Cheese seems to be the magic ingredients for everything these days – cheese fried chicken, cheesy cream soup, cheese with ramen and now, cheese with bak kut teh. Jien overheard (eavesdropped) a bunch of college students raving about the “damn nice and super awesome” cheese bak kut teh from B.A.J Restaurant in Setapak.
Staircase to cheese bak kut teh
We did our research on Google and located wher B.A.J Restaurant was, keyed in the details in to Waze and drove there for dinner last weekend. B.A.J is actually more of a stall located on the first floor of the wet market in Setapak. Once you see the market (it would be closed by night), take the stairs up to the first floor and you’ll find a row of food stalls where B.A.J is located.
They comprise a western and bak kut teh stall – the former seemed more popular with the crowd that night. Only two options of bak kut teh is available; dry and soup version. The dry version (RM10) comes with cheese while the soup version (RM13) is just like any other regular BKT you can find.
Dry bak kut teh with cheese, and soup bak kut teh
Cheese bak kut teh
We opted for both, which comes with a side of blanched lettuce and white rice. Portions are fair and they only serve the bak kut teh in singular serving. Truth be told, the cheese bak kut teh isn’t worth the hype. There was less cheese than what I saw online and frankly, the addition of cheese didn’t do much to the flavour of the bak kut teh.
Tender pork cut
Soup bak kut teh
While the meat was adequately tender and well caramelised, the gravy didn’t have much oomph from the cuttlefish and I thought it was lacking dried chilli. The soup version was also quite average, I thought. It was slightly on the milder side compared to the dark, medicinal version I enjoy.
Blanched lettuce
Pricing is reasonable as you get a bowl of rice and a side dish with your bak kut teh, but I wasn’t wowed, tastewise. If you like cheese in everything and anything, this might be up your alley. Otherwise, you’re better off eating bak kut teh in pure form.
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Ambiance: 6/10
Price: 6.5/10
Food: 5/10 (non-halal)
Verdict: I didn’t think the cheese did anything to elevate the taste of this bak kut teh.
B.A.J Restaurant, Setapak
1-18 Pasar Jalan Genting Kelang,
Prima Setapak 2,
53000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 018-988 8766
Business: 8pm till 3pm, 5.30pm till 10pm
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