Eat Till You Drop @ King Kong BBQ Steamboat Sibu

Looking for an "Eat till you drop" yet affordable kind of feast in Sibu? Yes.. actually you have many choices, but what I'm going to share this time is a new (operated for roughly 6 months) eatery hidden at an unexpected building. I'm not sure how many Siburians have actually aware of its existence.

It is called "King Kong BBQ Steamboat". From the name itself, you would roughly know what kind of cuisine that are serving here. No! Definitely they didn't serve King Kong meat! What I mean is the "BBQ Steamboat"!

Located at the rooftop of 11th floor SMC Multi-storey Car Park of Sibu Central Market, the place is not easy to discover. However, the big red LED notice board placed at a higher place of the rooftop is somehow quite eyes-catchy and one can spotted it once you drive through Jalan Bengkel, from the direction of KTS group to Pansar Group office buildings.

I have a chance to try out feasting at the eatery about weeks ago with some friends. As it is inside the building of multi-storey car park, looking for parking space is not a problem at all. You can just drive all the way to the 10th floor of the carpark and with just stone throw distance of walking, you will reach the place. Just that bear in mind, parking is not free. you need to pay some bucks for parking inside the building as usual!

The moment stepped into the place is a shock! It's just like you found another world on the heaven!! (I mean an eating heaven!) As I went on weekend, the place was flooded by patrons. Even though the place is big enough, but it was almost full house!

6 of us in a group... we hardly found a table with good fengshui to sit down. After some search and pick... we finally got one. Upon sitting down, an usher came to us to record down how many of us in a group. Please bear in mind, there is a time limit for each entry. One have only 2 hours of eating time per entry and if exceed the time, a certain amount of charges will be applied per head basis. The time of entry will be recorded down by the usher.

This is a down point of the eatery, but with the charges of RM13.90 per head, you can't complain much. Another eatery with similar business model charged RM20 per head with unlimited eating time.

Another thing surprised me a bit is that they're actually using charcoal as the heating medium instead of gas-powered cooking stove or electronic stove. Is it because charcoal is more cost effective or it is just a matter of choice of cooking method, it is up to you to judge. But what I am sure is that using charcoal definitely involve more tedious and hard works to prepare and the proprietor has "specialists" doing that. I think we just waited for around 5 minutes or so for the BBQ steamboat tools to reach our table.

The 1st impression I had on the BBQ steamboat pans when they're served onto our table is that they look like Korean BBQ style where the BBQ part is at the rounded protruding surface at the center of the pan and the broth part is at the sunken surface on the edge. It is some sort like an "upside down" version of the BBQ Steamboat that I had at another eatery before where the center is for steamboat and the grill is at the side.

As for the foods... for BBQ and steamboat purposes, there are variety of raw foods for you to choose ranging from marinated pork, chicken, beef  to limited seafood, variety of cold storage processed foods such as sausages, fish balls as well as fresh vegetables, bean curds, eggs and all those "standard" steamboat ingredients. Take as many as you can... but the only condition is make sure you can finish them! Wasting of foods is subject to extra charges!

If you are hungry and couldn't wait for the grilled foods to be cooked, there are ready foods such as fried rice, fried noodles, fried kway tiaw and fried beehoon - the 4 kings of foods ready for you. You can fill your stomach while taking your time enjoy the process of food grilling, a.k.a. BBQ!

As for the steamboat part.. the area to contain the broth is rather shallow and narrow, therefore is up to your creativity how you gonna boil the foods with bigger size in the broth. The structural design of the steamboat pan causing the sauces from the marinated meats to drip into the broth when doing the grilling, thus will cause the broth's salty level to be increased linearly over time.

There are free flow beverages as well but it is in a D-I-Y style where ingredients such as red beans, green beans, cendol, jellies, basil seeds a.k.a. the frog eggs, coconut milk, syrup and etc etc to produce the beverages are places in several big bowls. Yes... again... use your creativity to produce a drinking mixture and you can give the beverage whatever name you like! Free flow ice cream are available as dessert.

As a conclusion, if you are looking for a good place to "eat till you drop" yet not "hurt" your purse too much, perhaps this King Kong BBQ Steamboat can be a good consideration. The open air environment and its location on the rooftop provides natural cool air ventilation thus the place is not too hot even without air-conditioners besides you can see part of Sibu's scenery from a higher altitude.

The only few things that not favored me are the slow refilling frequent of foods as well as the insufficient way of beverage been served and also the 2-hour time limit. 

Oh ya... forgot to mention just now... if you need that little bit of private space, perhaps there are minor parts of the eatery been designed for the purpose.

For more information you can visit there Facebook fanpage. The operating hours is only from 5.30pm-10.30pm.

Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka @ Jalan Pedada, Sibu

Been out of idea where to have a decent lunch during the Merdeka afternoon. After hearing some advices and recommendation from friends, finally decided to try out this one called "Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka" located at Jalan Pedada, the building just next to Shell petrol station opposite Delta Mall Sibu.

It is still consider quite a new eating place in Sibu. Before this, it was called FeFe Cafe & Zakka which I heard was operated by a different owner. But somehow for whatever reasons, after some short period operating, the eatery stopped its business and it was taken over by a new owner who changed the name FeFe to Honey Lemon.

Until this point, have you ever wonder what "Zakka" actually means? After I Google about it, only I found out that the word "Zakka" is actually come from a Japanese word zak-ka which brings the meaning of many things. According to Wikipedia, the term refers to everything and anything that improves your home, life and appearance.

That explain why at a front corner of the shop, there is a shelf where many "little" things been placed on it. I am not sure if the owner rented out the shelf just like the concept of those "Pigeon Holes Shop" which is a trendy business concept in Sibu nowadays or it was used by the restaurant owner to sell those "little things" himself. Perhaps I should find it out if there is a chance for the next visit.

Once you stepped into the restaurant, you will notice it actually divided into two sections. The one on the right is painted ocean blue, which uses antiques and Sibu's old days photos as its main decoration. This section of restaurant should be inherited from the previous owner. It brings back a lot of nostalgia feeling dining here.

Another section on the left side of the restaurant appeared to be more cheering feel where the wall has been painted bright yellow-lemon color which suits the theme of the restaurant! At a corner of this section there is an artistic wooden chair with a huge lemon tree picture as background where customers can take photos as a remembrance while dining at the restaurant. A good idea indeed for customers to remember this restaurant.

Enough about the appearance of the restaurant. Now we talk about the most important part - the foods serving. In fact, I was there to try out their signature chicken burger after I heard some good recommendation from a friend about this "VERY BIG portion burger with 3 layers of meats plus sausages"!

However, when I try to place order, the staff told me they're temporarily halt the serving of all the western cuisine on their menu for an unknown reasons, properly is because out of some ingredient according to her. A major disappointment!!

As such, I have to opted for other "non-western" foods. The Chicken Cheese Baked Rice on the menu somehow caught my eyes as I am a cheese lover. Although it is grouped under western cuisine, but surprisingly this dish is available!

The food is served in a boat-shape ceramic bowl instead of in rattan steamer (a more common way of serving this dish in my food hunting experience) but it doesn't bother me much as this is just a presentation matter. Personally feel the taste is OK, but will be better if the cook can apply thicker cheese and let it melts into the rice. The deep fried chicken topping the rice is a little too dry but the portion is quite generous. With RM10.90, it is consider quite cheap if compare to other restaurants in town who serving the similar dish but improvement needed to make it more value added to the customers.

The nasi lemak is something I will recommend as far as the "non-western" cuisine is concern in the shop. The rice has a strong coconut milk fragrance which is actually a must for a good serving of nasi lemak but it's hardly found nowadays since the coconut milk price keep increasing. The sambal taste mixed well with the nasi lemak, but personally i prefer to have more sambal given probably because I am a huge fan of sambal!

Besides the nasi lemak's standard side ingredients, such as ikan masin (salted fish), peanuts and cucumber slices, the plate also comes with 2 fried chickens, one sausage and some keropok (snacks) which make the RM8.90 spent worth the money. If you have nothing better to choose, perhaps this will be a good choice.

The "zhou cai hung ngang" (rice vermicelli cooked with foochow style marinated vege) comes in big portion, but mom who is the huge fan of this dish commented that it is over-sour due to the use of cooking vinegar in the serving.

I strongly agree with that. Zhou cai hung ngang tastes nice and original with a bit of "natural sourness" from the marinated vege but the taste will spoil when "artificial sourness" been added such as using the vinegar to boost the odor. The fish added to the dish also not that tasty. Despite the 2 imperfectness in this traditional Foochow cuisine, it is still consider as a decent zhou cai hung ngang that worth eating. RM7.90 is the price and you can choose either to add fish or prawns.

I also ordered a side dish, the stir fried bitter gourd with salted eggs. Not bad at all in term of taste and presentation, but personally feel it lacks of salted eggs. RM6.90 per serving and it is enough for 3 people.

As for the beverages, I went for the Six Tastes Iced priced RM4.90. The "Six tastes" ingredients include lemon slice, dried red dates, grass jellies, longan, Nata de coco and some other jellies. It is a very refreshing and cooling drink which I highly recommend. However, personally feel the cup used is a bit too small and I had a hard time trying to mix and melt the shaved ice in the beginning.

The red bean ice doesn't have too much surprise in term of taste, a typical red bean ice but it comes in a big glass and generous portion of red beans. RM4.90 is the price and it is consider reasonable since the amount of volume given is more than a typical serving, at least from the size of the glass used, I have this feeling.

All in all, Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka is a good place to have a decent meal with friends or families. The ample parking space as well as the relaxing ambiance of its interior have left me with a good impression towards the restaurant. However, the variation of foods need further improvement to give wider choice to the customers and most importantly, ensure their returns.

I'll definitely plan for 2nd visit to try out other foods in their menu, especially the western cuisine.


Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka
3&5, G/F, Lane 16,
Jalan Pedada,
96000 Sibu.
Tel: 084 312 517

Business Hours:
8.00am - 10.30pm
Off on Monday

Tom Yam Fish Rice Vermecilli @ Yong Chuan Fish Noodles House

It is never being easy to acquire a decent Tom Yam dish in Sibu as the cuisine is not on the top favorite's list among the people of Swan City.

However, there are still some eateries who specialized in Tom Yam based dishes which get quite positive response from the locals. One of them is this one called "Yong Chuan Fish Noodles House" near Jaya Li Hua Commercial Center, Jalan Pahlawan area, behind Good Happiness Restaurant building, just beside Wikitea Sibu.

Just as its shop's name, this eatery is specializing in fish based noodles. I had been hearing about their Tom Yam soup base fish noodles which happened to be "delicious" quite few years ago, but only today I have a chance to go and try it out.

I heard that the eatery is flooded with patrons most of the time who are craving for their fish noodles variants, until a point that at peak hours, customers have to practice self-service as in fast food restaurants where they have to queue up to order the foods, then carry their own foods to their table before start eating.

I also heard about the unfriendliness and arrogant attitude of the owner which after I experienced it myself, it happens to be quite true as when I ordered the food directly from the taokenio (the lady boss), she gave me a very cold and unfriendly facial expression and response. But who care? Normally this kind of situation frequently heard on those eateries with overwhelmed business, but their business (money) still never stop flowing in. So attitude is not always a problem, isn't it?

About the self-service stuff, I discovered it is quite true also since at the time of my visit where it was still early with not many customers around, some of the patrons ordered and carried the foods bowl by bowl all by themselves without been served. Bet those are the regular customers who clearly aware the culture of the eatery while the first timer like me just sit there reading newspaper while waiting for the food to reach my table! :p

I ordered a bowl of Tom Yam fish rice vermicelli which is consider a signature dish there. Actually their main dish is not noodles, but the wider version of rice vermicelli or local Foochow called it "Hung Ngang". See their advertisement in the shop, all the fish-base serving is about Hung Ngang and not the Mee. Of course if you are not too favor about rice vermicelli, you can opt for Mee... I presume! ;)

The Tom Yam soup has a very strong lemon grass smell, not too spicy nor sour which I believe it will be lacking of some "kicks" for the die hard Tom Yam fans out there and may be considered as not thick enough, but for average eaters, it should be something more acceptable with Tom Yam taste to satisfy their taste buds.

I am not sure what is the exact fish used in the dish, it's like some "white fish" texture, but definitely they're boneless, lightly fried to the golden and don't have bad smell. Besides fish fillets, the oval shape stuffs are actually some homemade porky meat paste which are very sweet and fresh, and they're quite tasty yet a little salty.

One bowl of regular Tom Yam fish rice vermicelli is RM6 which is "highlighted" on the display board with paper tape. Oh... it's so because of inflation's fault lah... whereby before this I heard it is just RM5 per bowl.

You can order the version with big prawns, but I am not sure at all about the price.

If you like Tom Yam, you should go and give it a try since you don't have much choice of the dish in Sibu. If there is any chances for revisiting in the future, I think I would like to try the "Foochow style marinated vege + fish rice vermicelli" a.k.a. "zhou cai hung ngang", which I saw some customer ordered and I could smell the strong Chinese red wine! Yummy!

“Raw Meat Noodles" @ Wan Li Sheng Rou Mee Sibu

I realized that it has been a while since my last update of this blog. Perhaps this is my first post of the year of horse!! Bear in mind... I never give up to update this blog yet even though the frequencies might have been cut down..... yeah.... a lot! :p

So this post is about the latest food I tried. I am not sure what is its proper term in English, but if direct translate from its Chinese name 生肉面, it's acceptable to call it "Raw Meat Noodles".

Raw meat?? Are you serious?? Well... actually the meat or to be more precise it is the pork are not raw at all. They're well cooked! The cuisine is from Sabah (if I'm not mistaken).

Now, Sibu has an eatery selling the cuisine. The shop is called Wan Li Sheng Rou Mee located at Medan Commercial Center area, the shoplot behind Junction Cafe.  It has been quite a while they opened for business, but this is my first trial to the pretty much shared and discussed food among my friends on social media.

The noodles come with 2 variants. The wet and the dry. I opted for the dry version which consists of a bowl of dry-toss noodles and a separate bowl of pork broth. As for local adaptation and favors, the dry-toss noodles is actually the Sibu locals most favorite food - the Kampua Mee!

As for the noodles part, I have not much comment since I have plenty of choices for a better Kampua serving in town, such as Sing Hin Corner! The specialty and selling point of the "Raw meat noodles" a.k.a. Sheng Rou Mian is actually on the thinly sliced pork and also its broth.

The pork is something that surprised my taste buds. They're so thin, smooth and soft until a point that they can be easily torn apart without any chewing effort! Frankly this is my first time having pork with such feeling. I am wondering if they just pour the hot and boiled soup onto the thinly sliced raw meats which make them just nice to be cooked with such soft texture, and that's where the name "raw meat noodles" came from?? If someone can enlighten me on this.... emmm...

The fresh pork's broth supposed to be sweet and tasty with some green vege been added in it, but I am not sure why the one served on my table has not much taste with some herb taste. The one I bought home is totally different and much more tastier! I am wondering if Ajinomoto is the culprit?? :p

I personally not in favor of the own-made free flow sour sauce they supplied which is made by whole lime including its rind. It's too sour and not spicy, my opinion.

One thing I like about this coffee shop is that the environment is clean with foods and beverages price been displayed big and clear on the wall. This is an added point to the shop and indirectly it can prevent some "miscalculation issue" that sometimes did happened at some eateries. Furthermore, it also gives a clear direction to the customers where their every single cent had been spent. Thumbs up for this!!

However, the con is that serving speed is a little slow, slightly below Sibu standard relative to the customers visiting the eatery as per time but still acceptable if you're not rushing for time.

One more thing I would like to complain is that the cook is not generous at all at giving the broth. See the one I ordered which only half full with such small bowl size. But the one I bought home seems to be more generous. Perhaps the eatery should improve on the standard!

Oh ya... for those who is looking for a comfortable and cold environment, this is just a normal coffee shop style without air-cond, but they have sufficient electric fans hanging on wall. The place is quite cool if you visit in the morning.

A set of Sheng Rou Mian either it is dry or wet version priced at RM5 respectively. You can order its special version for RM8. 

If you never being to Sabah before and you heard much about the Sheng Rou Mian, perhaps this is currently the only place to try it out in Sibu! Cheers and Happy Labours Day to all my readers!