Top 10 Hot Spots for Siew Yoke in KL

When I was little, I used to watch my dad prep his special, secret recipe, Roast Pork (Siew Yoke) in the back kitchen in Ipoh. I remember the distinct aroma wafting from the kitchen that got my salivary glands going – till today, he is still the best cook I know,  so any Siew Yoke that can have a crackling skin as good as the one he makes, is a winner in my books.

Here are our Top 10 Siew Yoke Joints around KL. There are actually a lot more, but for the sake of this post, we have narrowed it down to 10. If you have a favourite you want to share, then point us in the direction, and we will go check it out!

1. Gerai No.4 / Chen Kee Segambut Siew Yoke

This place is famous amongst the locals for its double boiled soups and Siew Yoke.

The owner wears a face mask for hygiene’s sake, so he does not get any stray liquid into the meat he is chopping. How very thoughtful!

One of the nicest Siew Yoke in town. With a luscious interior and perfectly crisp crackling, this is everything roast meat should be.

It has the perfect amount of lean meat, to fat ratio, and a crackling that can be heard in the heavens when you bite into it!

We normally have it to go, and the packaging is rather neat as well. This only cost us RM10.

Roast pork belly with layers of soft, semi-rendered fat, juicy meat, and skin that has bubbled and popped all over to produce a puffed and crunchy counterpoint to the meat’s succulent interior.. life does not get better than this! Love the chili sauce which has terrific zing to it – spicy and sour, it goes only too well with the Siew Yoke.

This shop does a terrific chicken herbal coconut soup as well. One of our favourite shops for affordable Siew Yoke rice – doesn’t make a dent in your wallet.

Latest Update – May 2017 : This place is now exorbitantly overpriced – measly portions (5-6 cubes of meat) and they slapped a RM29 bill on us! We take back what we say about it being Top 10. Here’s MUCH more worthy place to check out and here’s another one!

2. Babeloo BBQ Pork

And one of the tastiest finds this year for us, was this BBQ Pork on wheels vendor, called Babeloo BA.B.Q. Roast Pork.

You can spot the van by the snaking queue of folks who line up just to get their cut of BBQ Pork. The queue moves relatively fast, so even if it’s a hot afternoon, you only need to sweat it out for a bit.

The butchers don’t handle any money (it’s all rather hygienic, if you discount the traffic passing by) – you just state how much Siew Yoke you want e.g. RM50 or RM100 and dump your money into a plastic tin, and take the change you need. I guess it’s all based on trust…  most folks don’t want to get on the wrong side of a sweaty man with a cleaver anyway.

The Siew Yoke here is of exceptional quality and the butchers are very courteous. He shows me a piece, and tells me, this is a nice cut – a little bit of fat, but not too much, and a generous amount of crackling. I nod my consent.

Later, sinking my teeth into the Siew Yoke, I have to say, it really is a fantastic cut of pork.

Insanely tender pork meat, with just a small amount of soft fat, and finally the incredibly addictive, crunchy crackling. There is not a trace of gamy smell in the BBQ Pork. Just sweet succulence.

Weigh it, slice it, pack it! 

Fantastic stuff. Babeloo awesome roast pork on wheels… have van will travel.. OUG, Cheras, Kepong, Sri Petaling.. just follow your nose, and the snaking crowd. (Ah, and they do home delivery too!)

3. Restoran Kim Seng @ Section 17

Remember how, as a student, you would just cook some rice, and dump canned food over it? (OK, maybe many of you are like Jamie Oliver behind the stove, but I, oh, I was pretty much a can food student.)

Well, there’s this really cool student’s daichow place (or we like to call it that) which serves, good, cheap and best of all hot food, at student prices, and portions, at section 17 PJ.

When I say student portions, I mean massive plates of steaming rice, with a uni-dish (i.e. a single type of meat + vegetable dish), heaped on top of the rice. It is simple, delicious, and most importantly fills up even the stomach of ravenous students. And the reason why the place is full of students, is because the food is cheap and good.

My favourite here is the Kailan Siew Yoke Farn (Chinese Kale with Roasted Pork). Love the way the Crackling changes form and puffs up into an airy, spongy top from the sauces it has imbibed,  and since the pork and kailan are stir fried together in a wok with loads of garlic, shallots and some special sauce, the resulting concoction is irresistibly tasty. They dump this on top of rice and the sauce just oozes all over the place, and is absorbed by the rice. It is impossibly not to wolf down this meal in 10 minutes flat. And it is a pretty huge meal at that. Best part is, it is only RM5.50. Insanely cheap.

4. Siew Yoke Taman Bukit Anggerik

One of the best things about Taman Bukit Anggerik, Cheras is the enormous number of good street food stalls in the area. And another great place for take away Siew Yoke, lies along this street.

We usually take away some roasted pork to eat at our lunch venue down the road. Normally RM10 – RM20 will suffice.

tempting looking roasted pork cuts

here is a  RM10 portion

With this particular shop, the fat ratio is rather low, but the lean meat is soft and sweet. It’s one of those Siew Yokes where you don’t need a whole load of fat to carry the flavour. The flavour is in the meat.

check out the butcher’s arm.. is it a Tee or Tat? 😛 

5. Restoran Phoenix in Salak South

During lunch time, the queue and bustle coming from Restoran Pheonix/WaiKee BBQ Rice is usually deafening. There’s normally a huge crowd jostling for the chap fan (Economy rice) and the Roasted/BBQ Pork rice.

And even in the chaos, a system. A massive number of styrofoam boxes with the scribblings can be seen next to the young man with the cap – he is the guy who without breaking a stride(or slicing a fingernail) he knows exactly into which packet to slip the Siew Yoke, or Chicken etc. This is definitely a top pick for us for both the Siew Yoke as well as Char Siew. Only RM5.00 or a huge packet of Siew Yoke rice. Cheap and good.. we like!

6. Restoran Wong Kee @ Jalan Nyonya, Pudu

OK, this place has to be named because, grudgingly, we have to admit that the Siew Yoke here is really good. But the sifu is notoriously rude and the food is exorbitantly overpriced. 4-5 short slabs of roasted pork, 1/4 chicken, 2 pax normal Char Siew (BBQ Pork) & 5-6 drinks set us back by RM93 (holy pig)!

Also, while the Siew Yoke is excellent, they use way too much salt and MSG and we are normally thirsty for hours after lunch at Wong Kee.

Says the Sifu “I’m so cool.. I don’t start work before 12:30, for anybody!”

“I’m too sexy for my shirt.. too sexy it hurts..”

There’s a narrow window of time between the Sifu starting work, and the Siew Yoke running out. Hence the long queue even before he arrives.

A thin layer of crisp. A sweet layer of white meat.

A staggered layering of soft fat.

This Siew Yoke dish makes the wait worthwhile, every single time.. well, OK, almost.

7. Champ’s @ Bangsar Shopping Center, Bangsar

Champ’s.. where everybody knows your name.

Sometimes you do wanna go where everybody knows your name. Or if not everyone, at least the bartender. And if not your name, at least your drink. Well at Champ’s, I’ve known the owner and chef for so long, that he definitely knows my name, and my drink.. and the sort of dishes I like. And they sure know the way I like my Siew Yoke here all right.

I actually prefer the Champs at CenterPoint because the food was cheaper there. Now in a location like BSC, of course you need to pay premium price for your Siew Yoke. Still, nothing washes away the Monday blues like a chilled pint of beer and some magnificent, melt in your mouth yet crispy Siew Yoke. That’s Champs for you!

8. Hou Moon Restaurant @Jalan Hip Hing, Klang

OK so this ain’t in KL per se, but it is close enough to drive to for lunch on a sunny weekend afternoon.

Ah, so if garlic fried Siew Yoke is your thing, and you don’t mind being a pungent garlic breathing dragon after a meal, then this dish is definitely for you. Imagine a platter of stir fried Siew Yoke, with loads of chopped garlic and caramelised with dark soy sauce and sugar. It is cooked till the crispy skin becomes slightly rubbery, chewy, and inflated in size, due to the sauces it has absorbed. Talk about orgasmic! Worth the ride to Klang, for sure.

9. Seng Kee, Siew Yoke Mee @ China Town

One of the nicest places to adjourn to, after a late night of partying, is Seng Kee in China Town, KL. The Siew Yoke noodles are just the bomb. In recent days, the quality of the Siew Yoke had dropped a little – i.e. they use such small cuts of siew yoke and the portions have gotten smaller, but back in the day, this was one of the best in town.

The noodles of the Siew Yoke Mee is actually the Sang Mee used in wantan noodles. Crispy fried garlic Siew Yoke is dumped on top of the noodles, and all you need to do is mix it all up (middle photo). The lard and hot noodles hits the spot, and helps you sober up in no time. Of course, apart from this signature noodles, there’s the other claypot loh shue fun (rats tails!) that people flock here for.

10. Siew Yoke Wantan Mee @ Hong Kee Ampang

It seems like every week, we find a great new place for Siew Yoke. And now, we have yet another place to add to our ever-growing list of favourites. Hoong Kee BBQ Wantan Mee.

Located deep in the heart of Kampung Baru Ampang, the roasted pork is made in-house. Hoong Kee’s Roast Pork, has a nice crackling and succulent flesh. Hoong Kee has another branch (stall) in Publika’s food court. So, if you can’t make it to Ampang then there is Publika. Only a marginal increase in pricing.

This is the starting slab of meat for the Roast Pork. Costs only RM80 just for this hunk of meat, but I’d rather let them do the roasting, if you know what I mean!

And that concludes our Top 10! Do you have any favourites.. point us in the direction, and we would gladly try it!