I woke up a few days ago with an intense craving for the Acar Fish served here at Ho Li Chow but what a bummer it was because at that point of time, the restaurant was closed till further notice due to MCO. Fast forward a few days later, I decided to check their FB page again in hopes of them reopening shop sometime soon and guess what – they are open yawwwww.

At the moment, they only do takeaways and deliveries around PJ area. As long as you guys are within the 10 km radius, feel free to drop by and collect your order. If you are not sure whether it is within the 10 km zone, then get onto Waze and key in the name of the restaurant – there will be information available there in regards to the distance between you and that location and that would solve your dilemma. I usually use that as an indicator, just to make sure I abide by the rules. It’s the easiest way.

Ho Li Chow’s operating hours are pretty much the same, I suppose, opening as early as 8.30 am. If you call them at that point to place your order, they would most probably answer your call. I called at 10.30 am onwards, six times till about 11.30 .. and I gave up. Instead, I decided to take my chances and drive over to the restaurant itself. I think I can explain why no one was picking up the phone. They were simply too busy. Maybe there is a cut off time, perhaps 10 am onwards, whereby the amount of orders gets overwhelming that it’s best for them to simply attend to walk-ins only. So, if you want to call and place your order – do so early.

This is the Menu you’d find on their Facebook page, offering you 6 different dishes. However, when you arrive at the shop, you’d find that there are more options available. Things like Chicken Kapitan and Laksa aren’t on the Menu posted online but was offered when I arrived at the shop. Its availability though is dependent on how long you mind waiting. By the time I arrived was around 12 pm, several dishes were finished and they were cooking up a new batch. So yea, if you don’t mind waiting, you’d have more options available then.

How to order ?? As mentioned earlier, the phone did not work for me and so, I decided to head there straight. As I arrived, there were already several people placing and waiting around for their orders. There was a barricade at the front of the shop to prevent you from entering, a table counter of sorts. That is where you look through the Menu and place your order. As soon as you do that, you move away and either loiter nearby or wait in your car. Remember to maintain distance from one another, yea? You only make payment once your food is ready for collection.

Bihun Siam, 15 ringgit + Laksa, 12 ringgit + Acar Fish Set, 15 ringgit

I initially wanted to order the Fried Rice and Chicken Kapitan but both weren’t available at that point. The Fried Rice – they just started cooking a new batch and the Chicken Kapitan was not available for the day. So, eventually I landed on these three dishes.

The Acar Fish Set tasted exactly as it does when you have it at the restaurant itself. I’ve always loved the gravy. It has a pleasant sweet-ish, tangy mix to it. Flavorful too with the help of plenty of garlic and ginger. The fish, it’s usually put into the gravy half way through and cooked together. So, at the end of it, the gravy has seeped onto and coated the fish nicely. It was delicious – good enough to eat on its own and with the rice. Yuuummmmm 🙂 Besides the Acar Fish, the dish included rice + ‘sengkuang’.

The Bihun Siam was tasty too. It had plenty of flavor and was rather large in portion size. There were about six to seven small prawns + egg + vegetables. I was already salivating as soon as the packaging was removed because it had a similar scent to a tasty char kuey teow?? which I loveeee and then finally chewing into it…. ooo soo lovely 🙂

The Laksa sure was generous in portion. Lots of noodles, pineapples, vegetables, onions, tuna fish. It tasted almost as good as it was before the MCO. The difference is in the texture, this version had a rather watery Laksa broth. It tasted awesome, just like it usually did except about two times more watery. Perhaps they underestimated the number of people that were interested in ordering that dish, so as a result they made the broth watery to accommodate the increase in demand? It managed to satisfy my Laksa craving nevertheless.