Restoran Sri Karak @ PJ Section 52

For travellers who frequent Karak Highway (like on their way to Genting ^_*), they would have known about (or perhaps even eaten at) Yik Kei Restaurant in Karak town.  Restoran Sri Karak @ PJ Section 52 is a pork-free/halal reincarnation of that restaurant in PJ.  This restaurant was chosen as the CNY lunch venue with my side of the family (my elder sisters and my mom) so that one of my sisters (and her husband) can join in.

The restaurant showcases produce that Pahang is famous for like smooth and slippery, omega-rich patin fish from Temerloh and its thin and crunchy baby French beans besides their ever popular sang har meen (freshwater king prawn noodles).

The restaurant spans two floors with a more formal dining area upstairs but we, of course, chose to sit downstairs on the account of my elderly mom.  They're busier during lunch times on working days while the weekends see more crowd at dinner time.  My eldest sister called the shots and pre-booked a specially selected set menu, some of which were picked from their preset CNY menus available.

We started off our lunch with the first dish of Braised Sharksfin with Crab Meat Soup.  Although I choose to avoid eating sharksfin due to the cruel practice of shark finning, I made an exception this time since my sister had already pre-ordered the set menu specifically for the luncheon (I think it's more sinful to waste food). 

Anyway, most of the sharksfin we eat today are actually fakes (I think real sharksfin is too expensive these days).  Fishing the sharksfin strands in my bowl, they look too smooth and uniform to be the real thing.  Fake or not, it turned out to be a very disappointing bowl of sharksfin soup as the soup base was bland and very watery coz it was cooked with just crab meat and thickened with cornflour (they didn't use any eggs, it was pretty obvious this dish is not their forte).

This restaurant is known for its Temerloh Patin Fish and Freshwater Prawn Noodle (both of which my sister did not order) but we got to sample their Freshwater King Prawns (still) steamed in egg white instead.  The freshwater king prawns were very fresh indeed with a stunningly firm and amazing texture...and there were 4 king-sized prawns cut in half lengthwise thereby yielding 8 pcs for our eating party.  I'm not sure if you noticed but the restaurant was kind enough to even remove the meat from the prawns' long claws (they look like thin slivers of fake crab meat)...lol! ;)

The eggy sauce (made with only egg white and julienned ginger) was decent too, a bit more subtle tasting than the usual egg sauce which uses the yolks too.  I was hoping for a bit more umami flavour from the prawn roe in the heads (which, unfortunately, was slightly lacking) to make the sauce richer.

Nevertheless, still delicious, the prawns were humongous in size...for comparison purposes, it was the length of a metal spoon, that's how huge it was! :O  They were super fresh without a doubt and steaming the prawns in just egg white kept the flavours clean to further highlight the fresh and sweet tasting prawns.  And yes, I had my meal with some rice (I gave away part of it to my husband but still ended up not finishing the rice).

This was followed by a perennial favourite, the Yam Basket with stir-fried chicken cubes with top shell seafood (which has a chewy texture much like those canned abalone) and cashew nut.  There were vegetables of green bell peppers, carrot, onions, water chestnuts and spring onions in the mix too.

The only usual thing missing from this dish is the dried chillies coz my mom cannot take anything spicy, so my sister had to request for a non-spicy version.  I thought this was executed very similarly to the ones I usually eat at other dai chow places.

The Golden Sand Tossed Chicken Boxing was our meat dish (this dish comes from their 2025 CNY Set Menu of Golden Sand Tossed Chicken Wings).  We got just the drummette part that has been scraped down the bone to become boxing chicken.

Not sure what the coating of the boxing chicken was made up of but it's been finely blended into crumbs (almost powder or sand-like in texture, hence the name) that probably consisted of breadcrumbs and some spices, perhaps?  The chicken pieces were tender and the coating crispy (something different from all the usual fried chicken I've had).  No complaints, it was satisfyingly enjoyable.

Next was the Seafood Claypot filled with premium ingredients like sea cucumber, fish maw and flower mushrooms which were braised till super soft and tender.  There were also homemade tofu (these were especially good), cloud ear fungus and loofa vegetables (as described in menu but none was in sight).  Instead we got crunchy sugar snap peas (which I love), broccoli, carrot and lightly browned whole garlic cloves were spotted too. 

I thought the braising liquid that the seafood claypot dish was cooked in was light but adequately tasty. Great eaten with rice, I'd be happy with just this one dish with rice...who wouldn't when the pot is filled with premium goodies.

We also added on a plate of green vegetables at the last minute, a simple Stir-Fried Kai Lan (or Chinese Broccoli), simply because we realised there weren't much greens in our dishes.  There can never be too much greens!

Our meal concluded with a common dessert of Red Bean with Peach Gum Sweet Soup.  The red beans were blended into a smooth paste and it wasn't too sweet overall but also not quite the taste of some of the better red bean sweet soups I've had.  We also found some chewy, soft-like textured bits which turned out to be peach gum, not something I usually see in a red bean tong sui.  One of my sisters ordered an ais kacang (for one) and that turned out far better than the dessert we had.

The red bean sweet soup was served with Pancake Pastries (Lotus Paste Chinese Pancake would be a more precise description), again a common dessert you'd find in many CNY (or wedding) set menus.  The outer layer of the pancakes were nicely crisp and the lotus paste filling wasn't too sweet.  This I enjoyed more than the red bean tong sui.

My Personal Opinion

Overall, I'd say the food was within satisfactory expectations of a restaurant of this kind.  It wouldn't be fair to compare them with other non-halal Chinese restaurants.  Apart from the king-sized freshwater prawns, I thought the yam basket and seafood claypot were the other better executed dishes.

This can be a makan place to consider if you're looking for pork-free/halal Chinese cuisine or when dining out with Muslim family members (or you have Muslim friends to entertain).  That's why it's especially popular for corporate events and office staff when dining out with their Muslim colleagues.

My sister took care of the tab and I found out later that the luncheon cost RM1,109.  I would have guessed not less than RM1k coz half of that cost would have been taken up by those giant freshwater prawns already (we know how expensive a plate of sang har meen is these days).  I certainly wouldn't mind returning for another meal...or, better still, another invite! ^.^

Restoran Sri Karak

No 17 Lapangan Merdeka

Section 52/8

46200 Petaling Jaya

Selangor

Tel: 012-929 3240