B & Best Restaurant, PJ

[Non-halal] Our hunt for the best fish noodles continues as we re-visited the popular B & Best Restaurant.

Located in Taman Rasa Sayang, B & Best is one of the most popular spots to enjoy Teochew-style seafood noodles in PJ.

This place is packed most weekends as patrons vie for the freshest seafood cooked in clear broth.

B & Best Restaurant

If you are a fan of fish noodles in this part of town, you’ve probably eaten here at least once.

We patronised this establishment a few times many years ago – until an unpleasant experience left a sour taste in our mouths.

The last time we were here – we sat at the table closest to the commercial fridge at the rear of the restaurant. The mix of odour from the seafood and “fishy” smell just made for an unpleasant experience, regardless of how tasty the food was.

Nevertheless, we decided to revisit this restaurant last weekend, as B & Best is usually on the top of most lists when it comes to the best fish and seafood noodles in town.

And for this round, we sat right next to the entrance far away from the fridge (haha!).

B & Best Restaurant offers a fresh variety

One aspect which B & Best excels (vs. its counterparts) is its breadth of fresh seafood offerings.

While most seafood noodle joints tend to offer only 1-2 types of fish (and select prawns and shellfish), we found at least 4-5 fish types offered by B & Best that weekend.

When we were here, B & Best was serving Queensland Grouper, Pearl Grouper, Black Grouper, Seabass, and Red Grouper.

Shellfish options were also abundant with huge tiger prawns, clams, sliced abalone, and even escargots offered.

However, do enquire about the price (or check out the menu board) before ordering – as they are seasonally priced.

If you’re on a tight budget, you could also opt for the basic Fish Ball Noodles – which costs RM9.

Fried Fish Cakes – still the (B &) Best!

We’ve always remembered B & Best’s homemade Fried Fish Cakes (RM6) to be the best in town.

After so many years – it has remained so. We really enjoyed the fish cakes here as they have a very nice bouncy and “QQ” texture with plenty of natural fish flavours. While the skin is not crispy, we really enjoy the juiciness of these fish cakes.

They are a “must order” when visiting B & Best.

Smooth noodles, pristine broth

On to the main dishes. We ordered Fish Noodles Soup with Red Grouper (RM23) and Pearl Grouper (RM20) fillets for Max and Ming, respectively.

Let’s start with the noodles and soup.

Ming found the rice vermicelli here to be super soft and silky smooth. B & Best was also really generous with the portion of noodles in the bowl. However, Max thought that the noodles were ordinary.

As for the soup, we actually found it to be more pristine and “clear-tasting”, with flavours mainly coming from the seaweed.

In fact, we did find it slightly bland when compared to our other favourite seafood noodle places in KL.

Red and Pearl Groupers – fresh!

While we found the soup to be lacking, we were really pleased with the fish fillet.

The Red Grouper was freshly cooked to yield a nice bouncy texture, while the Pearl Grouper had a “fresh-water” taste and a silkier texture. We counted about nine pieces of medium-sized fillets for each fish in our bowls.

No complaints about the fish fillets as they were fresh and not over-cooked.

Summary

Overall, we would rate B & Best as “above average” in our books when it comes to fish noodles. However, the fried fish cake here is still exceptionally good – and warrants an order if you’re visiting!

While we enjoyed B & Best’s breadth of fresh seafood and skills in cooking the fish fillets, we did find the soup taste to be lacking in natural sweetness and deep flavours which we have found in other spots.

Max still prefers the seafood noodles at Yeng Kee Noodle House in Taman Yulek (more flavourful broth with a touch of wine, and equally fresh fish), and Ming enjoys the bowl at Little Eat Stall in Pudu (robust broth, with thick and tender fish slices).

Closer to home, we enjoy the fish noodles from Teochew Seafood Noodle House in Damansara Jaya, PJ. Although their fish noodles are pricier at RM24 per bowl, the slices given are chunky and worth the price in our opinion.

B & Best Restaurant
Address: 12, Jalan SS 4c/5, Taman Rasa Sayang, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Hours: 7am-3.30pm Daily (Closed on alternate Thursdays)
Phone: 012-206 0778