Kuala Lumpur - Sem Kim ( (成金) Restaurant at Jalan Ipoh

[klyeoh]

I was attracted to go into Sem Kim Restaurant because it exuded this old-world Chinese coffeeshop atmosphere which was almost impossible to come by in Singapore these days, and seemed a bit hard to find even in fast-modernizing Kuala Lumpur.

It was only much later that I found out that Sem Kim used to be very famous for their "Bak Kut Teh" (herbal pork-rib soup). I did see the huge vats of "Bak Kut Teh" at the serving area, but I'd only finished a "Bak Kut Teh" lunch at Ban Lee earlier (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/833079), so more soup wasn't on my mind.

Since Sem Kim's owner-chef mentioned that their other specialties included Cantonese fried noodles, Hokkien fried noodles and fried rice, I opted to try their Hokkien fried noodles.

Their version was different from the tastier KL-style black-sauced Hokkien fried noodles which I so loved. Sem Kim's version was closer to the Hainanese-style fried noodles than Hokkien-style, i.e. lighter in taste, with choy sum vegetables, prawns & slivers of pork thrown in. Quite competent version served here, but I *miss* the "real" Hokkien-style fried noodles.

Need to come back here for their Bak Kut Teh another time though.

Address details
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Restoran Sem Kim (成金
)75 Jalan Ipoh / Batu 1/2
51200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: [phone]

[huiray]

Old World Charm...quite enticing, I can see!

Yes, that Hokkien Mee does looks unlike what I would automatically think of in KL. Quite wet, more Hainanese-style, you say? I can't say I consciously remember this style. Didn't you get a version in London. I t5hink, that was also somewhat wet and also had choy sum in it ?

It would be good to hear about their BKT at some point. :-)

[klyeoh]

Taste-wise, ithe noodles was 100% like the one at Capital Restaurant along Jln Tuanku Abdul Rahman, a few minutes' drive down the road:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/811255
Off to Sek Yuen for lunch today - haven't been there since I moved to KL a year back!! I seemed to have lunched there more often when I'm a visitor to KL from Singapore :-D
Now that place is a real oldie. Will provide update then.

[huiray]

Indeed Sek Yuen has been there for a very long time. I and my family would swing by it from time to time to way back when. They also used to have one of the better Yee Sang around. :-)