Two years on…

The last time we got together at this very restaurant like this was in 2019, the last time my niece, the one working in Singapore, was able to come home to celebrate her parent’s birthday and that time, it was her mum’s. Since then, because of the pandemic, for over two years, she had not been able to fly back – not for anybody’s birthday nor for Chinese New Year.

Finally, things ain’t so bad right now and she managed to come home again on Sunday and of course, we wasted no time in getting down to celebrating her father’s birthday, my brother-in-law, at that same restaurant, just like in the good old days.

We had the longevity noodles – the fried mee sua…

…with the auspicious gently-fried “golden” eggs and boy, how I missed their Thai mango chicken…

It was so good that I just could not stop helping myself to it again and again…and again!

The butter spare ribs with salted egg…

…paled in comparison and as a matter of fact, I thought it was a bit too salty for my liking.

Their own-made tofu…

…was very good, as always and luckily for my food blogger friend from Penang, he could get to enjoy the much coveted midin…

…when he dropped by this very restaurant the night before. I was sure my niece was so very disappointed that it was all sold out that night, considering that she had not enjoyed the wild jungle fern for over two years!

In the end, we settled for the cangkuk manis…

…which was a consolation as what they have elsewhere (including the stunted sayur manis from Sabah) isn’t exactly the same and some will insist that ours here is nicer!

The sea cucumber soup…

…was so very good that night. It tasted like there was some special Chinese cooking wine in it but the ladies insisted it was black vinegar and yes, it got their nod of approval as well.

I was pleased to note that except for the mee sua, they have switched to using those lovely ceramic plates and bowls instead of those horrendous no-class-at-all gaudily-coloured plastic or melamine ones.

Of course, we had our favourite cake from Marcus…

… but I heard my brother-in-law and his daughter and her friend talking about what transpired when they went to order and collect the cakes – it seemed that somebody in the house is unwell so word has it that Marcus may decide to stop making his awesome cakes for good. That is so so so sad as there can be no denying that his cakes are second to none.

It sure was a delightful gathering that night and we sure am glad that we could get to see our niece again after all this time. When we got there earlier in the evening, there was only one table and they had almost finished eating – they probably went very early! We placed our orders and everything came out of the kitchen super quick and boy, the servings were HUGE!!! We did not specify the number so I guess they just cooked for 8, all of us together that night. The bill came up to only RM155.00 for the food, around SGD50.00 only!

While we were there, the customers started to trickle in and by the time we were leaving, the place was almost full and everyone had settled down at their tables and was starting to get comfortable. I bet it would be quite noisy considering that it was rather crowded by then – thankfully, we were leaving already!

A very Happy Birthday once again to my brother-in-law, God bless always and thank you to my niece for the scrumptious treat – it sure was great to see you again after all this time!

RUBY RESTAURANT  is located at No. 71, Jalan Kampung Nyabor right next to HOME COOK CORNER  (2.292756, 111.825335) with the AmBank Tunku Osman branch in the very next block.