Mersing Restaurants

wonderful home cooked, western food available for breakfast, lucnh and dinner regardless of weather or not you are a guest here. All dishes are home made :D

Favorite Dish: Sasuages, Eggs and Chips for breakfast, salad sandwhiches for lunch and Pizza and the steak for tea :D

Malay Foods near Bus Station at night is my top choice, I ate a plate of Nasi Goreng Kampung, Tom Yam soup and Mixed Vegetables, delicious, so far the best in Mersing, furthermore enjoying the live football on Astro.

Well, this was the next best option for us on the way back from our weekend break... unfortunately the Mersing Seafood Restaurant was closed for a private function, so our local guide friend took us to the next best option, the Yong Chuan Seafood Restaurant...

Similar style as the Mersing Seafood Restaurant, same string of lights across the roof of the exterior, same stickers and letterings on the doors, same black tinted glass doors, same round tables with REALLY HOT PINK tablecloths...

But here, the hostesses (nice elder Chinese aunties) were decked out in flared skirts and black floral shirts with bright red roses... swish!

Favorite Dish: My favourite dish, as you can see from the intro page photo, was the chilli crabs cooked with curry leaves... absolutely splendid!! I didn't fare so well on the steamed fish this time round (fish wasn't as tasty as the garoupa at the other restaurant), the kailan stirfried was acceptable, the prawns were nyummy, the cuttlefish rings a la calamari were very good. The chinese tea here was very nice also.

Wasn't as cheap as the other place. The price here came up to RM34 per person.. but then some ordered extra beer and drinks so that would explain it.

The crabs were the most expensive though, RM54 for the dish... thank goodness I made sure to finish every last bit!!

Ok.. I just reread that last bit... it's actually pretty reasonable, cheap even if u compare it to city prices... to be fair. And we actually didn't have crabs in the other restaurant to be comparing prices.

It was wonderful to go with my newfound diver friends who were local Chinese... u just sit down and let them take over the ordering... everything was simply finger-lickin' superb!!!

A typical Chinese restaurant ambience from the exterior, with tinted glass doors plastered all over with stickers and letterings proudly proclaiming "AIR COND" to the interior, with big round tables and red table cloths, loud exuberant hostesses, and lots of clattering of cutlery and plates throughout dinner signifying sure signs of food appreciation by locals :)

Favorite Dish: Oohhh... tough to pick one favourite dish. We had drunken prawns in rice wine (superbbbb)... some local specialty of cuttlefish rings stuffed with egg yolk (they loved it but i'm not too keen on egg yolk, so... whatever rocks yr boat hey), steamed garoupa in a soy based sauce(lovely!), kailan with shrimps (great!) and stirfried 'tauge' bean sprouts... DEEELICIOUS!!! Washed down with a lovely pot of chinese tea (think it was oolong).

All in all, for 5 of us, the bill came up to RM16 each for this veritable feast!!!

One good tip about finding a good eatery to to observe its patronage. Speed away like Gonzales if you see the place crammed with tourists like yourself and dive in if you see lots of happy, feasting locals.
This is what I kept in mind when I walked down the central area of Mersing. At first sight, I wanted to keep away from the eatery as it was fronted with the cheesy words " Air Con" on its black glass panels. But I went in anyway and was pleasantly surprised by the spread...

P/S .Do take note that this is a typical Chinese restaurant so do expect a rowdy dinner crowd. It's not strange for the diners to talk at the top of their voices and eat at the same time. I suppose indigestion is not on their agenda.
Also, order the fragrant Jasmine tea to go with your meal. It's the lightest and the easiest to drink. The teapot will arrive with a tuperware of soaked teacups and but don't drink the water in the tuperware for goodness sake! The owners have merely sterilised your cups with hot water. Give it a good rinse first and pour the tea from the pot yourself.

Favorite Dish: Order the speciality of Mersing. It's the crispy, fried squid stuffed with creamy, golden salted egg. One bite of this will send you to heaven. The rich taste of the egg complements the chewy texture of the squid. Absolutely heaven.

Another must-try is the drunken prawns or prawns cooked with coconut.They're fresh, succulent and juicy...

There are many stalls and a food court near and around the Jetty. But these stall mostly sells malay food of rice and condiments. SO, unless you are into having rice and curry for breakfast, the only other sustance you could ask for is toast and some malay kuih. If you are not into these either, I suggest you pick up somethinng from your last port prior to Mersing.

Favorite Dish: Rice and malay dishes like masak lemak, gulai asam pedas, sayur goreng taugeh, ulam raja and sambal belacan - sounds greeK? its malays.