[Non-halal] Go Balakong, eat Pan Mee! Batu 11 Pan Mee in Balakong is one of the more popular spots for Pan Mee in the area.
As we are huge fans of Pan Mee, we decided to take a 40-minute drive from our home in PJ to savour this bowl of goodness in Cheras.
Batu 11 Pan Mee in Balakong
If you’re wondering about the name, this restaurant is located at Batu 11 (colloquially named as it is located on the 11th Mile Cheras road during the British colonialisation era).
However, the restaurant is technically “nameless” as it actually operates out of a corner house lot in Taman Indah, Balakong.
The stall had simply garnered the name due to its popularity among the folks in Cheras.
Batu 11 Pan Mee offers noodles and more
We arrived here at 1 pm on a Saturday afternoon to a full house. Thankfully, the wait time was only 5 minutes as a table had just completed their meal.
While the restaurant would constantly have a stream of customers waiting for tables – the wait is generally not too long as the service is fast.
Besides the traditional soup pan mee (with options of coarse noodles and hand-torn noodles), Batu 11 Pan Mee also serves minced pork dumplings (sui kow) which can be added to the noodles or deep-fried.
Fried sui kow – plump and delicious
Our order of Fried Sui Kow arrived first.
We liked that there is no fixed amount of sui kows that we have to order, so we ordered four for both of us.
Also, the sui kows are also freshly cooked upon order – we saw the waiter fetching the dumplings from the freezer for the pan right after we placed our orders.
The dumplings were delicious! As they were freshly fried, they were crispy but not greasy at all.
But the most impressive thing about the dumplings: the meat filling was super plump and juicy with lots of radish and carrot. We really enjoyed the dumplings!
Pan Mee- super generous portion
But more importantly, is their pan mee good?
Upon serving, the bowl of noodles immediately caught our eyes with the generous serving of noodles, as well as abundant toppings of fried anchovies and fried shallots.
The restaurant also opted to use spinach as its green, instead of the traditional sayur manis (which we love!). The spinach was also generously added to the noodle bowl.
Flavourful broth, good noodles
We are happy to report that the soup is flavourful, albeit slightly colored by the generous amount of fried anchovies and fried shallots. It had good umami and the sweetness from the spinach is a nice addition.
Surprisingly, it had a good balance of savoury and sweetness despite the abundant toppings.
As for the noodles, we definitely enjoyed the coarse noodles as they had a nice smooth texture with a good bite.
The hand-torn noodles were exceptionally thin as well, but they were clumpy in parts. Most importantly, the noodles were not undercooked.
We added a sui kow into our noodles soup. It was nice – but we definitely recommend the deep-fried version for the extra crispy texture and juicy filling.
Summary
Overall, we enjoyed both the noodles and dumplings here.
We concur that this is one of the better pan mee we’ve eaten in the Klang Valley – but it is not outstanding enough to warrant another 40-minute drive from PJ.
If we live around the area, we will be happy to make this a regular haunt for a good pan mee.
For the price – the noodles were cooked well, the portion was generous, the soup was tasty, and the abundant amount of veggies, fried anchovies, and shallots was a standout!
However, we still do prefer our regular spot at Restoran Hock Thai SS2 for a more clear-tasting broth and consistently smooth hand-torn noodles.
RECOMMENDED!
Batu 11 Pan Mee
Address: 43200, Pan Mee, Balakong, 25 36, Jalan Indah 3/6, Taman Indah, 43200 Cheras, Selangor
Hours: 8am-2.30pm Daily (Closed on Tuesdays)
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