[Non-halal] Fish head noodle lovers, heads up! Soon Soon Pan Mee & Fish Head Noodles serves one of the best fish head noodles on the side of PJ!
This place is pretty popular as it is always crowded whenever we are in the area.
In fact, we attempted to eat here once before the pandemic – but the place was too crowded with a long queue waiting to get a table.
At last long, we managed to dine in last week.
Soon Soon Pan Mee & Fish Head Noodles
As the shop name implies, this restaurant specialises in Pan Mee and Fish Head Noodles.
However, the former was not served when we were there. No matter, as the fish head noodles seem to be the popular dish here with every table (nay, patron) enjoying a personal bowl of piping-hot soup noodles.
Besides the two noodles dishes, Soon Soon also serves Curry Fish Head Noodles, Mee Sua, and Pork Belly Bittergourd Noodles.
Decent waiting time
We arrived at 12.15 pm on a Saturday afternoon and managed to get a table on the five-foot walkway.
Despite the full house, our orders took about 30 minutes to arrive – which was a decent wait time for the crowd.
Beautiful carrot-ish orange hues
If you follow us close enough, you’ll know that Fish Head Noodles is one of our favourite noodles dishes.
And we are happy to report that these were delicious!
First, let’s address the obvious: While most fish head noodle dishes tend to have a milky, creamy colour (when milk is added), the ones here have a more carrot-ish orange hue thanks to the generous use of tomatoes.
Naturally, we had expected a very sour broth, but it was surprisingly balanced with a good amount of tang from the tomatoes, and umami from the salted vegetables, coriander leaves, and fish stock.
Very good bowls of fish head noodles
Soon Soon offers a variety of fillings for its fish noodles – fried Ma Yau fish head, fried Ling fish head, fish paste, fried fish fillet, grouper fish head, and even freshwater prawn!
We decided to get two bowls of Fried Fish Fillet Noodles (RM14.50) – one with evaporated, and one without evaporated milk.
Surprisingly, we actually preferred the broth without the evaporated milk here. As noted above, the soup was actually well-balanced with just enough tangy kick from the tomatoes.
We found that the evaporated milk actually mellows the flavours a bit – but this choice is good for those who like a bit more creaminess in their soup.
While we tend to prefer the “milk version” of most fish head noodles elsewhere, we found the one without milk here to be tastier.
Chunky fish fillets
Each bowl comes with four chunky pieces of fried fillet. They were very fresh-tasting, with nice crispy edges and tender meat. They were also deboned!
The bowls also comes with chunks of yam, which is a nice addition to lend some starchiness to the soup.
However, we do find the noodles here to be on the softer side (we like it al-dente) – but not enough to put a dent to our enjoyment.
Delicious fried fish cakes
We also ordered a side of Fried Fish Cakes (RM8) – which exceeded our expectations.
The fish cakes were flavourful, with a nice bouncy “QQ” texture and crispy skin. In fact, we think the fish cakes here are as good as the ones at B & Best (our vote for the best fish cakes in PJ).
Water Prawn Fish Head Noodles
Two weeks later, we returned to try their Water Prawn Fish Head Noodles (RM26).
This was a very satisfactory bowl of noodles. For the price, we received a sizeable fresh-water prawn.
The prawn was fresh as we could taste the natural sweetness, and it was cooked just nicely for a good bouncy texture. The prawn adds a bit of prawn-y essence into the broth but it was not overwhelming enough to distract us from the main flavour profile of the fish broth.
The bowl also comes with 2-3 pieces of fish head, which contains a good portion of meat.
We thought the meat was more tender (vs. the fish fillet we had during our first visit) with some nice gelatinous, fatty texture.
We are also happy to report that the Fried Fish Cake and Fish Fillet Noodles tasted as good as our first visit.
Summary
We’ve tried a lot of fish head noodles in the Klang Valley – and we can say that Soon Soon serves one of the better ones, with a very distinctive orange-hue to make it memorable. The fish cakes here are excellent too!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
We’ll return to try their pan mee and fish head noodles with freshwater prawn!
Soon Soon Pan Mee & Fish Head
Address: 18-1, Jalan PJU 8/5c, Damansara Perdana, 47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Hours: 7.30am-5pm Daily
Phone: 012-634 6662
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