Sun Fong Bak Kut Teh @ KL

All visitors to Klang Valley would definitely be heading out to Port Dickson for their bak kut teh. However, the drive is not pleasant. Fortunately, we have a pretty good alternative right here in KL.

Bak kut teh is divided into two main camps – the fiery, peppery Teochew style BKT usually served in Singapore, and the herbal, sweet Hokkien BKT made popular in Klang Valley. Both have similar roots. Bak kut teh was the food of choice of plantation workers in the last centuries. Because of the hard work these men have to put in, they needed a substantial breakfast that was easy to prepare and relatively cheap. So they threw in pork ribs with lots of spices, brewed a large pot of soup which they washed down big bowls of rice with that pork soup. These workers came from Fujian and Swatow, and brought with them their respective choices of cooking pork ribs.

At Sun Fong, their Hokkien-style of cooking BKT makes it a herbal broth that can be somewhat overpowering for some palates due to its sour and bitter flavour (most likely from the liberal amount of liquorice roots and angelica). However, if you were to look past all that, Sun Fong actually serves up a mean dish of BKT with chewy, succulent and tender pork ribs.

Their claypot bak kut teh is the basic configuration for sharing. It comes with ribs, pork belly, pig stomach, pig intestines and lean pork all cooked in their signature broth.

The claypot was definitely enough to start, one would add bowls of extra, like the pork belly in the peppery soup. Who say we can’t get along?

But their piece de resistance was their stuffed pig intestine. So well stuffed with plenty layers of intestine, the flavors were delicious without the weird offal smell and the texture was super bouncy.

Fish head with garlic ginger sauce was delicious and different from the usual ferment black bean sauce. The ‘song’ fish had a muddy taste usually, but it was really good with the garlic ginger sauce.

Sambal petai prawn was princess favourite. Done with belachan sambal, it was really pungent, and that’s an acquired taste. A little expensive, it was not a big plate and not much petai.

Sambal belachan kangkung used the same sambal that was used to fry the petai. So a repeat in flavour profile. Should have ordered their potato leave with dark sauce.

You can eat the BKT with plain rice, but I would recommend an upgrade to their yam rice. So good you can eat it on its own.

Sun Fong Bak Kut Teh restaurant is located at 35 – 41 Medan Imbi, off Jalan Imbi about 10 minutes walk from Berjaya Times Square, and walking distance from Westin, JW Marriott and Bintang Walk.

There’s an air-conditioned area, but it would be better to sit in the breezy open area and sweat it out. After BKT, there’s a durian store just across the car park, even though Sun Fong did sell them these days. I still prefer to walk across to the store below the big tree.

Sun Fong Bak Kut Teh
37, Medan Imbi, Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel : +60 3-2141 4064