one home for lunch later.

A new item on the menu was the the "Lam Yu" Fried Pork Noodle (Dry) @ RM8.50 which consists of fried "nam yue" (fermented red bean curd) pieces with wantan noodles.

There's also the option of having of Lam Yu Fried Pork just as a snack for RM10 or in the form of Lam Yu Rice with Egg @ RM10.90.  The nam yue pork tasted decent although I would have preferred the pork to be in smaller pieces to produce more crisp edges.

We thought they missed out the fried egg and was just about to inform the server when it arrived separately.

A fried snack got my notice when it whizzed past me (which I didn't see on the menu) so  I just gestured the server and asked for the Fried Sui Kow @ RM7.20 (skip the chilli dip).  The filling of minced pork, prawns (and sweet corn?) was very plump and the sui kow skin was super crispy.  Sui know (both soup and fried versions) are commonly offered at many wantan mee shops but most can't do the fried version justice with subpar filling and a thick wantan skin that I don't enjoy but the ones here were terrific (better tasting than the ones in soup for some reason)! ^.^

The kopi-o-ping (iced black coffee) @ RM2.30 was fairly thick but lacking a bit of that fragrant coffee aroma I seek.  Still a decently acceptable glass of kopi-o-ping nonetheless.

My Personal Opinion

During our meal, I noticed a steady stream of elderly folks here.  Maybe this older generation is familiar with the good ol' wantan mee taste back in 1996 (before the original owners retired) and are happy to be able to savour it again.

However, my experience with this four-decade old wantan mee with a 62-years history ended with me not liking their speciality of wanton mee, char siew and sui kow (which they're famous for) as much.  Let's just say the char siew isn't their strong suit.

It's funny how a place didn't wow me with their signature dishes but with something else.  If I had to rate my favourites, it'd be the lion head meatball noodles first followed by the homemade Chinese pork & liver sausage rice and fried sui kow! ^o^  These, I felt, were the better bets here (at least for me).

Pudu Chan Fatt Wanton Mee
52G Jalan SS21/58
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-7733 9100