Jalan PJu 1/39,
Dataran Prima Avenue,
Petaling Jaya.
Tel: 03-7887 6117
Business hours: Sundays to Fridays,
10.00am to 6.00pm,
closed on Saturdays
Non-halal.
GROWING up with a mother who loved to cook, the Ho household always had guests coming over to enjoy a hearty home-cooked meal.
“My mother really enjoyed cooking and our family and friends loved her cooking, which were mostly Hakka dishes:”.
“Her daughters and daughter-in-laws would always be helping her out and that’s how we learnt the recipes from her,” said Susan Ho, 54, who recently opened the Mama Ho’s Kitchen restaurant in Petaling Jaya.
“After she passed away, we continued the hospitality and we still had friends over for food. That’s when they suggested that we open a restaurant so that they can enjoy the food any time they want to instead of having to wait for our sessions,” she said.
The restaurant at Dataran Prima is intimate, with a mix of wooden and marble tables that cosily seats a small party of four to six people while the menu is focused on a specific selection of home-cooked dishes.
Flavourful: The Foo Chuk Pork Rice isserved on Thursdays.
To ensure that the quality of the food is not compromised, Mama Ho’s menu consists of specific daily dishes from Sunday to Friday.
For example, those who want to have the Potato Chicken Rice or the Foo Chuk Pork rice would come on a Thursday while those who want to sample their specialty of Seafood Bak Kut Teh, Hakka Abacus and Hakka Dumplings would drop by on Sundays.
“We also do it this way so that our customers who come here regularly will have a different option over the week”.
“Besides the daily special, our signature dishes, which are the Pan Mee, Minced Pork Chilli Mee, Hakka Minced Pork Mee and Salted Vegetable Mee, are served daily,” she said.
The Signature Pan Mee served in a hearty broth is different from the conventional ones because the condiments of minced meat, mushrooms and anchovies are served separately instead of being mixed in with the pieces of noodles.
“Some of our customers enjoy putting bits of condiment onto each spoonful of noodles so that they get a bite of everything,” Ho explained.
Ho also recommended the Hakka Minced Pork Mee, a simple but satisfying concoction of noodles with minced pork.
Those who like a bit of spice in their food can opt for the Minced Pork Chilli Mee, which is almost similar to the Chilli Pan Mee but made with the springy Hakka noodles.
For a different twist to the regular Bak Kut Teh which consists of pork, Mama Ho’s also serves a Seafood Bak Kut Teh, which needs to be ordered in advance.
“We recommend our customers to order on Fridays because we are closed on Saturday. We also have a Seafood Porridge which also needs to be pre-ordered like the Bak Kut Teh because we only use fresh seafood that is purchased on the day itself,” she said.
Three months into its opening, Mama Ho?s is already experiencing a busy lunchtime crowd of mostly working people and those from the surrounding neighbourhood.
Spotted during StarMetro’s review session at the outlet was Greek tourist Areti Vraka, a teacher who was on vacation in the country and brought to the outlet by her Malaysian hosts.
“The restaurant is simple but the food is tasty. I really enjoy sampling this type of Malaysian food,” said Vraka as she tucked into her bowl of Signature Pan Mee.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
