Tea Garden (古文茶), a kopitiam-chain established since 2005, has many outlets throughout Johor Bahru and neighbouring districts in Johor. Its relatively-new outlet in KOMTAR JBCC is right next to JB City Square. As a Nanyang kopitiam, Tea Garden has a wide range of traditional beverages and Nanyang cuisines to offer.
Tea Garden has a number of signature items to go for, including Hainanese milk tea, baked herbal chicken, nasi lemak with fried chicken, curry laksa mee, rojak, and a wide range of Malaysian delights. The kopitiam has two Malaysia Book of Records for most baked herbal chicken and Hainanese milk tea sold in a year.
Aside from signature items, their menu also highlights a list of must-try items from different categories, including traditional toasts, dim sums, Hainanese chicken rice, different types of rice and noodle dishes, desserts, etc.
Top-right: Since the Hainanese Milk Tea (海南奶茶) is a record in the Malaysia Book of Records, it is definitely a must-try. Using Ceylon black tea, a premium tea leaves from Sri Lanka, the milk tea is aromatic with a well-balanced flavour and not too sweet — I requested for “less sweet”, of course.
Left: The Hor Kar Sai (虎咬狮), with Milo powder added to traditional kopi, is a bitter-sweet coffee and the mild-sweetness is from the chocolate-malt powder.
Bottom-right: Coffee ‘O’ / Kopi-O (without sugar) is my de facto beverage unless otherwise recommended to try others. The White Coffee ‘O’ (纯白咖啡乌), without sugar, is also aromatic and not bitter — “white coffee” in the context of traditional coffee means the coffee ground was pre-mixed without sugar. Try both their Coffee ‘O’ and White Coffee ‘O’ together, and without sugar, to experience the delicate difference in flavours.
Traditional coffee and toasts are the mainstays of any Nanyang kopitiams, and Tea Garden offers quite some special toasts.
Top: The Wheat Bun with Peanut Butter (烤麦片圆面包配花生酱) is unexpectedly crispier than other toasts and still retain some fluffiness inside. With distinct wheat flavour in the bun, It is added with sweet-savoury flavours from sweet, nutty peanut paste and savoury butter.
Bottom-right: Their Homemade Cocoa Toast with Peanut Butter (自制可可吐司配花生酱) is pretty unique where cocoa is infused in the bread, lightly-toasted and soft with a subtle chocolaty aroma. It is similarly sweet-savoury with peanut butter and slices of butter.
Bottom-left: The Half-Boiled Kampung Eggs (甘榜生熟蛋) is served ready to eat with big, orangish egg yolks. Add few drops of soy sauce and pinch of white pepper powder and gobble them down in two seconds — that is how I eat without fumbling with a teaspoon.
The Paper Baked Herbal Chicken with Rice (纸包药材鸡饭), another record in the Malaysia Book of Records, is a dish where a whole chicken thigh is wrapped in paper and baked with herbs. The tender chicken meat in soup, with red dates, has a nice herbal aroma and strong taste but not bitter. Dribble the savoury soup on the rice and it becomes rather tasty on its own. This is indeed a nice dish to go for.
The Char Kway Teow (炒粿条) uses mainly broad white noodle to stir-fried with big prawns, fishcake slices, egg, beansprouts, spring onion and topped with fresh cabbage strips. The dish is typically Penang-style, nicely-fried with nice wok aroma and a light, savoury flavour.
The Tea Garden Special Fried Rice with Spices (古文茶甘香炒饭) uses short rice grains to stir-fry with prawns, chicken meat, egg and a list of spices — curry leaves, chilli, pepper, garlic, shallot, scallion, etc. Several pieces of crispy crackers accompanied the dish. The rice dish is well-fried with soft rice grains and a nice, mellow aroma of the spices used. It has nice flavours and not overly strong in tastes. A great dish to go for too.
Tea Garden’s other Malaysian local delights are nice too. We tried BBQ Chicken & Shrimp Fried Rice (香葱蜜汁鸡虾仁炒饭) with a different mix of spices and flavours, Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken (椰浆饭+炸鸡), Dry Mee Siam with Chicken Rendang (米暹干+仁当鸡) and Mee Rebus (爪哇面). They are full of local flavours and nothing to pick about.
The Fried Radish Cake with Spicy Seafood Paste (瑶柱海鲜酱炒萝卜糕) is a savoury-spicy dish where cuts of radish cake are fried with egg, beansprouts and seafood paste. The dish tasted pretty similar to char kway teow but tastier.
The Steamed Cassava with Coconut Milk & Gula Melaka (椰汁蒸木薯) is a popular traditional dessert to go for. The steamed cassava has a nice texture with its own natural mild-sweetness. The coconut milk and gula Melaka add sweet flavours to the cassava as desired.
Tea Garden also make mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festivals. Other than traditional mooncakes, they have some special flavours too.
Top: The unique Onde-Onde Mooncake (翡翠双椰月饼) resembles an ondeh-ondeh kuih when cut opened. It has dark lotus paste, infused with coconut palm sugar and added with melon seeds, embedded within a greenish pandan-infused lotus paste with shredded coconuts. The mooncake has low sweetness with both pandan and coconut flavours.
Bottom: The Sea Salt Chocolate Mooncake (海盐巧克力月饼) has chocolate paste embedded in sea salt-infused lotus paste. A minute amount of sea salt is added to balance the bitterness of chocolate rather than using sugar to sweeten the mooncake. Overall, the mooncake has a subtle savoury-sweet chocolaty flavour, which is rather interesting to munch on.
Tea Garden has a long list of delicacies to offer and at reasonable prices. Being near to Johor Bahru CIQ, it is a convenient spot to go for Nanyang food fares without having to travel far.
Social Media:
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Address:
KOMTAR JBCC, Level 2, Lot No. 233
Jalan Tun Abdul Razak, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
9am to 10pm | Daily
Nearby:
More @ JB City Square / KOMTAR JBCC:
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