Restoran Hua Mui (华美茶餐室) is a legendary, Halal-certified Hainanese coffee shop / kopitiam in Johor Bahru, established in 1946. Known for its old-school charm, Hua Mui is famous for its original Hainanese chicken chop, butter-kaya toasts and traditional Nanyang coffee.
The first, historic outlet of Hua Mui is in Bandar Johor Bahru, located at one corner of a row of pre-war houses along Jalan Trus — near to Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk and a stone’s throw from JB City Square. The restaurant has other outlets in Taman Sutera Utama, Eco Botanic, AEON Mall Tebrau City, Mount Austin, Kulai, etc.
As mentioned, Hua Mui is popular for its traditional toasts and sandwiches, especially its charcoal-grilled butter-kaya toasts with soft-boiled eggs and a series of traditional kopi and 3-layered tea, and also its “original” Hainanese fried chicken chop. The restaurant highlighted 10 signature dishes on its menu above a wide range of rice and noodle dishes, toasts, buns and Western dishes too.
Hua Mui is one of those restaurants in Johor Bahru to go for special traditional coffee, such as Hainanese Kopi-O, Kopi / Kopi-O Gu You (咖啡牛油) and Hor Ga Sai (虎咬狮 or “tiger bites lion”). For special traditional tea, they have Sarawak-style 3-Layered Tea (三色奶茶) and Sai Ga Hor (狮咬虎 or “lion bites tiger”).
Kopi / Kopi-O Gu You (咖啡牛油 / 咖啡乌牛油) is traditional kopi added with butter, which was one way to have coffee in the olden days. The buttered kopi-O will have an additional mild buttery flavour and buttered kopi will have extra sweetness of condensed milk. The Taiping-specialty Hor Ga Sai (虎咬狮) is kopi added with cocoa powder — Sai Ga Hor (狮咬虎) is tea added with milk and cocoa powder — and is nice with ice too.
The Hainanese traditional butter-kaya toasts are crispy on the outside and soft inside with thick slabs of butter and kaya. Yellow corn bun with butter and kaya offers a difference taste experience with nice corn flavour. Their semi-boiled kampung eggs are perfectly-done with firm egg yolks and no still-raw egg white (albumen).
Hua Mui’s signature Hainanese Fried Chicken Chop (海南炸鸡扒) is served with a buttery mushroom sauce containing green peas and fried potato wedges. The nicely-fried chicken thigh was tender, juicy and not oily. It is not salty and paired well with the savoury sauce. This is really a must-try.
Hua Mui Mee Hainan (华美海南面), another signature dish, is stir-fried with chicken meat, slices of fishcake and vegetable. The noodle dish tastes like home-cook Hokkien noodle in mild-sweet gravy. It’s a nice dish to try too.
Mee Mamak (嘛嘛炒面), an Indian noodle dish, is stir-fried with two big fresh prawns, fish meat, egg and spicy chilli paste. It tastes great with wok-hey flavour but a little on the spicier side — do stand by a drink.
The Signature Wat Dan Hor with Beef (招牌滑蛋河) is stir-fried broad kway teow (or hor fun) drenched in light savoury gravy and added with prawns, fishcakes, slices of beef, greens and topped with scrambled egg gravy in a unique way. The noodle dish has well-balanced flavours and not too salty — note that Hua Mui’s online ordering system allows “less salt” as an option for most dishes. The beef slices are smooth and tender and the kway teow carries a mellow dark soy flavour and smoothened by the egg gravy that clings to it.
In addition to the main branch in downtown Johor Bahru, Hua Mui has another 6 branches in Mount Austin, Sutera Utama, Eko Botanic, Seri Alam, Anggerik Emas and Kulai Vervo City.
Social Media:
Facebook | Website
Main Outlet:
131, Jalan Trus, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
8am to 5pm | Daily
How to Get There:
Take a walk or “Plan B”. Read JB Bus: To Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk.
Nearby:
More @ Tan Hiok Nee Walk:
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