There are 2 things that Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang is famous for; One is the picturesque village & mountain views and the second is the food that is served here. After more than 2 hours of driving, we finally reached Sungai Lembing after our breakfast stop at Bentong Town.
As we arrived a little later after our stop at Sungai Pandan waterfall, it was already 130pm. After parking our car, we decided to take a walk to the food court hoping to try our luck whether there is any food store that is still selling any food.
When we arrive, most of the hawkers at the Sungai Lembing Food Court are already in the midst of cleaning and packing for the day. We then decided to take a walk around town to see whether any other shops are still opened; we manage to find one which is a Coffeeshop next to Kwong See Association (Lembing Tea House) which sells duck egg noodles. It looks more like the pan mee, but here they served it with a braised pork belly and some meatballs.
The taste of the broth was very tasty; much like the taste of the Japanese Ramen pork broth. The small bowl that we had was RM7.00 and RM10.00 for a big bowl not that cheap considering we gotten only 2 pieces of Pork belly and 2 meatballs.
mind you, this shop owner uses a Chinese abacus to tally your bills.
We decided to order one bowl just to try it out; while waiting for the noodle to arrive, the shop also sells some tea leaves and also the herbal eggs (RM1.50), which we decided to try one of it as well. The taste of the eggs are on a much sweeter note and lack the herbal tea taste that we like.
After that; while walking around town, we met with some locals and chatted with them to find out what are our option for dinner. According to him, the most original shop that sells the famed tomato noodles is at the Restoran Hoover and ask us to check it out.
We then checked into Pollock View Resort and decided to do some sightseeing (you can check it out at the link below). After that; we visited the noodle making factory over the other side of the river, this place also sells the famed Mountain Spring Water Tau Foo Fa, we decided to give it a try and it has quite a smooth silky texture.
After that, we decided to have an early dinner at Restoran Hoover as we didn't have much for lunch.
As we were walking over, a lady selling wild boar skewers were promoting her fare. We decided to order 5 sticks of the skewers and it tasted not too bad as wild boar meat tends to be firmer in texture.
Although it was just a little past 6, the restaurant is already fully occupied. After getting our table; we started to order some of their specialty dishes (recommended by the locals that we met earlier), we were told that they don't have anymore as it was reserved for some customer and for their next day customer. She mentioned, we should have booked our dishes earlier if we wanted those dishes. Anyway, we ordered whatever was available, and the first dish is the Thai Style Tilapia. The fish is fried to a deep crust and topped with some vinaigrette mango.
Followed by the Spring Onion Wild Boar Meat. We didn't like the taste of the dish, the texture of the meat was too tough and it didn't taste anything like what we expected.
Next, is the Tau Foo with Minced meat. the dish is passable but the tau foo has once again scored better marks in Sungai Lembing.
Our final dish is the famed Sungai Lembing Tomato Noodle. The noodles are pre-fried much like the Cantonese style noodle and topped with a tomato based gravy. We are not so used to it, it was quite like a mild version of a spaghetti sauce that you either like it or not.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an earlier night out as tomorrow we need to get wake up at 5am to trek up the Bukit Panorama to watch the first light of the day.
After spending more that 1.5 hours at the hilltop, we decided to trek down and have our breakfast at the Sungai Lembing food court which serves the much touted Spring Mountain Water Tau Foo. We were told that there are 3 different shops selling the same Tau Foo; one of the shops was not open, so we explore the 2 other shop and decided to ask one of the local which shop they fancied.
According to the local, the other shop which is at the end of the food court is more popular with the tourist as they were featured in an Astro program but we decided to stick to the locals which the owner said that it is now in the 3rd generation-spanning more than 80 years history.
For Tau Foo fans, you will like the soft silky smooth texture of this Spring Mountain Water Tau Foo (RM0.80) per pcs.
We were surprised by the generous portion of fish paste in each of the "liew" which is the ladies fingers and green chilies (RM0.70 per pcs), here we have it in the curry soup. you can choose either the clear soup or the curry.
Another dish that must be tried from this store is the Beef Brisket Noodle Ngau Lam Mee (RM5.00). Fragrant and braised to a soft firm texture. Loves the taste and texture of this Ngau Lam.
There is one more speciality item from Sungai Lembing which is the Honey Lime Drink (RM14.00) which you can purchase to be made at home. This is the cheapest price that you can get from Sungai Lembing. He sells the Eggs Chee Cheong Fun too but we were a little too late; he sold off before 9.30am.
After our satisfying breakfast meals, we check out and left Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang to continue our journey to Kuantan. More on this in our other post below.
Link to our Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food trail and holiday
Restoran Hoover Sungai Lembing Address and Location
Sungai Lembing Food Court (Hawker Centre) Address and Location
Sungai Lembing Bukit Panorama
Explore Best Restaurant Other Food Trail
