Although the name is Siu Siu 小小 (literally small, small), it is not small at all; the cooking has been enjoyed by generations of Malaysians as well as Singaporeans who frequent the capital city.

In the shadows of Mid Valley Megamall, near the Thean Hou temple, you will find Siu Siu Restaurant. Tucked away in a green lane just off Jalan Syed Putra, you can barely see the place, except for its rather large ‘Heineken’ sign. Established and well known restaurant Siu Siu is quite hidden in the bush and that’s part of its beauty.

The place has been opened for the longest time; I came at least 20 years ago, and they are still opened here after all these years. They have opened a branch at Sungei Besi, also in front of a Chinese cemetery. I guess they are catering to either temple going crowd or the Qingming crowd; or because parcels of land at these places are cheaper.

I was invited tonight for a business dinner with my colleagues and resellers. Here’s what we ate:

1. 金牌叉燒 Barbecued Pork
2. 瓦煲咖喱蝦 Claypot Curry Prawn
3. 清炒青龍菜 Sautéed Green Dragon Chives
4. 鹹蛋蘇東 Salted Egg Sotong
5. 紅燒豆腐西蘭花 Braised Tofu with Broccoli
6. 沙薑醬白切雞 Steamed Chicken with Ginger Scallion Dip
7. 大蔥蒸魚 Steamed Fish With Onions
8. 瓦煲蚧飯 Claypot Crab Rice

金牌叉燒 Barbecued Pork

This was what brought so many people to come to this place for a meal – their charsiu. With the right amount of charring and caramelising on the outside, it has that smoky flavour and satisfaction that can only come from barbecued meat. Despite the charring and caramelising, the inside was moist and tender. Excellent eat, and only if they give a bowl of their sauce made from the dripping, I would have down it with bowls of rice!

瓦煲咖喱蝦 Claypot Curry Prawn

This is a very strange curry, despite it being one of their signature and best-selling item. The curry base didn’t taste Chinese, Malay or Indian. It had a lot of lemongrass and curry leaves taste. Came with deep fried buns to dip into the curry. I enjoyed the puffed bean cured that soaked up all the curry sauce the best.

清炒青龍菜 Sautéed Green Dragon Chives

This variety of chives is uniquely Cameroon, and has a very different texture from the regular chives. Crunchy and milder in taste, these chives are perfect for sautéing.

鹹蛋蘇東 Salted Egg Sotong

I don’t understand the fad for salted egg coating on everything. There must be a period of time when salted egg was in abundance and the chefs came together to help sell some of them. Can’t say I enjoyed this, because I don’t like this method of destroying the natural taste of most food – just like mala fad.

紅燒豆腐西蘭花 Braised Tofu with Broccoli

A simple braised tofu dish, a special order for our vegetarian friend 🙂

沙薑醬白切雞 Steamed Chicken with Ginger Scallion Dip

Kampong chicken or free-range chicken steamed, chopped and serves as-is. Came with a dipping sauce made with chopped ginger and grated ginger from Bentong, Pahang. Bentong ginger has a more intense ginger flavour than the run-of-mill ones, but Malaysians wouldn’t know the difference as they all eat Bentong ginger all the time. We Singaporeans have to suffice with imported China ginger sometimes.

大蔥蒸魚 Steamed Fish With Onions

Siu Síu is famous for their fresh and live river fish. We order a live patin fish 八丁魚; Patin fish is a species of catfish and is also known as the Basa fish or Pangasius and is farmed these days. They are very good eat with little bones and a flesh that is really tender and full of fats. Most of the time I would avoid river fish because of the muddy taste in most of them. Because they have raised the patin in separate tanks for some time before serving, they have removed quite a fair amount of muddiness from the taste. Delicious fish, I have enjoyed since it was introduced to the dining table in the 90s.

瓦煲蚧飯 Claypot Crab Rice

The piece de resistance was the claypot crab rice. The owner brought this dish from his hometown of Ipoh. Each portion served four persons, so we ordered two pots and each one came with a huge crab around 1.2kg.

Usually at a business dinner I would not roll-up my sleeves and tuck into the troublesome crab. But how can I comment if I have not tired? So I took a piece and it was alright. But the rice underneath had absorbed all the goodness of the crab into the rice. The fragrant rice felt like glutinous rice but it’s not. The rice was tasty and aromatic, and further enhanced with the KL-style dark soy sauce.

Afterthoughts

Restaurant Siu Siu is not a five star diner. The red plastic tables have got ‘matching’ orange serving plates, and warm beer with cold ice; nothing got more rustic as that. Siu Siu’s staff was very attentive though and the fact that they were not smothering you in smiles didn’t not matter for us.

Their charsiu sells out quickly, so remember to reserve some when you do the table reservation, a privilege they give to their loyal regulars.

Restaurant Siu Síu 小小飯店
Lorong Syed Putra Kiri, Taman Persiaran Desa, 50460 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel : +60 16-309 8038

Visited Mar 2023