Food in Johor Bahru- Tan Hiok Nee Road and Eight Lido

Tan Hiok Nee was a rich and famous person in Johor Bahru (JB). Born in 1827, he had a humble beginning as a small textile retailer but his turned to be the most prominent businessman after sultan of Johor granted several concessions to him. Well, we are not going to have a history class here. You can find more information about Tan at Wikipedia. 

One of the streets at the center of Johor Bahru has been named Tan Hiok Nee Road to commemorate his contribution to the state. Tan Hiok Nee Road is located at the southern end of Wong Ah Fook Road, around 400 meters south from JB City Square. Streets nearby are Dhoby Road, Pahang Road, Trus Road, and Segget Road. Parking our car was the biggest problem around the area. The streets were always congested and we had to park our car a few streets away. Illegal parking might be risky as we noticed frequent policemen patrol around the area. A feast ended with a fine ticket on the windscreen was the last thing that we wished. In our last visit to JB, we went to the street two consecutive days for food and we would like to share what we found at Tan Hiok Nee Road.

Tan Hiok Nee Road has been transformed into a Chinese cultural and heritage street.

The street was well decorated. We saw a few people did some drawing in front of the shop lot (lower left). A wall with the words "It is more blessed to give than to receive"- a verse taken from the Holy Bible (lower right).

The arch of Tan Hiok Nee Road was flanked by two kopitiam. By random, we visited the left one- Kedai Makan Old Street Corner (upper left). The kopitiam had enough ceiling fans to keep us cool in the middle of the day (upper right), and served several traditional Chinese delicacies which for us, up to the standard to be recommended to all of you. By the way, the coffee served, both hot and cold were really good.

The shop next to Old Street Corner- Hiap Joo Bakery and Biscuit Factory attracted our attention with the people gathered outside of the shop (upper left). Well, the bakery was unique with the baking done by a big brick-made oven heated by firewood (upper right). Yes, wood! The old-fashioned oven was so big that it took up more than half of the shop (lower right). Well, we were lucky to grab ourselves one box of banana cakes (with RM8). The taste- excellent! As the factory only bake the bread once in a day, so we will see the queue only when the bread is almost done during the noon time. For the rest of the time, we can get other products such as buns and cakes quite easily. Hiap Joo which operated since 1919 was rated 5 out of 5 in Tripadvisor. The location- 13 Tan Hiok Nee Road.

We tried the noodle with beef tripe (lower left) and beef (lower right) at Triple K. Both were excellent. Well, one down side- the shop was warm even with the air-conditioners on. The shop seemed to be renovated, but the back side of the shop looked unappealing. Recommended? Yes, but be prepared to be sweaty. Anyway, the shop is located at the opposite side of Hiap Joo Bakery at 65, Tan Hiok Nee Road. Price per person was about RM10.

The shop was old. The owner had been cooking Teow Chew noodle there since 1969. According to the newspaper cutting, the soup for the noodle was cooked with firewood. We tried the dry noodle and noodle with soup. The noodle was good, but the overall taste were not what we had expected. The soup was a bit tasteless (for us). Well, that's Teow Chew noodle. If you wish to try some, please visit Kedai Makanan Sang Heng at 7, Tan Hiok Nee Road (beside HSBC Bank). Price per person was around RM5.

IT Roo was crowdy during lunch hours. The air-conditioning room was fully occupied during our visit. No choice, we took a table outside the shop. It was warm. Dubbed itself as "the best chicken chop in town", haha, it could be more appropriate to state as "the cheapest" with the price range from RM15 - RM25 per serving.

The air conditioned room was fully occupied (upper left), with some decorations on the wall (upper right). We tried steak with black pepper gravy (lower left) and roasted chicken chop with mushroom. The taste, to be frank, second upper. However, by putting the price and the location into our consideration, we might visit it again. IT Roo is located at 17, Dhoby Road (corner lot at the junction with Pahang Road).

If you happen to make a brief stop at JB, we would recommend that you grab some banana cakes from Hiap Joo Bakery and take a cup of coffee at Old Street Corner. If you opt for a more filling meal, then Triple K is a good choice. How about IT Roo? A big yes if you are fancy about western food, particularly chicken chop with fair price. Anyway, frankly speaking, we can get nice chicken chop all over Malaysia (price is another story), so in case you have travelled a thousand miles to JB, we would suggest that you should try something more "indigenous". You can find out more about our sharing on nice food in JB here.

Not to forget one more place that we visited for nice Spanish food- Eight Lido. Our friend Chia En recommended us to visit the nice British-style bungalow at Lido Beach for its nice environment. Well, she was right, that place was excellently decorated on the inside and well landscaped on the outside. But we almost left immediately after we knew that it served Spanish food. Come on, going to JB for Spanish food just didn't make sense to us. 

However, after a short discussion, Kelly urged us to stay, as she mentioned that if we wish to just take a try on Spanish food, that will be our best chance, for the price for the same type of food minus the nice environment in Kuala Lumpur cost double the figures in the menu. Well, too bad, we stayed and took Spanish food in JB.

Alright, the price was half compared to Kuala Lumpur, how about the quality? We had never tried Spanish food before but Kelly did, for a few times. Her comment- excellent. The food tasted authentic with unbeatable freshness. 

 The smoking section of Lido Eight. The non-smoking section was fully occupied during our visit.

 The outdoor dining area facing the strait.

Food for our dinner- Costilla de res estofada en salsa de vino tinto (braised beef ribs in red wine sauce) (upper left), Paella arruz negros (Rice and seafood with squid ink) (upper right), Gambas frescas con chile ajo y aceite de oliva (fresh prawns with chilli pepper, garlic and olive oil) (lower left), and Croquettes de pollo y queso (chicken and cheese croquettes with honey mustard). Together with the drinks, we spent around RM50 per person for the first-time-in-our-life spanish dinner. If you wish to try something not local to JB, such as Spanish food, then Eight Lido is definitely the place for you! The location, 8, Skudai Road (facing the strait). Open time was 6 pm onwards. We would like to thank Allan, the owner of Eight Lido and his crew for the great services. 

More about our experience in Johor Bahru can be found in our previous posts:

[Nice food in Johor Bahru] [Legoland Johor Bahru] [Attractions in JB]

[All our Destinations]

Johor Bahru

Johor Bahru, is the southernmost city on Eurasian mainland, the second largest city in Malaysia, and the sole doorway to reach Singapore by road. The city was established by Temeggong Ibrahim in 1855, while Wong Ah Fook, a Chinese contractor had great contribution over the early development of the city.

While standing beside Tebrau Strait, overlooking Woodland on the other side of the strait, our mindset about the city changed. Most of the news about the city that reached us before our trip, were on the darker site. As we roamed around, we found that the city was clean, organized, well landscaped with shrubs and plaza on the southern part, where most of the tourists like us whirl around. The northern part with residential areas was less organized. We stayed for three days two nights.

Flanking Tebrau Strait, we took our way to Danga Bay through Sawmill Road to Skudai Road (upper left), old shoplots along Wong Ah Fook Road (upper middle), nicely tiled and palms embellished alley (upper right). Hawkers around JB city center (lower left), plenty of chairs for sour feet (lower middle), and the greenery bordering Wong Ah Fook Road.

Sawmill Road is a nice location to take a view on the other site of Tebrau Strait- Woodland. The causeway on our left connected the people from two countries. An unofficial resource estimated that the causeway serves more than one hundred thousand commuters from both sides daily. The location where this photo was taken is just around 600 meters away from City Square.

From Kajang Selangor, we took almost 4 hours to reach JB by car. As we travelled from north, Metropolis Towers is a prominent landmark for us (left). There was no sense of hustle-bustle on the streets nearby to our hotel, on the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfitri (upper right). New York Hotel, 25 floors, is another landmark in JB.

A nice view of the heart of JB from our room's window. Woodland can be seen from afar, backgrounding the sky scrapers with lower density of population and lusher environment.

We stayed in New York Hotel, around 3 km away from the heart of the city. The hotel was good overall, from amenities such as tv, hair dryer, coffee making facility, fridge, to room service, dining area, nicely decorated lobby with National Geographic on the LCD flatscreens, and polite English speaking staffs. Well, if we really want to put something on the negative side- the bathroom with rusty metal handle and the flush for the toilet was not powerful enough. The hotel is quite a distance away from city center. Anyway, the transportation might not be an issue as there is a taxi stand just beside the hotel.

The lobby and the receptionist counter (upper left), area beside the front door (upper middle), and the staircase to first and second floor (upper right) of New York Hotel. The hotel's room was clean with excellent air-condition.

Places of interest in JB in our list: Danga Bay, Abu Bakar Mosque, Johor Zoo, Sultan Abu Bakar Royal Museum, Johor Bahru Chinese Temple, Sultan Ibrahim Building and City Square (a shopping center). Well, all of them didn't score high in our rating, but still worth a "touch and go".

Danga Bay, around 8 km away from city center, might be a good place to spend a night- hawker center, restaurants, Marine Club (left and middle), circus, Danga Bay Cruise and amusement park, most of them start operation at night. Danga Bay was quiet when we visited the place, as the hawker center and food court was closed for the celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Danga Bay at night.

Built in 1927, Immaculate Conception Church is one of the oldest Catholic Church in JB (left row). The church is located at Gereja Road, by foot, 10 minutes away from City Square. The middle row shows Johor Bahru Old Chinese Temple. Built at the end of 19th century by Chinese leaders, the temple has stood as a place to pray for peace and prosperity for more than 130 years. Located beside Trus Road, the temple looks odd in the middle of the most developed area. Abu Bakar Mosque shows strong influence of English Victorian Architecture. The mosque was build around 1900 by ruling Sultan Abu Bakar. The mosque is just opposite of Johore Zoo, around 2.5 km away from city center.

Located roughly 500 meters away from City Square, Sultan Ibrahim Building, built by Sultan Ibrahim in 1939, serves as Johor State Secretariat Building now (upper left).The building opens 8 am- 4:30 pm to public on normal working days. Beautiful landscape in front of Johor Royal Museum (upper right). Johor Royal Museum houses a collection of royal work of arts, souvenirs, medals, weapons, furniture etc. (lower row). The operational hours of the museum is 9 am- 5 pm. We couldn't enter the state secretariat building and museum due to public holiday..

JB Zoo is not big at all. But it still can promise a full one hour or two of sweat and fun. Opens on 9 am- 6 pm daily, the entry was just RM 2 per adult with a suprising large number of animals. The zoo is well-maintained therefore worth a visit. As it was opened on the second day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, we guess that the zoo is operational throughout the public holidays.

An island with flamingos, swans, and other type of birds (upper left). Tapir, harimau and musang were some of the animals on display. To know their name in English, why don't you visit the zoo yourself? During the visit, a big pelican hijacked visitors attention (lower right).

A lake for water activities is available in the zoo.

Talk about shopping, JB might be a good place for Singaporean (due to the forex). But, believe us, the price is not friendly to Malaysian. We did visit Pelangi Mall and City Square. Both shopping complexes are small, compared to what we have in KL. Anyway, if you have the chance to visit JB, take a walk in City Square, as it is bigger and more attractive.

A view in City Square. The mall's management has thoughtfully prepared a phone booth for superman, in case of emergency :-p

A donut in JB? City Mall has JCo. A line of oversea franchises like McD, Stabuck, Coffee Bean, Kenny Roger, Sushi King etc. are available as well.

Food, ah! We tried mamak (Indian Muslim) food, Chinese food, seafood, and some western food. All of them tasted like ...... Malaysian food (ouch!). If you have never ever tried Malaysian food before, the hawkers on the streets and food courts will serve you well. If you know Malaysian food well, especially if you are a Malaysian, we personally do not have any name in our recommendation list for you (please share with us if you have some in your list).

Chinese food for supper.

The mamak stall beside our hotel (upper left) and a food court at Tebrau Garden, about 1 km away from our hotel with many food stalls (upper right). Both of the places mentioned here cannot be reached by foot from city center. Lower row from left to right: seafood, BBQ fish, "lok-lok", and fried "kuey-tiaw". "Lok-lok" contains the mixture of boiled dumpling, vege, meat, fishball etc. "Kuey-tiaw" is a kind of local flat noodle.

If you have the chance to visit JB, our recommendation is, take some time to walk around. You might find hidden gem around this coastal city, such as the zoo. Most of the tourist attractions are on the southern part of the city, so get a hotel nearby the city center might be a good idea. If you can rent a car, then you can aim for the hotels further away. Road system in JB is quite simple for us, and we had no problem to find our way through the city.

You can visit Danga Bay, Johor Zoo, Abu Bakar Mosque, and royal museum in a roll, as all of them are located beside a same stretch of road with different name- from Sawmill Road to Skudai Road (follow the sign of Skudai Road). Rent a car or join a local tour might be a good idea.

If you are on a tight schedule, a well-planned whole day trip may covers all the attractions in JB. Morning on working day- Sultan Ibrahim building, follow by Johor Royal Museum, Abu Bakar Mosque, and Johor Zoo with a snack in the zoo. Then, head back to city center for lunch at City Square before take a walk to visit Old Johor Bahru Chinese Temple and Immaculate Conception Church. You can roam around city center, enjoy some nice food from the hawkers and lastly, take a transport to Danga Bay in the evening for a leisuring dinner. 

For more information about JB, you can visit Official site for Johore Tourism Portal, Travellers' comments at Tripadvisor, and Johor Tourism page. You might like to follow our sharing about Johor Bahru at links below.

[Nice Food in Johor Bahru] [Legoland Johor Bahru]

[All Our Destinations]