Don't eat at the fake Chang Kee Restaurant in Nibong Tebal

If you have heard of the famous Teochew food especially crab porridge by Cheang Kee Restaurant in Nibong Tebal, make sure you do not go to the wrong one!

We went there recently and had a rude shock when we realised the real Cheang Kee Restaurant had moved to another location while another owner has taken over its old shoplot.

We did not even bother to take pictures of the place (the old shoplot where Cheang Kee used to be) after eating the very first dish, boiled baby octopus. I did not even want to bother with taking pictures of the food either. I do not want to waste camera battery and memory on this lousy restaurant.

The new restaurant, Law Chang Kee Restoran, was a far cry from the old Cheang Kee Restaurant. We ordered boiled baby octopus, butter prawns, fried fish, crab porridge, siau pai chye (green veg) and mantis prawn fried with dried chili.

The baby octopus, even though a simple dish which required literally little cooking skills to prepare as it is just boiled and served with chili sauce, were overcooked and stringy.

The butter prawns were oily, soggy and tasteless. They put some soya sauce over it to give it some taste which makes it worse.

Crab porridge- they obviously had it in with the crab because they smashed it to smithereens so we had to spend a whole hour picking out tiny, minute pieces of crab shell from the porridge. Oh, and the porridge was bland. Bleagghhh.

The green veg - nothing remarkable. I could have cooked better one at home.

Mantis prawn fried with dried chili - extremely soggy and too much of ketchup. It tasted like they fried the mantis prawn and pour in a whole bottle of ketchup and then add the dried chili for decoration. Ugghh.

Fried fish - well, again nothing remarkable. It is just the normal fried fish you can find at any economy rice stall.

Rating: 2/10

Now, if I had not eaten the real Cheang Kee Restaurant’s food, the rating for this faker restaurant would have been a tad higher, perhaps 4/ 10 but it definitely would not have me going back there ever again.

Price: $$$ (for that kind of food!!!)

Luckily, we found the real Cheang Kee Restaurant which had moved to a more prominent location right on the main road just after the toll plaza and with ample parking space too! After the toll plaza, turn left at the traffic lights and go straight. It is on your left at the first traffic light. You won’t be able to miss it since it is a corner lot with a huger signboard.

Here’s the new address for the famous Cheang Kee Restaurant (which I would have rated 8/10):

Restoran N.T.Cheang Kee

No. 60 & 62, Jalan Besar, Air Lintas, Taman Merbah, 14300 Nibong Tebal

Tel: 04-5943728

So, remember. The Restoran Law Chang Kee has lousy food so go only at your own risk! I will do a review of the Restoran N.T.Cheang Kee when we go there next and with loads of pictures too.