It’s my brother-in-law’s birthday tomorrow, the 26th of April. I think he’s 65, a year younger than I am…and of course, his wonderful daughter, my niece – the one working in Singapore – came home last weekend to celebrate with her parents and she invited us too.
They wanted to go here but for reasons unknown, they were closed. Probably they had gone off somewhere on a holiday. That was why we ended up here and of course we had our favourites – their honey prawn balls…
…and their sour plum chicken…
My niece wanted the sea cucumber soup…
…which was nice, just that I did not think I could find any of the coveted stuff in it, not even a little bit.
We also ordered our local wild fern – the midin, ching chao (fried plain)…
…specially for the benefit of my niece as she would not be able to find those in the island republic. I hear they export it there from Kuching but I don’t know where people there can get to enjoy eating it and besides, I am pretty sure it will not come cheap, no way.
My brother-in-law ordered this salad sotong (squid)…
…and he also wanted his favourite sweet and sour fish fillet…
…and omelette, another one of his favourites – we had that with bitter gourd added…
…which we enjoyed a lot more than if they had just fried the egg with Bombay onions. Had I known they did not have lap cheong (Chinese sausage), I would have brought along my very nice own-made wine-infused ones from my friend, Annie, in KL.
My niece commented that they did not not use enough oil and the wok was not hot enough so it did not have that much-coveted golden fringe. In fact, she thought the food here was not so nice, kind of bland and lacking in the stronger flavours of what they have elsewhere. for instance, some of the delightful dishes that they have on their menu at the aforementioned place that was not open that day.
I would say she was right in a way – the food here is rather on the mild side, not salty and no msg overdose and not oily but personally, I do enjoy what they dish out in their own subtle ways, a welcome change that we may go for sometimes. For one thing, it does seem to go down really well with a lot of people as this place is always very crowded and that night was no exception – the place was full…and thankfully, the dishes came out fast and furious and we did not have to wait long to enjoy our orders.
If I remember correctly, my niece paid over RM140.00 for the dinner, inclusive of rice and drinks so I guess it worked out to around RM20.00 each for the 6 of us. As a matter of fact, my missus did request for servings for 4 persons which makes it even worse, around RM30 per person – not all that cheap, not at all.
NICE HOUSE RESTAURANT (2.29201,111.82739) is located in the vicinity of the Tunku Osman shops, opposite Rejang Bookstore.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I bet those honey prawn balls are rich.
Lightly sweet because of the honey but not really strong on the stuff, very nice!
All the dishes looks pretty good and I agree they should add some lap cheong to the bitter gourd omelette. I like food with mild taste but not totally bland.
Believe it or not, they did not have any lap cheong – I thought that would always be available at all Chinese restaurants.
Bland is totally tasteless which is quite impossible if you are used to mild-tasting food where you can enjoy the sweetness and what not like in boiled pork…or boiled vegetables – those greens, ladies fingers, long beans or broccoli and so on. There is the delightful taste in each of them but of course, more often than not, we would eat them with something stronger like sambal belacan. Old habits die hard.
Happy birthday to your brother-in-law…
Thank you.
I like the looks of the fried foods, especially the first 2 photos.
Those are two of our favourite dishes here.
Happy birthday to your BIL. He must have love fried stuffs as most of the dishes are fried ones
Thank you. That’s Chinese cuisine for you – all the meat, seafood would be coated with flour and deep fried first to, as they say, seal in the juices/flavours and then they cook the sauce/gravy and pour over it. Have to eat when served or the coating will turn soft and soggy, not nice anymore and that is one reason why I am not all that fond of Chinese food…unless you go for the steamed fish or one of those and that will cost a bomb.
Another thing is we do not know what flour they use and if they use the pre-mix flour in boxes for frying stuff, that is not gluten-free, contains wheat flour and Melissa cannot eat it – like the salad sotong, for example. Usually when I’m the one ordering, I would insist they use tapioca flour for the coating but that night, I was the guest…and the mum did not bother to make sure. Sighhhh!!!
Honey Prawn looks great, hope the honey didnt overkill the prawns
No, thankfully it was not very strong, just enough to make it a little sweet.
sometimes less flavourful food may be better for us, healthwise..
lots of food out there, especially Chinese cuisine is filled with “ajinomoto!” hehe
Yes, and very oily, lots deep fried. Best avoided.
All the dishes look good to me. I prefer stronger flavors and I mind the mild tasting ones too bland.
I do prefer stronger flavours too like our ASEAN and Indian cuisines but I don’t mind the mild ones like Japanese, for instance, sometimes. I would not say it’s bland, just that the flavours are more subtle and can be very delightful as well.