A typical dai chow meal is a very common choice among Chinese families when the home kitchen is closed. Obviously eaing dai chow is now a preferred makan choice too due to my restricted diet since I can order 4 dishes (for the 3 of us)...some of which I can eat and some my family can eat. This dai chow place, San Tai Thong @ Taman Tenaga, was first discovered when I ordered food delivery from them. Seeing that the food turned out decent, I was confident enough for a dine-in visit.
On reaching the place, we were greeted with a typical-looking shoplot (as it's expected with many
dai chow places). An advertising board inside the restaurant shows that they've been in business since 1987 (!) before moving from
Taman Permata, Cheras to its present location (where we found them in 2022 and have been patronising since).
Suffice to say that everything we ate here have been pretty decent, of course some are better than others. All of them don't need introduction or much explanation as they're common dishes we'd find in any dai chow eatery.
Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables (Mui Choy) - This was one of the first dishes we tried that was part of a set meal (since I've tasted this via food delivery) and have since had it at the restaurant numerous times. This is one of their signature dishes.
Black Sauce Roasted Pork @ RM20 - This is just
siu yuk being fried with lots of garlic and dark soy sauce (a dish we can execute at home easily with good market-bought
siu yuk). ^_~
Aluminium Foil Wrapped Pork Ribs @ RM20 - Comes with a bit of visual flamboyance (flames) when the foil is unwrapped. The sauce tastes sticky-sweet like marmite but the ribs need quite a bit of bite. Didn't quite
wow us (other than its visual presentation)...
lol.
Salted Fish Pork Belly Pot (Ham Yue Fa Lam Poh) @ RM20 - A favourite of my family for its fatty thinly sliced pork with a salty aftertaste (although the salted fish is always never enough).
Sweet & Sour Pork @ RM18 - Nicely crispy without being heavily drenched in sweet & sour sauce. Liked that it had the addition of fresh (not canned) pineapple cubes. However, there can be inconsistency in the sauce on some days (this was on a good day)! ;)
Ginger & Spring Onions Pork Slices @ RM18
Nyonya-Style Steamed Tilapia @ (around) RM30 - The Nyonya sauce is a bit like an assam sauce, just that the sourness is not as sharp. You can taste hints of lemongrass, tamarind and kaffir lime in the sauce which is lightly tangy with just a little heat. The fish was accompanied by long beans, ladies finger, brinjal and pineapple cubes. Absolutely appetising and refresing to eat as the sauce was so good that you'd want to load up on the rice. The fish was also steamed just right with a nice, soft texture.
Spicy Tom Yam Siakap @ (around) RM85 - We had it with sea grouper (also known as
ikan kerapu or
ikan siakap/barramundi/Asian seabass) that was deep-fried first before being drenched in tom yam sauce which turned out just ok (the earlier nyonya sauce was loads better). Maybe because I was looking for flavours closer to a
tom yum soup but in a much thicker sauce.
Fish prices are based on type and weight of fish.
Sweet & Sour Fish Slices @ RM25 - Fish slices (with no bones to contend with) is always a favourite of many (and my family is no exception). But sweet & sour fish has to be ranked as probably the most preferred way of eating fish slices coz what can beat crispy slices of fish in a sweetish sauce, right?
Salted Egg Fish Slices @ RM25 - Anything coated in salted egg is always good though this was the first time we had it with fish (it's usually prawn or squid). This one turned out far better than I anticipated and you can bet we'll be ordering this more regularly.
Dry Chillies Mantis Shrimps @ RM25 - Very crispy and you do taste a bit of heat of the dried chillies in this
kung po-style sauce (others we had before is usually on the sweeter side with no spicy taste at all).
Yam Basket @ RM20 - For lovers of yam (of which we are) with a filling of mixed vegetables.
Fried Beancurd with Dried Radish & Minced Meat @ RM18 - The sauce of minced pork, fragrant dried prawns and savoury chopped radish over their braised tofu was a hit. The dried prawns they use is really fragrant and fried till crispy. The combo of dried prawns and radish was a good pairing to bring savouriness to the otherwise bland tofu. The best (and our favourite) tofu dish here.
Sizzling Beancurd with Minced Meat & Egg on Hot Plate @ RM20 - Again a regular staple (and most ordered) tofu dish you'd find at any
dai chow place. I guess it's regularly ordered coz food on a hot plate is not something we can replicate at home.
Spicy Minced Meat Tofu - this one we won't be ordering again.
Tofu with Broccoli @ RM20 - We usually find a tofu dish cooked with vegetables on the bland side or having a subtle taste but this one turned out to be more savoury which surprised us. We found very fine bits of something all over the dish which I suspect is finely blended dried prawns which brought it that added umami flavour.
Foo Yong Tan or Fried Omelette @ RM12 - Typically a fried omelette dish with small prawns (sometimes there's bits of
char siew) and some vegetables (usually onions and chillies but this one had Chinese chives also).
Stir-Fried Cabbage with Dried Prawns @ RM15 - Their dried prawns are chopped very finely which give the dish the added fragrance. One of our favourite vegetable dishes here as they sir-fry it expertly without the cabbage being too soggy or too hard.
Belacan Kangkung @ RM12 - was hoping for more
belacan taste.
Curry Mixed Vegetable @ RM20 - At first look the curry didn't have much of that requisite red, fiery oil on top but the curry flavours turned out far better than it looked. Would definitely order this again.
Sizzling Eggplant with Minced Meat @ RM18 - The flavours were good but (unfortunately) this eggplant dish came stir-fried with that dredded herb - Thai basil which we don't like! >.<
Stir-Fried Yau Mak @ RM15 (L)
Salted Egg Pumpkin @ RM18 - Just like the salted egg fish slices, this was excellent with the softened pumpkin slices. One thing I can say is that they do their salted egg dishes very well here...not too salty nor too sweet.
Stir-Fry Sweet Potato Leaves @ RM12 - Even a simple stir-fry veggie like this can be inconsistent. When done well (quick stir-fry on high heat) not much water will be released (and not overly soft), then it's perfect like this one.
If it's your first time here and you don't know what to order, just go with any of their pre-arranged set meals like we did (you simply can't go wrong with any set) + they're also good value. I've had 3 of their set meals here...Set Meal 1 @ RM63 (Braised Pork Belly with Mui Choy, Salted Egg Pumpkin & Tofu with Broccoli), Set Meal 2 @ RM92 (Nyonya Steamed Tilapia, Braised Pork Belly with Mui Choy again & Homemade Beancurd with Dried Radish & Minced Meat) and Set Meal 3 @ RM168 (Tom Yam Fish, Aluminium Foil Wrapped Pork Ribs, Yam Basket & Stir-Fried Yau Mak) including rice and Chinese tea.
My Personal Opinion
As mentioned above, all the dishes we had were decent in terms of taste and we like that they're very reasonably priced and affordable (from around RM12 - RM40 a dish minus fish & prawn dishes). They're also well-known for their crabs which I see quite a lot of people ordering (they're pricey, of course) but I'm too lazy (my family included) to deal with the mess of eating crabs.
Just like
phonghongbakes has found her regular
dai chow place, similarly this one is ours at the moment until we can find one that's right in (or closer to) our neighbourhood.
San Tai Thong Seafood Restaurant
13 Jalan Semilang
Taman Tenaga
Cheras
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 016-274 5355
