Tian Seng Pulau Ketam Steamboat Restaurant

There are many steamboat restaurants in Malaysia, especially in KL and I have tasted many. This is by far the best. Run by a very efficient lady whom everyone fondly calls, “Si Tau Poh”. She has a memory of an elephant and is extremely friendly.

This is a non air-conditioned restaurant and the best day to visit is on a cold rainy day. The place is clean and all the Indonesian workers employed by Si Tau Poh are also efficient.

How do you eat steamboat?
They give you a big pot of soup and a large plate of raw food. When the soup is boiled, you simple dump everything inside the boiling soup to cook. You basically do your own cooking here.

What is steamboat?

As far as eating steamboat is concerned, it has two very important factors. The soup and the raw food that goes with it are extremely important. The soup has to be just right and this one here at Tiang Seng is very tasty. You just can’t get enough of the soup. According to Si Tau Poh, it took her months just to get the soup right and claims that there is no MSG in it (I am just a little bit doubtful about that, but couldn’t care less). Now, the raw ingredients consist of fish ball, fish noodle, fish fillet, fish vegetable roll, fish roll, fish meat, fish bean curd skin, prawns, meat crab, abalone clam, crab stick, dumpling, pork meat balls (comes in different versions), vegetables, Chinese golden mushroom, quail eggs, noodles (different types as well), etc. All these must be extremely fresh – if any one of these raw food is not fresh, it WILL spoil your entire meal. All her raw food that is served, by the way, is Si Tau Poh’s own secret recipe. The fish ball is especially delicious.

Even though they charge by per head, you can switch your food to something else if say for example, you do not like prawns or is allergic to it, they will replace it with something else. Another important factor to eating the steamboat here is, the chili paste (also their own secret recipe) that they served accompanied by the fried onions soaked in oil, this is a must and it goes extremely well with the rest of the stuff.

After the cooking is done (by yourself – which is quite fun), you scoop whatever you want to eat in your little bowl, and remember to add a little bit of the fried onions and oil for taste. Add some to your chili as well with a dash of soya sauce (in your chili bowl). After all this is done, you will have a time of your life! Yummy!
At One GlanceService: Extremely fast and the cooking is fun.
Type: Non-halal.

Opening hours: 4pm - 10.30pm

Rest days: Mondays. If that particular public holiday falls on a Monday, they will be open.
Designated smoking area: The entire restaurant is a smoking area.
Price: Very reasonable. For 5 adults and 2 kids, we only paid RM113 and that is inclusive of the extra raw food that we ordered and drinks (including 3 large bottles of Carlsberg). It is RM13 per head. By the way, if there's 4 of you, you just need to place order for 3 persons and add whatever additional that you fancy more that the others.
Website: None.
Where: TIAN SENG PULAU KETAM STEAMBOAT RESTAURANT, 34A, Jalan Desa, Batu 3 ¼, Jalan Kelang Lama, 58100 Kuala Lumpur.
Reservations: It is better to call for reservation especially during public holidays and weekends.
Contact: Si Tau Poh @ +6012 210 6893

Freebies: If you are a regular, she may throw in her famous homemade fish and sometimes even a bottle of beer for free. So be nice…

MY RATINGS: 5/5