Sek Yuen is KL’s oldest surviving traditional Cantonese family restaurant. Famous for its roast duck, served with a thick, sweetish bean-sauce dip, the venerable old eatery also offers a plethora of hard-to-find retro dishes like braised duck stuffed with lotus seeds and vegetables, and whole roasted pork-leg with glutinous rice stuffing.
It was founded by three cousins of the Phang family: Chew Kan, Meng Yun and Shue Tang.
The cavernous kitchen, unchanged since it was founded in 1948, has several wood-fired braziers upon which giant woks heat and sizzle.
Sek Yuen’s famous Cantonese-style roast duck. The ducks were sun/air-dried before being roasted in giant charcoal-fried ovens, yielding crisp-skinned and moist duck-meat. The flavours were smoky and flavoursome.
“Yau mak” (Romaine lettuce) lightly stir-fried and flavoured with “nam yue” (Chinese fermented beancurd) - my personal fave Chinese vegetable dish in KL.
The rice served here are steamed in metal bowl, the old-fashioned way, which yielded loose cooked rice grains instead of boiled rice which are usually more lumpy.
The real attraction of Sek Yuen is actually its old-world atmosphere - something hard to come by in fast-developing KL. Old wooden chairs and decades-old tables, in a building virtually unchanged for close to 7 decades exuded an ambience impossible to replicate elsewhere in KL.
Sometimes, you never know how your pictures will turn out - I was on my way to the men’s room at the back of the building when I saw the kitchen, so I just took a quick snap with my phone-camera, all the while hoping the cook wouldn’t see me peeping!
An opportune moment. I was on my way to the washrooms at the back of the restaurant and the narrow corridor took me past the open door of their antiquated kitchen - the stoves were still fired by burning wood.
The chef seemed to be taking a moment’s breather after the busy lunch-hour service whilst the rest of his kitchen crew were outside. I just did a quick snap of the scene.
The old chef in that “In the Mood for Love” clip wouldn’t look out of place in Sek Yuen, where the chefs’ ages averaged in the 60s. The current head chef, Pang Yong Seng, is 72.
The restaurant was founded in 1948 by 3 cousins, Phang Chew Kan, Phang Meng Yun and Phang Shue Tang. Today, they’ve all passed on and the younger set of cousins in-charge (their descendants) are Pang Yong Seng (72), Phang Yew Kee (61), Phang Kwai Choong (57), and Phang Ee Chin.
The oldest family member still around is Phang Keng Foo, now in his mid-70s and still taking food orders as the head waiter. I remembered one funny incident involving him that happened more than a decade back, when I was dining with a KL-based uncle who’s a regular there. My uncle asked Phang Keng Foo about his older brother, who was the head chef at the time, as he didn’t seem to be around. With his trademark inscrutable & emotionless look, Phang Keng Foo just pointed a finger upwards and said, “He’s now cooking at the great kitchen up in heaven”.
If there are at least 4 or more in your dinner party, place an advance order for their Pat Poh Ngap (8-Treasure Braised Duck) - it’s delicious. The de-boned and stuffed whole duck is chockful of ingredients, and the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender.
We also tend to ask for their “Soup of the Day”, as the Cantonese are renowned for their soups. My favourite, if we are lucky to land it, is the Pork-rib soup with dried figs, longans and “wai san” root vegetable - “wai san” is Chinese yam, it’s crunchy when just boiled and very nice.
Thanks Peter for the recommendations. We ordered everything you mentioned: the sour fig soup, the Pei Pa Ngap, the "Yau mak”.
Everything was phenomenal. Duck was perfect–still a bit of chew, the skin was ridiculously crisp with a light coating of salt and a bit of smoky char. The dipping sauce was tangy and delish.
Yau Mak was the best version of the dish that I’ve had here.
I’m still thinking about the soup.
Total cost was ~70RM, which is absolutely criminal. Will start working this into our regular rotation!
Good to hear. I’m green with envy.
Am currently still up in Penang, and folks here are still quite reluctant to journey forth to KL (which they still view as a COVID “hotspot”). If I do, I might be ostracized when I return to Penang.
It’s crazy. I’ve travelled and eaten everywhere in the world, high-end and low, and I think Malaysia is one of the best values for excellent food at ridiculous prices. I have no idea how the majority of these places stay in business…trying to do what I can!!!
Back to Sek Yuen after a three-year hiatus. So glad to see that the old girl had actually become more popular, with new customers streaming into the place (on a Tuesday evening, no less), just as we were leaving.
One of the present owners, invariably of the Phang clan (it was said that no less than 80 members of the extended family had served, or were still working at the restaurant over the course of the past 8 decades), actually registered a slight flicker of recognition as he looked at our dining party: after all, my KL Cantonese uncle has been their regular customer for the past 50 years. My uncle hollered out a greeting, the owner looked back, po-faced as always, and gave a perfunctory nod. That, is the friendliest gesture you’re ever likely to get from him.
We were served by a gruff middle-aged waitress who treated us as if we’d just murdered her pet dog. She grunted icily as my uncle placed the order for each dish. Ah, it’s good to be back.
We ordered all our old favourites:
Pork-and-crabmeat balls - deep-fried orbs of juicy minced meat: pork and crabmeat is a match made in food heaven. But somehow, after encountering the same dish in Penang’s Goh Swee Kee, I have to say that Sek Yuen has finally met its match. Actually no, it’s roundly beaten by Goh Swee Kee in the execution of this dish.
Mock sharksfin-and-crabmeat omelette - this is the one dish where no one, either in Malaysia or Singapore, can come close to Sek Yuen. Sheer deliciousness.
Braised eight-treasure duck - this precious stuffed beast required two days’ advance order, but we were in luck: one of the customers who’d pre-ordered it was a last minute no-show, so we were offered the dish. It was eagerly accepted: a slow-braised, deboned fowl stuffed with lotus seeds, gingko nuts, mushrooms and a plethora of rare Chinese herbs and spices.
The gravy was so tasty, one could slather it over anything and that will taste good.
Pork-rib herbal soup - this was a favourite of my uncle, and a must-order. There were 4 of us at the dinner table. The soup was enough to serve 10 - my two aunts and I had our portions. My uncle had the other 7 portions - he’s Cantonese after all, and all Cantonese have an uncommon predilection for soups.
Fish head in black bean sauce - this was the one dish which I remembered tasted better before. Not sure if my memory served me right, or I’d inadvertently elevated the taste of the dish beyond what it really was.
It could’ve done with a touch more saltiness, and the fish-head could’ve been fleshier, and the wok in which the dish was fried could’ve have been hotter. No “wok hei” here.
Overall, I have to say that no meal at Sek Yuen ever disappoints. I liked the fact that i can come back here after three years and almost virtually nothing has changed: the cranky, sullen-faced service, the stupendous cooking, and an absolutely memorable meal … until the next time.
