Restoran Chen Fatt - Savour Hearty Flavours @Seri Kembangan by FollowMeToEatLa

Seri Kembangan is what I called the 'Foodie Heaven' due to the many good eateries hidden around the area.  I was exposed  to this place right  after my family shifted house to the nearby Bukit Jalil which a a few kilometres away.

My family and I  would always venture here  on weekends for our regular dose of cheap and tasty dishes. For noodles, the vote shall goes to Pan Heong for their shark fin mouse noodles, while for rice, the place to eat is none other than Restoran Chen Fatt.  

Chen Fatt Restaurant is basically your typical no-frills Chinese restaurant serving good Hakka home-style food for reasonably price yet tasty dishes. This ever-popular dining restaurant occupies two floors of a corner zinc roofed shop house, and a big chunk of corner space doubles up as a makeshift 'alfresco' dining area, so to say. No worries, it's got an air-conditioned dining room upstairs which is a makeshift of a container with aluminium wall and wooden flooring.   

  

On weekends, parking is terrible and you almost always have to wait for a table, so telephone to make reservation in advance. Plan ahead and come early and you might get lucky in getting a street side parking right in front of the restaurant.   

But if you're looking for ambience when dining, then you'd probably want to give this place a miss. Chen Fatt oozes the old school hustle and bustle of a typical Chinese restaurant. Foreign workers dressed in faded tops and jeans/shorts zip around either clearing tables or serving food. I actually enjoy the semi-hectic feel of this place as the sound of children's laughter and shouting can easily blend in! 

Four Season Combination 

RM 120

We started our meal with the aforementioned famous 4 Season Combination, which arrived looking tantalising and pleasing to the eyes. Platter consisting of chunks of deep fried stuffed foo chok rolls, scrambled eggs with shark fin, cold dish of jelly chicken and fish paste rolls.   

Crispy and Good To Eat - Deep fried Foo Chuk Roll

Tasty Starter - Fish paste roll with Filament stick 

Chilled Delights - Jelly Chicken Cold Dish

Eggy treat - Shark Fin fried with julienned carrots, yim sai and mushroom

Must Try ~ Taufoo Kang 
RM40

Another dish that stood out is the Taufoo Kang or Minced tofu with crab meat. Silky soft tofu, shredded crab meat, mushroom and minced pork are cooked together, to derive a near likeness to shark fin soup. Its starchy consistency and smooth texture of the minced tofu in silky gravy makes this an ideal soup dish for the young and old. For me, it was very delicious especially when taken with a generous dash of the black vinegar. 

MUST ORDER : Crispy Chicken skin with Fish paste 
RM 40

If you're looking for something crispy, opt for the Crispy Chicken skin with Fish paste that offers an interesting contrasting texture. It's my eldest daughter's all time favourite as she simply loves the crispy skin bonded together with the chewy fish paste.

It was fried boneless chicken with a layer of meat, but the 'meat' was actually fish paste. Crispy chicken skin matched with fish paste was strangely exotic and very tasty in this oddly agreeable combination of chicken with fish.

In truth, this dish is prepared using a tedious method of deboning, spreading of fish paste then deep frying to perfection. Uncommonly encountered as it is time-consuming to prepare: the chicken is firstly deboned and defleshed, and the cooked chicken skin is spread on a rattan frame. Fish paste is then applied to the inside of the skin, and has to smoothed out by hand, so each dish is very labour intensive. The whole chicken is then deep fried in the rattan frame and cut into bite size pieces while still very hot for serving. A must have for all those 1st timer to this restaurant.

Steamed Lala with Chinese Wine

RM 38

If you're a fan of lala, then you should try their Steamed Lala with Chinese wine and wolfberries or Kei chee. The best way to taste the sweetness of these fresh lala is to steam them with just some ginger strips, Chinese wine and Kei chee. The soup has a very strong alcohol flavour, thus is an acquired liking. Don't get carried away with the delicate sweetness of the fresh lala soup, you might get drunk on it alone. 

Soya Sauce Prawns
RM 80

Next up was an excellent fresh water prawns cooked dry-style called the 'Zi Chap Har', translated to Soya sauce Prawns. The savoury dark, caramelised black sauce comes from the light soya sauce, oyster sauce, dark soya sauce, sugar and Shaoxing wine. The freshness was especially prominent as you sink your teeth into the succulent prawns. This 'Zi Chap Har' is a classic dish goes very well with rice. Sure winner with prawn lovers out there!

  

Pai Kuat Wong 

RM 40

This 'Pai Kuat Wong' or Pork chop dish was a real disappointment. Although serving was generous with thick and chunky pieces of chops, but it seriously lacked flavour neither was it well fried. To me, it wasn't fried to achieve the right degree of  crispness every pork chop have. On top of that, the sauce was not too pleasing and not up to mark too. I'll probably give this dish a miss on my next makan trip here! :-(     

Stir-fried sweet potatoes leaves

RM 13

Stir-fried sweet potatoes leaves or 'Fan Shee Miu'  with garlic cloves was a simple but nice dish which complemented the other heavier, meaty dishes.  

Needless to say, the dishes were fantastic without burning a hole in your pocket. You see, our total bill that night came about RM 440 with rice, chinese tea, ice cubes and 5 bottles of Coca Cola for our group of 9 person. Mind you, everyone loves the lala so much that we ordered for 2 plates of the 'drunken' dish. I shall definitely come back if we are dining as group with family and friends, so we can explore and try out more dishes with more people. 

Restoran Chen Fatt

1487B Jalan Besar

Seri Kembangan

43300 Selangor.

Tel: 8948 6673