IT’S always a better deal when you dine in a restaurant where the owners are also distributors of seafood.

You can be assured that the seafood is fresh and the prices are competitive, lower than in other restaurants of the same class.

This is the case with Fat Fook Inn, whose sister restaurant next door at Shoplex, Mont Kiara, is Fat Fish.

So it was with the ma yau yu with ginger strips (RM36) at Fat Fook Inn – a super fresh senangin fried till crispy all over and topped with fried ginger threads, thin fried garlic slices and a heap of coriander. It sat in a light superior soy sauce base.

It’s a simple style of cooking but simple is hard to get right. But it’s how I like a fresh fish (apart from it being steamed). We crunched on the skin and got a sweet taste of its lush flesh. Who needs chilli when the ginger crisps and garlic, and soy sauce complement it so well?

The sang har meen, which is deep-fried noodles drenched with an eggy, prawny sauce and crowned with udang galah, impresses with the firm, bouncy bite of the freshwater prawns.

I like it that the sauce is light and not starchy as in some restaurants, with its flavour derived from the prawns and stock and not from MSG. The thin egg noodles tasted so good, soaked in this sauce with lots of ginger slices and spring onions.

The sea prawns in soya sauce were perfectly done. Tossed in superior soy sauce over high heat, the prawns were embraced by the sauce, topped with crispy lard bits and served on a bed of spring onions.

The prawns were fresh, springy and sweet and made lovely bites after tasting the flavourful sauce on the shells.

Pig’s stomach soup on the menu is something that is hard to resist. The soup, steeped from pork bones and pig’s tail, was milky, peppery and delicious.

There was a sticky mouthfeel from the cartilaginous tail, the heat from peppercorns was just right and fresh coriander gave it a fragrant lift.

Pan-fried omelette topped with braised eggplant and minced meat in hot bean sauce (RM20) gives a new twist to an old favourite.

I like the idea of an omelette heaped with eggplant and chopped mushrooms braised with minced pork in a zesty chilli bean sauce.

It’s a dish you would enjoy with rice, hence our next order, the pork lard rice topped with an egg. The rice (RM3 without the egg) mixed with hot lard, drizzled with soy sauce and generously topped with crispy lard bits was so satisfying.

We relished the flavourful crispiness of the deep-fried marinated sha tin chicken with shrimp sauce (RM20), with the aroma of the shrimp sauce coming through. It was served on a bed of tangy cabbage and lettuce salad.

Fat Fook Inn serves crabs, too, and you can choose the styles – XO sauce with glass noodles in claypot, kam heong sauce, butter milk sauce or Thai-style salted egg sauce.

I would like to go back for these, and dishes like wok-fried Xinhua meehoon with prawns and chicken (RM18), poached vermicelli with fish head soup (RM18), stir-fried rice with roasted pork belly and crispy rice (RM18), and other seafood dishes. – May 25, 2019.

* Fat Fook Inn is at 15-0-2B, Shoplex Mont Kiara, Jalan Kiara, Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Tel: 012 447 7268.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.