The Wok Cafe
Today we had scrumptuous Penang Nyonya feast at The Wok Cafe situated at the newly opened area called The Strand in Kota Damansara.Those in search of authentic Penang nyonya style cuisine, this is the place to come. In fact Penang-nites who are in KL visiting will also make their way over to this place.
Antique crockery for sale
Doesn't it feel like eating in someone's house?
Stepping into the shop, you feel as if you are stepping back into time. As you can see from the pictures, the whole shop is decorated with antique items, from the wooden wall fixtures to the grandfathers clock to the pictures hanging on the wall. Its a time capsule. The wooden fixtures, lights, tables..all that you see are real antique. The wooden fixtures were brought in from Penang. Amazing.
Uncle Robert, who owns the shop is from Penang ( no surprise there). He has a shop in Penang called ‘ The Hot Wok’ which is now being run by his son. Most of the food stuff is imported from Penang to maintain its originality of taste.Trust me, eating here is as good as eating in Penang just minus the 5 hour travel time.
Our orders as recommended that night were:-
Main Meals
Roast Pork Garlic Cincalok
Ju Hu Char
Lobak & Tau Kua
Perut Ikan
Kerabu Mango
Assam Big Prawns
Chilli Brinjal Tau Cheow Prawn
Curry Fish Head
Desserts
Nangka Sago
Sago Gula Malaka
Total amount : 229 (11 pax)
Lobak and Tau Kua
For starters, we had the lobak and tau kua ( fried taufu) . I personally enjoyed the lobak, cause its crunchy and also, the filling was full of meat unlike those you get outside, where there’s hardly much meat and the whole thing is soggy cause its been sitting out for too long. This is well worth it.
Ju Hu Char
Ju Hu Char is a typical nyonya dish made with shredded turnips, carrots,cabbage, dried cuttlefish, white lettuce and a little bit of sambal thrown in. Light and refreshing and good for health too! Eaten wrapped in fresh lettuce leaves, it really kick starts your palate in preparation of more good food to come.
Perut Ikan
This dish, as its name sounds translates into ‘fish stomach’ which is true. Comprising of 95% vegetables, with the remaining 5% the fish stomach it does make for a very tasteful curry style dish. This is one of their specialties and is also another nyonya favourite. The mint leaves gave it that minty fresh flavour which blended well with the curry.
Roast Pork Garlic Cincalok
The roast pork cincalok was good as well. Siew yuk fried with preserved baby shrimp (cincalok) with red onions and chillies, just imagining the combination makes me drool. The crunchy siew yuk with cincalok, you can’t ask for a better combination.
Kerabu Mango
This spicy sweet mango salad shows where the thai influence comes in since Penang is near the Thai border. The added kick here was that the ‘heh kou’ (prawn paste) is brought in fresh from Penang. The difference is obvious, the paste was smoother and had more flavour and sweetness.
Assam Big Prawns
Prawwwnns..Assam BIG prawns. This dish was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The prawns were freshed and well done and the sourness of the assam complimented the dish as it seeped through into the prawn meat. Yummy.
Curry Fish Head
And the dish which stole the show that night was the Curry Fish Head. This is their speciality, and it is for a reason. You have to pre-order this 2 days in advance because uncle Robert personally goes to the market to get the freshest biggest fish head to serve. The fish u see is the head of a red snapper. The meat was juicy and fresh. The key here is fresh. It came with ladies fingers, chillies and squid ( upon request). It was delicious!
Chilli Brinjal Tau Cheow Prawn
This dish is is fried brinjal with prawns and tau cheow ( bean paste). It was very tasty with the tau cheow giving it a nyonya flavour to the whole mix. Very nice.
Nangka Sago
Lastly, you can’t go without dessert. To end the superb meal, we ordered the Nangka Sago. Nangka means jackfruit in Malay. This dessert had chunks of nangka coupled with coconut milk and ice shavings. Refreshing on a hot day.
Sago Gula Malacca
This is an old time favourite, sago and gula malacca. This was so good we ordered seconds. Its a very simplistic dessert with sago and gula malacca and also coconut milk. The gula malacca was smooth and oh so sweet (in a good way). I loved it!
Assam Laksa and Heh Kou
Famous Penang Char Kuey Teow
We also sampled some of their assam laksa and Penang Char Kuey Teow. It was very nice though we were overstuffed by then. It was good, and for the assam laksa you can even add your own hek kou to taste. Cool huh.
We all loved this place and will be back there for more. You can count on that 
The map to 'The Wok'
The Wok Cafe
Mervyn Yeoh
26-G, Jln PJU 5/21,
The Strand Damansara,
Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya.
012-263 5460
03-6142 7388
Open
Closed on Mondays
Or from Feedmelah’s restaurant directory: The Wok Cafe
Sean, 2 years ago
wow, i’ve never seen cincalok siew yoke before! it sounds interesting but weird … kinda like cooking siew yoke with sambal belacan!
Sue Ann, 2 years ago
Yea.I think this is probably one of the nyonya delicacies. If i remember correctly, cincalok was quite popular among the nyonyas especially those in Malacca,because they were used quite alot in their dishes.
email2me, 2 years ago
Hur Hur Hur ….. my post coming up soon for the Wok …..
William, 2 years ago
Hi Ken! How’d you like the place? And how did you find out about it anyway? It’s in quite a secluded area…
email2me, 2 years ago
Yo William,
I like the place a lot cause of the food taste. Very home cook to me.
I am staying walking distance from this restaurant. Checkout my post.
http://www.foodpoi.com/2009/03/the-wok-cafe-authentic-penang-nyonya-local-cuisine/
William, 2 years ago
Hey we should meet up for yum cha some time man… since u live so close… email me and lemme know?
WOW your post is damn thorough man… 5 pages! haha.
sharon_ting, 2 years ago
I should say I like it so much…..
Petals, 2 years ago
I am from Penang. I am very dissappointed with The Wok at The Strand. I think they get their foreign worker to cook. I went to this shop to dine 3 times this month and I ordered only 2 items each time I was there.
My verdict:-Decor is Ok but the food is totally lousy and not authentic at all. The worst is the Lobak as it was so black and inside was not properly fried, meat still uncooked. The lobak sauce was lousy too.I get them to redo and came out still the same problem. Their Prawn mee is rather dissappointing too and the chilli sauce for this Prawn mee was so bland-no belacan aste at all. Assam laksa also do not have the fishy aroma. The only edible items are Pat Poh tea and Ice Kacang. That Uncle Robert need to learn Customer Service and put some smile on his face! He was very actsy and don’t seems to be interested much when I gave hime my feedback twice!! Don’t go there..spend your money elsewhere. The Penang Nyonya food is better at SS2 shop call Tanjung Bunga Fish Head Curry Shop- same road as the old Chow Yang. Cheaper and has better Penang taste.
Vincent Tan, 2 years ago
From the sound of this PETALS.It seems are you a competitor or biased of someone?
I just came back from The Wok.This Mr Robert you were mentioning gave our family a Big bowl of Kiam Chye Boey and Free Desserts.Even chat with my parents and we were happy.It doesnt sound like what you were saying.The food was very delicious and the only cook is his son Mervyn and he even entertained us with some of his not on the menu dishes.
About the Prawn Mee I think you not a Penang Prawn Mee lover cause only a person who doesn’t know how to eat only put BELACAN in Prawn Mee.I still fair this restaurant better than any Nyonya restaurant in PJ as I used to be 1 of Ah Tuan Ee’s and Mum’s Place customer and now I know where to get my good at The Wok
.Your only visit this place for 3 times in a month.But our family has visited this place 3 times in a week every week since the 1st day it opens.Sometimes during busy period the service is a little slow but maybe lack of staff as it is still new.It does happen to anyplace and anywhere.
Are you promoting Tanjung Bungah Fishead Curry? I’m from Tanjung Bungah too and I never heard of any of the shop before even I grow up at Vale Of Tempe Tanjung Bungah and recently move to KL.Hot Wok has been in the market for 15 years when I was still a kid.My parents used to bring me to the little small shop next to Island Plaza.They still maintain it till today.
Vincent Tan.
Selene, 2 years ago
I agree with you Vincent. No one has ever commented someting so bad to The Wok… I would like to share some of my view too.
I have been there almost everytime and had tried most of the dishes and me and my friends find it very nice and ever since then my friends keep recommending their friends and family to the place too.
If the place food isn’t that good, why would people recommend to others ??
My point is , The Wok is worth going for to those who likes to eat good food.
Sally, 2 years ago
Petals
You are definitely not a Penangite cos we do not eat our Hokkien Mee with belachan in it!!! This is a horrendous comment besides those remarks you made about the owners and their cuisine. Don’t be assumptous and judgemental when you are not sure about what you are consuming and it is also discerning to learn that you can criticise someone who has not done any harm to you. Look at yourself first before passing judgement on others!
Kelvyn (Hot Wok), 2 years ago
http://www.what2seeonline.com/2009/06/peranakan-nyonya-dinner-hot-wok-penang/
Review by our Penang blogger
William, 2 years ago
Thanks for sharing the link Kelvyn, would appreciate if you post our link on her website telling her readers about ‘The Wok’ review we did the other month?
Thanks.
Kelvyn (Hot Wok), 2 years ago
Anyway William very nice review if u ever in Penang call me 012-5357687.
Thanks
William, 2 years ago
Thanks Kelvyn, will do.
Kelvyn (Hot Wok), 2 years ago
Wah William can become star food blogger d…
Congrats kekeke
William, 2 years ago
Haha no lah… just letting people see and experience what we experience. Thanks for dropping by so regularly though!
Kelvyn (Hot Wok), 2 years ago
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hot-Wok-Nyonya-Local-Cuisine-Penang/209719700343?ref=ts&__a=1
William join us … kekke support abit lah.