The Best Chicken Chop In Town - It Roo Cafe @ Jalan Dhoby, JB

The Best Chicken Chop In Town - It Roo Cafe @ Jalan Dhoby, JB

It Roo Cafe has been long established in Johor Bahru since year 1961, located at the old street- Jalan Dhoby, which is just at the back of the famous Jalan Tan Hiok Nee. It would be great if you visit this historical area during weekends' evening, as you can not only the chicken chop from It Roo, but also with the chance to visit the flee market at Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, which offers unique and interesting stuff. 

It Roo Cafe claims itself as the best chicken chop in town. This is mainly because during the old times where the living standard was not as great as present and the people were more easily satisfied, a plate of chicken chop with simple side dishes was considered luxury and sumptuous. 

Today, unlike the new western food restaurant, It Roo may no longer surprise you with the expensive ingredients or the most comfortable dining environment, but the simple yet nostalgic taste has passed from generation to generation in It Roo and has definitely made this shop charming and attractive, especially when it remains less commercialised in the heart of city.

Grilled Chicken Chop with mushroom sauce  RM13

In It Roo, their menu for chicken chop is simple. You can choose from deep-fried chicken chop or grilled chicken chop and two types of gravy are available, black pepper or mushroom. As we are more attracted to the grilled chicken chop, we have ordered two sets of grilled chicken chop with different gravy. The portion of gravy is sufficiently flooded my chicken chop. The deboned chicken thigh was appropriately grilled, one side with the skin is grilled till golden brown and crispy, while the side of the chicken remains moist and able to absorb the flavour of the mushroom sauce.  

Grilled Chicken Chop with Black Pepper Sauce  RM13

The Black Pepper Sauce is just right to my liking too and well matching to the grilled chicken chop, not too spicy but with appropriate sweetness, which is also suitable to kids. The chicken chop is simply paired with coleslaw and potato wedges. The potato wedges are cut from fresh potatoes and not the processed foods sold in markets. It is indeed healthier and allow us to taste the original taste of potatoes. 

Root Beer with Float  RM6

A root beer with a scoop of vanilla ice cream has also brought back childhood memories. 

Apart from western foods, It Roo also offers ala-carte local foods, like Fried Rice, Cantonese Kuey Teow and Mee Hailam, which are also popular and recommended.

Address : It Roo Cafe

17, Jalan Dhoby, 80000 Johor Bahru

GPS : N 1 27.411 E 103 45.813

Bussiness Hour : 11am - 10pm

Tel : 07-2227780

Yoong Kim Seafood Porridge 泳金砂煲海鲜粥 @ Taman Molek, JB

Yoong Kim Seafood Porridge 泳金砂煲海鲜粥 @ Taman Molek, JB

We went to Taman Molek for lunch at Yoong Kim Seafood Porridge, which has been long targeted in our list  yet with no opportunity to try it out. Yoong Kim offers Teochew style seafood porridge that is very well known in Taman Molek,  Yoong Kim only opens for business during lunch and dinner hour, with a afternoon break between 3pm to 5pm.

Picture taken from our car after our meal and only able to capture the "closed" Yoong Kim, as we visited the restaurant right before they are closed for afternoon break and we were the last customer for lunch hour of the day. 

Yoong Kim not only famous with its seafood porridge, but also their home made chili-garlic sauce which really impressed me, it is fresh but at the same time extremely HOT!! If you are a fan of their chili sauce, they are also open for sale in bottles.

Bean Paste Fish Head  砂煲豉汁鱼头  RM18

Other than seafood porridge, I were also told their bean paste fish head as one of their signature dish. It was served in piping hot claypot and indeed very flavourful in taste. The gravy is very dense to coat every piece of the fishhead. The fish head was very well chosen, with thick fish skin which is super rich with collagen.

Claypot Seafood Porridge 砂煲海鲜粥  RM2.50/pax+

There were a variety choice of fresh seafood for you to add on to your porridge. You may pick from the fridge at the front kitchen or from the menu. We added fresh fish (RM8/100g), prawn (RM8/100g), Fish Maw (RM6/100g) and Enoki (RM4/100g) to our porridge. The broth is naturally sweet with various seafood in a pot and every single grain is infused with the seafood stock. Slightly dip the seafood into their special-made chili sauce definitely enhance the flavour to a higher level. Again, please be cautioned of its spiciness, super hot but making people addicted!

Address : Yoong Kim Seafood Porridge 泳金砂煲海鲜粥

32, Jalan Molek 2/1, 

Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru

GPS : N1 31.696 E103 47.580

Bussiness Hour : 11am - 3pm / 5pm - 11pm

Tel : 012-7076096 / 010 - 7172471