I had dinner at Familiar Faces Nyonya Food & Noodle House with Janet last night. She’s also from Sibu and came over to work in KL about a month ago. I picked her up from Cheras and was about to head down to either PJ or KL when the massive Friday night traffic congestion made me decide against it.
It was about 8:30 pm and we were still stuck in practically gridlocked conditions so I consulted the GPS for an alternate place for dinner. We were in Sri Petaling at that time and we chose this place due to the proximity to our current location. I’ve never been here before and Janet is new to Nyonya food so I (slowly) inched towards the restaurant.
Familiar Faces Nyonya Food & Noodle House serves a wide range of Nyonya food, which you can order a-la-carte or in a single serving with rice. I asked the waitress for recommendations and she suggested some of their flagship dishes. The place has a healthy portfolio of seafood, meat and vegetable dishes but does not serve pork.
One of their specialties is the home made Chrysanthemum tea with bits of nata de coco at the bottom. It’s surprisingly refreshing and I didn’t even notice the cubes at the bottom until Janet pointed it out to me.
The first dish that came out is the Nyonya Shredded Petai (RM 12). Petai is something you either love or hate. It’s also called “smelly bean” and has a slightly bitter aftertaste. I found this incarnation pretty good though – there are bits of meat and chilli in the sauce, which offsets the less palatable qualities while maintaining the signature crunch of this vegetable.
The squid cooked in Nyonya sauce (RM 13) was a bit of a disappointment. I found it rather bland but the squid was prepared well – it’s tender and moist, with none of the chewiness associated with overcooking.
We also ordered the Nyonya Sambal Fish (RM 12). There was an initial concern over whether it would be too dry, considering it’s fried fish but that dissipated as soon as we dug in.
The fish is stuffed with sambal and other assorted fillings and it goes very well with a squeeze of lime. There isn’t too many bones to contend with too, which is always a good thing. Most of the dishes at Familiar Faces Nyonya Food & Noodle House is served on a piece of banana leaf, which is a nice touch.
However, the best dish that we had was the Nyonya style Sweet Potato Chicken (RM 12). It’s cooked in a savory sauce that seeps all the way into the bed of thinly sliced potatoes under the dish. The gravy saturated potatoes tastes even better than the chicken itself!
The total bill came up to RM 56.40 which is very reasonable. The service is friendly and there’s a warm and homely ambiance to the place. I have my doubts about the authenticity of some of the dishes but it’s still a good find. There’s also a very popular steamboat restaurant in the same row which is worth checking out.
Familiar Faces Nyonya Food & Noodle House is located at Jalan Radin Anum 1, Taman Sri Petaling with the GPS coordinates N 03°04.031′ E 101°41.423′.
HB, great entry on Nyonya Food. Wonder if the squid nyonya needed to be spicy or salty more for your taste. What is the right amount of seasoning needed? The stuffed sabal fish seem so interesting to me to look for recipe for it and so does the sweet potato chicken.
Thanks Erica! Hmm…I would prefer it to be spicier, the squid was quite bland in that dish.
Yup, the Nyonya style sweet potato chicken is really good and seems pretty easy to make too. 🙂
I’m very tempted to make another trip to Malaysia for another very serious foodie trip.
We had all the signature dishes at Lot 10 Hutong and I love it ! But I just realised we haven’t try grilled fish, nyonya Kaya kuih, etc etc
Nvm. Next time.
Yeah, Lot 10 makes everything easy to access – all the best hawker food in one place. 🙂
Oh, if you want serious authentic Nyonya food, a trip down to Melaka would be a good idea. 🙂
We were staying at Parkroyal Hotel, right in the middle of the shopping paradise in KL.
I was thinking about Melaka, but we didn’t have time. Ish, had “mission” to complete – as if 🙂
Nice! Yeah, that would make going everywhere a bit more convenient. 🙂
No worries, you can come to Melaka next time! 😀
hey HB! i dine there all the time, another notable dish would be the venison fried with potato or something like that.
Venison eh? Sounds good! I saw a lot of other promising dishes too but couldn’t order that much since there were only two of us. I shall make another trip and try the other stuff. 🙂
We also saw a steamboat place that’s absolutely packed to the rafters in the same row. Gotta check it out as well.
Cheers! 🙂
u mean the corner lot just before this restaurant? the pulau ketam one? its a branch of Ho Ho’s steamboat i think its quite reputable. Give it a try!
Petai not only leave an aftertaste in your mouth, a few hours after eating it, it will leave an after-smell in the pee :p
Heh! True that, bro.
I still like the taste though.
There used to be a very good off the menu pork burger at Cristang, it’s D7 and it has a lot of Petai in it. 🙂
How come Jeanie not together with you? Won’t she feel jealous to see you having dinner with such a pretty girl alone?
Hello Teck! Jeanie is in Miri. I’ll be going over in less than two weeks. 🙂
No la, Jeanie knows Janet too, we even talked while in the car on speakerphone coz my GPS phone was mounted. 🙂
Actually what i want to say is I AM JEALOUS. Bro, you promised to introduce some girls to me.
Yup, sure thing bro, when we meet up. 😀
Don’t think I know her…not one from my pack. LOL!!! The food looks great – I love nyonya food and price is ok.
Heh! No, she’s not from Sacred Heart. 🙂
Yeah, the food is pretty good and the price is very reasonable too!
The petai surely looks delicious, I love petai so much.
Yup me too. I like petai as well, but it’s an aquired taste for some people. 🙂
I will at Melaka this coming July and maybe we can hv a meet in KL.. We can hv a wonderful and expensive meals … U PAID …
Sure, buzz me when you get here, you have my number. 🙂
I like tht home made Chrysanthemum!
Yup, it tastes really good! I like home made Chrysanthemum – it’s less sugary sweet compared to package drinks and fresher too. 🙂
you had me at petaiii
Yeah, the petai there is pretty awesome stuff! 😀
Glad u enjoyed the meal. Recommend the following on ur next visit:
1) Nyonya Claypot Curry with Stingray instead of Fish Head
2) Salted Egg Squid (almost every table orders it…hehe)
3) The ‘Sha Lei’ juice drink
Yeah…the Ho Ho Steamboat crowd is a bit crazy…hehe 😀
Hello there! Yup, it was great! I’ll go and try those the next time I head down to Familiar Faces. I’ve yet to check out the steamboat place too. Heh!
Cheers KC! 🙂