Santapan Borneo in PJ
[Pork-free] Santapan Borneo is a new spot for seafood noodles tucked away in a nursery in PJ.
Opened for a few months, Santapan Borneo specialises in wild-caught seafood flown from the deep waters of Sabah.
Santapan Borneo in Tropicana
Santapan Borneo is located in a nursery located close to the exit point from Tropicana to the busy Ming Tien-NKVE junction.
Just like its wild-caught seafood, one must venture from the main road to find this spot. However, the drive in is rewarding as the place is nicely spruced up with lots of trees and flowers.
It can get particularly hot in the afternoon, but they do have a room with air-conditioning. The night-time here can be quite pleasant with all the fairy lights turned on.
Fresh seafood from Sabah
Santapan Borneo specialises in fresh seafood caught in the coastal waters of Sabah.
These seafood arrive a few times a week – with the Seven-Star Grouper (aka Leopard Coral Grouper) as the highlight.
As these fishes are wild-caught and arrive in batches, we recommend contacting them ahead (via Facebook or Instagram) to see if the fishes are available. During our first visit, the fish fillet for the Seven-Star Grouper fillets were already sold out for Sunday brunch.
During our second visit – we managed to catch the owners Dato’ Vincent Choo and Datin Cynthia Cheong, who explained how these fishes are not flash-frozen but arrive in the freshest way possible.
Do also enquire about the special catch of the day, which happened to be Dragon Tiger Grouper on that day.
7 Star Grouper belly and fish head
We tried both the Seven Star Grouper Fish Head (RM27.90) and Seven Star Grouper Belly (RM27.90).
Note that the grouper is only served with clear soup with your choice of noodles (meehoon, wantan mee, mixian, yellow mee).
As the restaurant caters to the Muslim crowd, the soup does not use any shaoxing wine for the broth. Nevertheless, we could taste the fish stock with enough zing from tomatoes and sliced ginger. This is to say – the soup is quite clean-tasting.
Where Santapan Borneo shines are the fishes. The belly is cooked to perfection with the right texture, and we could taste the natural sweetness of the grouper. Unfortunately, the meat was a bit scant for the fish head noodles – so don’t expect a substantial meal if you order this.
Fish Noodles with Milk
If you like a more substantial meal, the Fish Noodles with Milk (RM17.90) should be a better bet.
We had about seven substantial fried fish chunks in our bowl. They were seasoned well and tasted fresh too.
Again, the soup is more clean-tasting as we do prefer a bit more sourness/savouriness from our milk-based soup noodles.
Despite the light colour, the Fried Fish Cake (RM7) was quite tasty and juicy.
Summary
While it will not dethrone our top spot for fish head noodles, the quality of the wild-caught fishes is what gives Santapan Borneo an edge against competitors. The broth is not the most flavourful but they know how to cook the seafood. It’s also a good spot to bring our Muslim friends.
Santapan Borneo
Address: off Jalan Tanjung Bandar Utama, Tropicana, 47410 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Hours: 11am-9pm Daily (Closed on Mondays)
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