Mr Specky Seafood Restaurant, Kuantan

Our food trail this time brings us to the capital of Pahang, one of the 3 states in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Kuantan is approximately 250 kilometres from KL and you can get there in 3 hours via the East Coast Highway. As we approached the Kuantan town at 5pm it was raining heavily and traffic  was going at a snail pace.

We headed right away to Jalan Beserah to look for a restaurant by the name of Mr Specky Seafood Restaurant. We noticed that there was another Mr Specky a few doors away and upon enquiring was told that the other one specialises in steamboats, tomyam to be precise. Please note that this restaurant is only open for dinner.

The first thing you will notice when you walk into this restaurant is the fishes and seafood on ‘display’. You choose the type of fish and seafood you want. You can even pinpoint the exact fish you want. It will then be weighed and cooked in the manner you choose.

We chose a- 400 gram pak zhou yi (word for word translation of this would be white dates fish). We asked for it to be steamed with ginger and soya sauce. When the dish arrived, I tasted it and would say I could taste the ‘mud’ smell – meaning that the ginger and soya sauce were not sufficient to ‘drown’ the over-powering mud smell. Next dish please!

Next up was the seong tong lala (lala in soup) which had a very nice taste. There was some wine in it, and as requested by us did not have any chillies in it. Thumbs up for this dish…drank up every drop of this RM18 dish!

This is venison stir fried with ginger and onion (RM20). The meat was tender and I think this dish deserves a 9/10. Very good!

Today we tried stir fried tian qi with garlic (RM10). Frankly I have never seen this vegetable in any of our hypermarkets or even markets in KL. Tian qi is believed to promote healing and it certainly tasted very good. The leaves are smooth and easy on the palate.

The bill came ion close to RM90 – not too bad for a meal for 7 people.

Address: B1161 Jalan Beserah

25300 Kuantan

Tel : +609 – 5667181 , +6019 -9867181 (Alan)

Opening hours : 5.30pm – 2.30am

Cards accepted : Master & Visa