Updated on 6 Jan 2019
Food Trail To JB Old Town
My earlier blog details the Transportation to JB and visit to JB City Square Mall from JB Sentral.
This blog details a day trip to the Johor Bahru’s nostalgic Old Town, which is walking distance from JB City Square Mall. The walk may take about 20 minutes. The Old Town will bring back a lot of nostalgic feelings of the old days and give your taste buds a treat of the good old days’ food (古早味).
Before we start, just a word of caution here. While it is generally quite safe to move about in the big shopping malls, once you step out of the mall, please take extra care and be alert not to be a victim of snatch thief. The general advise dished out to me by my Malaysian friends were that it’s best not to carry a sling bag around. Preferably don’t tugged a luggage around as this is an obvious sign that you are a Singaporean. It is dangerous to walk to the Old Town, especially alone. Do it in a big group and only in bright daylight. Below I have hand drawn a not-to-scale map and traced a safer/easier route (in my opinion) to walk to the Old Town from JB City Square Mall.
Directions to take:
Starting from JB City Square Mall, you go down to ground level, look for the McDonald’s exit. Once you stepped out of the exit, you are facing Jalan Wong Ah Fook road. Turn to your left and walk straight down the road (Jalan Wong Ah Fook), which is against the traffic.
As you crossed Jalan Station, you will see Hong Leong Bank (more like walk-in to automated ATMs machines). Once you crossed Jalan Siu Chin, you will see Hotel JB. Along this stretch, you will see a long queue forming outside Kam Long Curry Fish Head Restoran. I have been wanting to try the food here, but each time I walked past, there is always a queue. I have read many rave reviews about the Curry Fish Head here.
Continue walking straight down until you hit Jalan Siu Nam. You will see a zebra crossing here to the opposite side of the road. The landmark you see opposite the road is Tokyo Marine Life building. Cross the road (using the zebra crossing), continue walking straight (across a bridge, you can see a canal). You will walk past a building, on your right had side, you can see another famous eatery, Restoran Ya Wang Herbal Roast Duck 鸭皇药材烧腊. Personally I have not tried here yet, though there are many rave reviews written about their Dang Gui Herbal Duck and Char Siew.
At the end of the building, you will come to an informal road cum car park (see below), one of the landmarks here is you will see a lot of pigeons lining up the wires on top. Of course, beware of stepping on the bird shits or being pooped by the bird shits. This place seems to be a favorite spot among the local Indians to take their wedding photos. Just continue walking straight towards the building, you will see a Herbal Tea Stall manned by 2 old sisters, Kedai Minunam Kok Yow Yong 霍有用凉茶. Reviews are they still follow the ancient recipes handled down by their grandparents on boiling the herbal teas.
After walking past the Kedai Minunam Kok Yow Yong 霍有用凉茶 (Herbal Tea Stall), at the end of the building, you have reached Jalan Trus. Now turn left and walked along-side of the building (along Jalan Trus, along the same direction of the traffic) . At the end of of this block, you will see a lot of people crowing outside the famous Restoran Hua Mei 华美茶餐室,. This is by far my die-die must-visit cafe whenever I am in JB. Just take note that due to shortage of manpower, they have closed the second floor. Only ground level is opened for business, so it tends to be very crowded most of the time. If you can find a seat there, you have to count yourselves extremely lucky. The food here is the old school style and 古早味. Their Teh and Coffee (hot RM 2.40, cold RM 2.60)is very thick and fragrant, a must try. Their Kaya bread is traditional style (quite average). Another must-try here is their Hainanese Chicken Chop (RM 15.90), which I feel is better than IT Roo Cafe. It comes with mushroom sauce, some fried potatoes wedges and green beans. Their Hwa Mui Fried Rice (RM 7.90) is delicious and simple, with some sausage, fried fish cake and egg. Another dish that I always see customers ordering (which I have yet to try) is their Hwa Mui Yee Mee.
(Dec 2018) Opposite Hwa Mui 华美茶餐室, there are 2 new kopitiams that pop up. One is Ah Fook Street Old Kopitiam (which visibility has not much customers there when I walked past) and Tong Guan Kopitiam which is quite crowded. I saw the Nonya Kueh stall that seems to resemble the one previously from Restoran Kin Hua 锦华餐室. I bought nonya kuehs from both this stall (at Tong Guan) and at Kin Hua, both kuehs standards are not the same as previous, the kuehs are not as soft and chewy as my previous experience at Kin Hua. Will stop buying Kuehs next time.
After the stop at Hwa Mui, the next stop is to go to IT Roo Cafe. At the Hwa Mui junction, you cross the road and walk down to Jalan Dhoby. You will see some interesting graffiti along the walls and doors.
At the end of the stretch of block on Jalan Dhoby, cross a tiny road and you will hit IT Roo Cafe. They are famed for being the “Best Chicken Chop in Town“. Here, you can choose to have your Chicken Chop, either grilled or deep fried. For the sauce, you can choose either black pepper sauce or mushroom sauce. The price of the Chicken Chop here is quite comparable to Hwa Mui. They are opened from 12pm to 9.30pm.
Opposite IT Roo Cafe, you will see another famous landmark, Salahuddin Bakery. They are famed for their triangular shaped Indian curry puffs. These puffs are always gone by the time I reached there …..
Now from Jalan Dhoby (before you hit IT Roo Cafe), turned right into the lane. I remembered there is a cafe that sells Durian puffs and such. I have not tried there yet. At the end of the road, you will see an eatery, Let’s Eat Cafe. The ambiance and decoration inside this cafe is very soothing and comfortable, there are 3 levels, all air-conditioned. This is a great place to idle away your afternoon. I only tried their Teh so far as I was too full from my earlier lunch.
From “Let’s Eat” Cafe, you turned left again into Jalan Tan Hiok Nee and walked down one block. At the end of the road, you will see the famous Restoran Kin Hua 锦华餐室. This is another old school style kopitiam. This restoran is also very crowded most of the time. We have to take-away as we could not get seats here. Their Teh and Coffee here are also the traditional style (though my personal preference is still Hwa Mui), their drinks here have their own unique style. I have tried their fried bee hoon mixed with mee siam bee hoon, it has a very traditional taste, together with their chilli which is sweet and spicy, it was very delicious. The Kuehs (about RM 1 each) is soft, fresh and delicious. Their Soon Kuehs have big fillings and taste is yummy. The lady boss of the Kueh stall told me that their kuehs are hand made each day by them, not factory made. Just take note that the kuehs sold out very fast every day. We have tried the nasi lemak stall as well, the stall owner will pack your rice for you, and you take your own meat or vegetables. We chose one chicken and 2 vegetables, cost RM 9 which is reasonable. The food is so-so.
Directly opposite Restoran Kin Hua is the famous Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory 协裕面包西果厂. Hiap Joo Bakery has been around since 1919, their cakes and bread are still baked daily using a black, clay brick, kiln-like oven. They are famous for their Banana Cake, which is on my must-buy list as well. A small box (5 pieces) cost RM 5, a big box (10 pieces) cost RM 10. Their Banana cake is pillowly soft, moist, and not too sweet. The soft, cottonly texture remains even if you eat it on the 3rd day without refrigerating it. I am constantly amazed by the craftsmanship behind the cake. Another must-try is their old school bread. You must be wondering what is so special about their bread? With their special kiln-like oven, the top of the bread is bake to hard and crispy while the rest of the bread is soft and cottonly, and they give a generous amount of fillings inside. Bread are sold in a pack of 4 or 6 (cost is around RM4 to RM5). The highly recommended bread is their coconut bread and personally I love their Tau Sar bread (RM 4.50 for pack of 4). Sorry, I am only left with one bread when I remembered that I have yet to take photo of it ……
On Weekends, there is usually a long queue outside Hiap Joo and high chance is, you will be queuing under the hot sun. Bring along an umbrella or sun hat. Usually Singaporeans will buy Banana Cakes in quantities of 10 or 20 big boxes. Please don’t go too late.
Opening hours:
Bread: Mon – Sat: 11am till stock last (Sorry, Sun only sell Banana cake)
Banana Cake: Mon 12pm to 5.30pm, Tues to Sat 7.30am – 5.30pm, Sun 8.30am while stock last
Besides Hiap Joo Bakery, you will see an artisanal, air-conditional “Big Bites Cafe“. They specialise in Crepe cakes. It is a nice cosy place for a cup of coffee/tea and nice dessert in the hot day.
And on the other side of Hiap Joo Bakery, surprise, surprise! A Gong Cha outlet is coming in for a slice of the touristy pie.
From here, to go back, just walk along Jalan Trus (against the traffic) back to Restoran Hwa Mui and follow the original route back to City Square Mall.
Enjoy! You will not go home disappointed. Your next question will be when am I making the next trip here….. ?