Kafe Sek Tong / SYST (深夜食糖.港式甜品) is a wildly popular Hong Kong-style dessert cafe in Malaysia known for its vibrant 80s Hong Kong retro decor and neon signs. It provides a nostalgic atmosphere to enjoy traditional comfort food. The cafe started its first outlet in Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur, and expanded to Johor Bahru with two more outlets, one in Mid Valley Southkey Mall and the other in Holiday Villa (JBCC) next to KSL City Mall.
Aside from a series of traditional Hong Kong desserts and new-launched contemporary desserts, the cafe offers a list of popular Hong Kong dishes, including char siew rice, curry chicken noodle, wanton noodle, steamed rice dishes, toasts, sandwiches, egg tarts, etc. A particular dish that stands out among the list of Hong Kong-style dishes is the Johor Bahru specialty dish san lou mee hoon (三楼米粉), a “kung fu” dish that demands great wok skills — I rarely see this dish outside Johor Bahru’s zi-char (cooked-to-order) restaurants, must try.
The recommended Home Ground Black Sesame Soup (生磨芝麻糊) — added with two glutinous rice balls — is very finely ground and smooth with a viscosity that is neither too starchy nor too fluid. The black sesame paste carries a mild characteristic bitterness of black sesame with very low sweetness level. The glutinous rice balls have black sesame fillings which blend well with the dessert. This is great for afternoon tea in place of coffee / tea.
The Salted Egg Toasts (咸湿咸蛋西多士) is served with a layer of molten salted yolk paste sandwiched between two thick French toasts. The golden toasts carries a mild sweet-savoury flavour of both butter and egg and non-oily. And the filling is slightly sweetened to reduce the saltiness of the salted yolk and smoothen it. This is a nice light bite with well-balanced sweetness and savouriness.
I have visited Sek Tong Cafe during an afternoon tea session, thinking that it offers only traditional desserts. I will be back again to try its san lou mee hoon (三楼米粉), its soulful char siew rice (黯然销魂叉烧饭), its emerald pistachio paste, its… and more.
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Address:
Mid Valley Southkey Mall, Level 3, T-043
1, Persiaran Southkey 1, Southkey, 80150 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
10am to 10pm | Daily
How to Get There:
From JB Sentral, take BAS.MY J15 directly to Mid Valley Southkey Mall. Read JB Bus: To Mid Valley Southkey Mall in Kota Southkey.
Nearby:
More @ Mid Valley Southkey Mall:
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