I was walking around KSL Mall looking for an interesting place to have dinner when I came across this restaurant serving local Malaysian delights
The exterior design of the restaurant is quite attractive with a bright red and green facade composed of tiles and a huge unforgettable name. Empurau is originally the name of a type of fish which means unforgettable. Using the name here cleverly means Unforgettable Cafe which makes the name very catchy to remember
The same design concept using bright tiles is also used in the interior which is combined with the use of lighted menu signboards and lightbox signs to enhance the modern coffee shop concept. The restaurant itself is not very big with limited tables to house around 40 to 50 diners at any one time. When we visited during meal times, we had to wait for a table which did not take too long as the serving was fast and people tended to leave after finishing the meal
You can find most Malaysian delights here from the different cities like Ipoh hor fun and chicken with beansprouts, Penang char kway teow, KL fried Hokkien noodles and more. The prices are also affordable with each main course less than MYR 20. However for locals, if you compare these prices to the hawkers, it is still 20 % to 30 % higher
One of our family favourites, we had to order this KL fried Hokkien noodles the moment we saw it on the menu. Served with a belachan chilli and a generous topping of pork lard, the noodles were uniquely blackish like the authentic ones served in KL. The moment the server put the dish on our table, the fragrance wafted into our noses and whetted our appetites. Unlike noodles in Singapore, these noodles were round and thick in shape; looking almost like Japanese udon noodles. While they look like udon noodles, they taste like cooked yellow noodles without the alkaline taste. The wok hei of this dish was great as the noodles were soft yet flavourful with the ingredients like cabbage and seafood providing sweetness to the otherwise savoury dish. The serving is pretty huge and is good for sharing for 2 or 3 small eaters
I ordered the curry Ipoh Hor Fun as I really enjoyed this dish when I was in Ipoh and I wanted to see if they managed to recreate the authentic flavour. The serving for this was not as big compared to the noodles as I could finish it by myself but Hor Fun is also less filling when compared to noodles. The curry gravy was more watery but still very flavourful with fragrant coconut milk and a punch of spiciness which was great when paired with the rice noodles and ingredients like prawns, chicken meat, char siew and cockles
As we liked the food so much, we bought takeaways for another meal from the same restaurant and tried the soup chicken seafood Hor Fun. We also bought the KL noodles as my mum loved them. The soup version of the Hor Fun did not disappoint as well as the noodles were silky and smooth. The ingredients for the soup version are similar to the curry version I had in the restaurant so they were equally good. The only difference is the soup which is light yet flavourful in this case so the whole dish was hearty and comforting
Overall, the food at Empurau was great and we loved every single dish we had, even the drinks were pretty good although my relatives did think the coffee was not as fragrant as they prefer. As I did not have the coffee, I cannot give my comments. I would definitely visit them again to try other dishes on the menu even though they are slightly pricey compared to local coffee shops. The good food, cleanliness of the space, the friendliness of the staff and the advantage of the currency exchange rate is a compelling reason for me to visit them again when I am in KSL
Address: LG 044, KSL City Mall, Jalan Seladang, Taman Abad, 80250 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Operating hours: 10 am to 10 pm
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