Just 5 minutes walk from Petaling Street Kuala Lumpur, or about the same walking distance from Central Market (Pasar Seni) in opposite direction, discover this decades-old Lai Foong Coffee Shop 丽丰茶餐室 that is no stranger to beef noodles lovers; and for insiders, an extra bowl of real nourishing lala soup noodles.
Located right opposite to the equally famous Shin Kee Beef Noodles, at the cross junction of Jalan Tun H S Lee and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Lai Foong Coffee Shop has long been famous for beef noodles soup since 1956.
The stall is now managed by the third generation, with an outlet in Taman Taynton, Cheras Kuala Lumpur. Judging from our visit, Lai Foong Beef Noodles 丽丰牛肉面 is popular not only among locals, but also tourists by now.
Summergirl never loves beef but she likes Lai Foong’s version, right from the first sip of their soup. Flavourful with good depth of flavours, hints of soy sauce, followed by surprisingly clean and mellow finish.
Beef parts were nicely cleaned, minimal beefy taste. Cook just right, hence nothing too hard or way too chewy. Munched into pickled vegetables in between too – Delightful sourness that helps to heighten up the overall flavours. RM10 beef noodles seems pricey but this is sooo good!
You can choose your favourite beef parts to go with your noodles, such as tendon, meatballs, tripe, lean meat, intestine, or mixed, which is what we had.
On a side note, it was quite awkward for us when deciding what time to visit Lai Foong for breakfast, as we want to have both Lai Foong Beef Noodles and Lala Soup Noodles. But the former opens as early as 6.30AM, while the later begins its business only after 10AM. We doesn’t want to face a long queue waiting for both, worst is no empty seats.
Thankfully, the crowd was quite alright when we reached about 10AM. Lucky enough to secure the very last table next to Lai Foong Beef Noodle stall. Hehe.
Back to food. Lala noodle soup 丽丰上湯啦啦米粉湯 is another must-have in Lai Foong. The stall serves a variety of stir-fried noodles like Hokkien Char, Cantonese Chao Mei Fan, Wat Dan Hor and more. Xiong Tong Lala, is one of their signature items. Each order is cooked bowl by bowl, hence do be patience and be ready to wait during peak hours.
Throw in liberal amount of ginger, wok fried to bring out the flavours. Continue adding lala, then superior chicken stock. Add in Chinese rice wine and bring to boil.
We have to admit that this is one of the most flavourful Xiong Tong Lala we’ve eaten. Robust in flavours, strong rice wine taste, laced with pronounce spiciness from ginger. Superb comfort food.
A highly recommended dish overall, just, better if the lala could have better “doneness”. Ours was a little overcooked, leading to rather rubbery and tough texture. For RM10, they were generous with the portion. Look at the the amount of lala heaped over our bowl.
Other than these two most famous items, Kedai Kopi Lai Foong also has stalls selling char koay teow and roasted fares – roast chicken, roast duck, char siew, pai guat. We da pao quarter roast duck back home, expecting it to be good as we saw quite a number of customers enjoying it. Personally felt that it tasted mediocre. Juicy and tender duck meat but fall short of spices flavours. Too salty for our liking too.
Lai Foong Lala Soup Noodles
No. 138, Jalan Tun HS Lee, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 016-3764928
Opening Hours: 10AM – 8.30PM
Lai Foong Beef Noodles
No. 138, Jalan Tun HS Lee, Kuala Lumpur.
Opening Hours: 6.30AM – 4PM
