COCONUTS HOT SPOT — Ong Lai (meaning “luck comes” in Hokkien) is the latest made-in-Malaysia fast casual restaurant to hit the dining scene with its first outlet in Sunway Pyramid.
The set-up is interesting – the red and gold lanterns, colourful oriental knick-knacks on the walls & ceilings, the quirky posters and of course, that constellation of kois suspended in flight on one of the walls. “Ong Lai” also refers to pineapples and you see plenty of these decorating the premise too.
Ong Lai’s all-day dining menu lists more than 80 Malaysian pork-centric favourites from snacks to soups, porridge, rice and noodles.
Local favourites like Steamed Pork Patty Rice, Wantan Noodles with Char Siu and their Roast Pork with crusty golden skin are best sellers. The wantan noodles here are thin and stringy with a nice al dante bite to them, just the way I like my noodles.
Steamed Pork Patty Rice
Diners can choose a variety of toppings for their noodles like char siu, curry pork belly, roast duck etc. Personally I think their Char Siu Wantan Noodles are the best.
If you love prawn noodles, Ong Lai’s Prawn Noodles come with chunks of pork ribs, besides the usual condiments of prawns, boiled egg and pork slices. It’s a generous portion and the prawn broth was decent but admittedly not spectacular. But if the craving hits, then this version would suffice and satiate most cravings, I believe.
Prawn Noodles
Now there’s no need to travel all the way to Melaka for pork satay. Ong Lai serves a similar version with bigger chunks of pork and their nutty satay sauce has pineapple in it too, lending it a light sourish taste. If you like innards, then the Pig Intestines Satay will kick you off – they are tender yet have that certain amount of likeable chewiness.
Pig Intestines Satay
More for the innards lover – check out their rice porridge where all kinds of innards are cooked in. If that’s too funky for you, opt for the Pork Balls Porridge where the chopped meat still retained a good degree of tasty bounce. Those claypots of piping hot porky porridge are comfort food, especially on a chilly day.
More comfort food on the menu – the typically Hokkien Braised Pork Trotters in dark soya sauce.
Hokkien Braised Pork Trotters
Ong Lai serves this with plain white rice or even with noodles, if you so desire. The flavours are deep and robust, the trotters having been braised well. On days when things are a bit rough, have a plateful of steaming white rice with these – comforting for the stomach and spirit, for sure.
ONG LAI
Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall
OB.K9 Ground Floor
No.3 Jalan PJS 11/15
46150 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-5613-6678
*Non-halal
Chris Wan also blogs at Pure Glutton.
