Magnificent KK Day Two: New Luyang Restaurant & Kampung Air Food Court

After our one day tour around Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Spring, we waited for Vkeong and SL who were on the way back from their white water rafting session at Lavender Lodge. Well, we have learnt our lesson the expensive way from a cut throat dinner at Ocean Seafood the night before. Thou shall always ask the locals for their recommendations when it comes to food. Thus, Lavender Lodge’s owner recommended us to this seafood restaurant at Luyang town which is about 20 minutes away from KK city.

And so we hopped onto a cab (RM 12) and pleaded our heart out that the taxi driver could get us there as soon as possible because we were zapped of all energy and famished from all that hiking and rafting.

We were amazed at how crowded the restaurants were, thinking that it must be a good sign only to find out that most clams and prawns were sold out. Crowd is not always good I guess?

The first of our dishes to arrive was the spicy and sour crabs (RM 28 per kg) which we spotted in almost every other table. This is supposed to be one of their signature dishes but it wasn’t outstanding. The gravy was too starchy and acidic and it was such a chore to devour those crabs. The flesh was so tough and stuck to the shell leaving only a plausible thought in our minds – leftover crabs.

The braised garoupa fish head fares better – chunky meat with flavorful gravy. Not wanting to have rice that will take up much stomach space, spicy sour noodles and hokkien mee were ordered. The spicy sour noodles were a big hit among us! Slightly spicy with a twist of sublime sour taste makes this dish truly appetizing and refreshing.

We were glad that the dinner was reasonably priced at RM 77. Left feeling not satisfied, we headed to another round of seafood dinner at Kampung Air Sri Selera, formerly known as Sedco Square open air food court which houses about 5 seafood restaurants under one roof.

Rows of aquarium line the restaurant, where we took a glimpse of our favourite seafood. Old Village Restaurant was chosen because there was a lobster promotion going on at RM 10 per 100g.

tung fong lo

our victim in it’s full glory – weighed at 600 g and costs us RM 60 only!

Please pardon our jakun-ness. How often do we get to order lobster actually?

The tung fung lo (RM 15) was bring to a rolling boil to enjoy the maximum taste and freshness of it. At the same time, the dressing of soy sauce with dashes of pepper never overpowers the fresh taste of the seafood, but rather brings out all of its natural flavour. However, vkeong was turned off by its fishy smell and to make thing worst, he got an uncooked one! The elephant trunk clam (RM 20)  steamed with garlic and Chinese rice wine, though does not resemble geoduck closely in terms of taste and texture, was sweet and chewy.

Our cheese baked lobster was utterly rich and delicious! Caught fresh from the tank, the lobster was exquisitely succulent and delectable.

It’s such a fun indulgence, with our travel companions who loves food as much as we do.