Lao Gang Restaurant Strike Out

Venue: Lao Gang Restaurant, Puchong
Occasion: Coupon redemption & gathering of friends
Overall comment: One word - disappointing. I've read quite a number of positive reviews of this place & would want to give it another chance, but this 1st impression just left a scar that puts me off from making another visit to the restaurant.
Halal: No

p/s: I'm hoping that we're just unlucky to get such bad quality food today. Let me know if you've just tried it recently with the coupon deal & it was acceptable/good/just different from what we got tonight.

Pictures indeed speak a thousand words. At times, you don't even need nice words to "lure" (or to put it nicely, "attract") customers to your restaurant. All you need is a good photographer/photos & you're on your way to excellent marketing for your outlet! CR bought a coupon deal from Everyday coupons for RM162.50 - the sight of the roast pig's trotter on the deal's page was enough to convince her to get the coupon & gather a group of us to give this place a try. The meal was apparently worth RM325.00 (I emphasize, "apparently").

Here's what we'll get from the deal that we bought:
7 course meal for 8-10 pax
Dry Scallop with Beancurd Soup (Large)
Yam Chicken in Claypot (Large)
Deep Fried Garoupe with Pineapple (1.8kg)
Crispy Golden Butter Prawns (600g)
Crispy Trotter
Stewed Vegetables (Large)
Dessert (Wedding Pancake) (Medium)

The restaurant is tucked right at a corner of Bandar Puteri Puchong, on the Giant hypermarket side. If you know where Tenji2 is, Lao Gang is right behind the row of shops where Tenji2 is located. It's at the other end of the Sekinchan Ikan Bakar restaurant. If you're not familiar with the roads there, you'll end up going in circles & making u-turns as most roads are one way streets *sigh*

The restaurant didn't seem to resemble a typical Chinese restaurant. It didn't look posh & classy, nor did it look like the usual "dai chow" coffeeshops kinda restaurant. Literally translated, Lao Gang means "old port", so the interior of the restaurant & some of the dishes take after its name. The entire concept is largely based on the classic look of a small town in Negeri Sembilan called Pasir Panjang in the olden days. Reminds me of the mushrooming kopitiams with the word "Old" in front of the kopitiams' names (Old Town, Old Coffee, Old this & that...)

The package did not include tea, so we had to pay around RM10 for our tea.

We also ate some of the snacks, oblivious to the fact that we will be charged (yes, it's also not part of the package - I didn't purchase this package, so I'm not aware of what's included). Rice was also excluded...hmm...

I couldn't make out of the soup...the dry scallops just dried up & evaporated :S

Okay, when this dish came, it was only warm - how can there be no steam/sizzling when a dish is served in a claypot??! *sigh* We didn't know what it was (didn't take notice on what the deal offered), but it sure didn't look appetizing at all, what more when it's cold. We ended up asking the waiter to reheat this & it came sizzling after that...but still the taste wasn't up to expectation. The chicken wasn't fresh - can taste that it's frozen chicken that has been kept for a while, & it was really fat (skin, fat, oil...everything as if it wasn't cleaned properly). To add to the disaster, it was somehow fried with some super thick batter. If it wasn't fried, then somehow the dish was clottish with some batter of sort, which was really geli :S

The deep fried garoupa with pineapple "kononnya" was missing with pineapples. I didn't know it's supposed to come with pineapples! Where were they?? If I knew, I would have made noise. Sigh. The fish was certainly not fresh. For one, it's deep fried (most fish that's used for deep frying aren't very fresh already). But this one has flesh that wasn't flakey like fresh tuna, but it was powderish. I just can't accept overloaded-with-batter+powderish-flesh fish. Fail. How can a restaurant serve such quality dishes? Won't the name of the restaurant be at stake? *sigh*

I was just too disappointed. When I saw one of the articles framed up on the wall of the restaurant, straight away I told the rest, "Yup, strike out from my list of restaurants to revisit for sure!"

Chicken was not appetizing, fish was powderish, now the prawns were also a goner. Tak banyak pun...telur lebih drpd udang :S The only thing that's "nicer" & acceptable is the egg shreds in this dish.

I call this a "discounted" piece of pig's trotter. I've never had pig's trotter that's served HALF. Where's the meat?? How come the top part of the pig's trotter is gone? The skin wasn't nice & crispy as well - it was hard & dry. Most roast pig's trotter are juicy/tender & the bones have a nice, fresh colour. This one looks "expired" as the bones were dark-coloured & dull :S What happened to the standard of food here?

Meat-hunting...no meat, no meat...

This is supposed to be a large portion of vegetables, but 1-2 persons could finish it up. Perhaps this is the best dish overall? The presentation was out though...usually ppl place the vegetables in the "rice noodles basket", but this looked erm...spilled?

The pancake the pancake...it came with the rest of the dishes before we completed our meal *faints* Thick-skinned pancakes - I was moodless to bother already. Another flop.

I don't know how else to positively comment. I'm just wondering if the quality of the food has dropped drastically or it's one of those days where the chefs are just not in the mood to cook? Professionally speaking, there's not such thing as mood - work is work, unfortunately. I hope other customers aren't getting the quality of food that we got tonight. It's really disappointing. I haven't had such disappointment with a restaurant's food since perhaps the Rak Thai experience. This experience costs us around RM21.00/person - for the dishes, rice, snacks, tea, & tax.

All the best, Lao Gang.


Two of the reviews that I've read (which were positive!):

• November 2010 by Yummy Food Explorer
• February 2011 by vkeong

Lao Gang Restaurant Sdn Bhd 老港家乡小厨

G-48, Jalan Puteri 1/8
Bandar Puteri Puchong
47100 Puchong
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel: (+603) 8051 3126 (For Reservation)
Business hours: 11:00a.m. - 3:00p.m., 5:30p.m. - 11:00p.m. (Last order 9:30pm)
GPS: N3 01.588 E101 37.187



Ratings:
Presentation: * *
Price: * *
Environment: * * 1/2
Taste: * 1/2
Service: * *


Overall





Terribly disappointed,