Waiting so long…

I saw a lot of people talking about it…

…praising it to the skies, even when they were at their former location but I was not all that keen at all as it is the Taiwanese version and I am not really into that.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of me so I went in search of it, only to find out that it was not in that particular shop that everybody was telling everybody (Honestly, why can’t they get their details correct?) and I ended up in the wrong shop! Tsk! Tsk!

It is at their own shop right next door…

…and it was closed that day, a Thursday – the nice lady told me that they do not open on Mondays and Thursdays, two off days in a week!

We went two Sundays ago around 11 something and the customers were spilling onto the road so we went some place else and had a delightful lunch there.

I was out and about last Saturday morning and I decided to give it another try. Yes, it was very crowded but I was in luck. There was a table outside with only ONE chair – the other customers had taken all the rest so nobody wanted to sit there, I suppose. It was just right for me as I was alone and I wasted no time in grabbing it.

I filled in the form…

…provided at the table and waved frantically to get the attention of the people in the shop but to no avail. In the end, left with no choice, I marched right up to the kitchen and handed it to a lady there. “Yao tern wor!” she said (translation: have to wait).

I went back to my table and sat there and waited. I saw this…

…in a corner and I noticed some customers going over there to refill their pots of tea and I thought they were providing free Chinese tea. DREAM ON!!! Everyone is supposed to go and get their own chopsticks and spoons and stick them into the pink cups and fill them with hot boiling water from the electric boiler/dispenser to sterilise them. I have no idea what those bowls are for – maybe there are people who would like to share their orders so they can use those. Gee!!! At those prices they are charging, we still have to DIY, self-service?

I went over to get mine and went back to my table quickly. There I sat, waiting and waiting and in the meantime, I saw many people coming and seeing there there were no tables available, all of them left. It sure did not help one bit that the orders were so slow in coming out so most of the customers were just sitting there waiting, looking quite bored…JUST LIKE ME.

Finally, at long last, my order…

…arrived! I can’t say I was impressed by how it looked but when I tasted the broth/soup, it was like WOWWWWWW!!! So very thick, so very rich, so very nice!!! It was slightly spicy though – they say that is the Taiwanese style. I can’t say I was fond of it like that but it was all right.

I don’t know if they made their own noodles but they…

…sure looked different from our regular “yellow noodles” or whatever noodles that we have here.

The beef was so fall-off-the-bone tender that it fell apart…

…when I tried to pick it up with my chopsticks.

They were very generous with the meat and also the tripe and the tendons and there was a bit of salted vegetables…

…too to help enhance the taste a bit.

I asked for the chili dip and the Indon or Dayak helper brought me their special own-made one…

…in a soy-sauce dispenser bottle. She went over to the aforementioned self-service corner and rummaged through all the plastic containers there and managed to find one melamine mini-saucer and she gave me that for me to use. The chili dip was so very nice, not spicy, a little bit sour and so tasty that it made everything in the bowl taste a whole lot nicer.

Yes, I would agree with everybody that it was indeed very nice but at RM26.00 a bowl, I can’t say that I did not feel the pinch. There were 5 people at the table next to mine and they all had a bowl each. I saw one of the guys handing over three RM50.00 notes to the helper, RM150.00 for beef noodles, nothing more, nothing less. Our scrumptious lunch here with all those awesome dishes was only RM113.50 and I only had to fork out R66.00 here with some left over to take home even and only RM70.00 here.

As a matter of fact, I do think the Taiwanese beef noodles here (and at a number of places around town) ain’t too shabby either and at only RM8.50 (before, dunno now) a bowl, for my one bowl here, I can have THREE bowls there and still have change…plus the place is a lot more comfortable, air-conditioned and not so crowded and the service is better, no such thing as self-service there, and I would not have to wait like…FOREVER!

So will I come back again for the Taiwanese beef noodles here some day? Will I be willing to fork out that amount of money for A bowl of noodles? Will I be willing to sit there and wait for what felt like a million years for it to be served? I guess everyone can jolly well guess the answers to those questions by now.

LEOI NOODLES HOUSE is located to the left of COFFEE & TEA (2.325932, 111.841566) at the junction of Jalan Teng Chin Hua and Jalan Ulu Sg Merah in the blocks of shops to the right of the traffic lights junction turning left into Lorong Sg Merah 2. if you are coming from town. On the other hand, if you are heading towards town, the blocks of shops are after St Teresa’s Catholic Church and the SIB Church on that same side of the road.