Restoran Ya Wang

[JB, MALAYSIA] Probably one of the most famous shao la eatery near the checkpoint, Ya Wang seems to have a never ending stream of patrons even when I arrived at 10 plus in the morning. Looking at the delicious roast meats that were hanging in front of the shop, I decided to get all of their speciality meats on 1 plate.

The portion of meat given was pretty generous and I quite like all of them. The dang gui herbal roasted duck was tender with a slightly crispy skin (this is not easy to achieve). The roast pork was savoury, tender and had a crispy skin and the char siew was actually the best in my opinion. The exterior was beautifully caramelised and there was a good ratio of meat and fat. The char siew sauce had a good balance of sweet and salty too!

However, I didn't like the oil rice as it was not fragrant nor garlicky enough. The chilli sauce was rather strange as well.

I wouldn't say this is one of the best roast meats I've had, but definitely a decent one. Total price paid was RM30 with another plate of herbal duck rice, which was pretty affordable! A can try if you are in the area!

What a treat! All the way from JB! Fragrant, herbal, tasty but a little chewy.

Ya Wang serves relatively nice char siew (ours was a rather lean cut that day, but it wasn’t dry) and siew yoke (not too salty!), but the star dish is definitely their herbal duck. It’s tender, juicy and the herbal sauce is simply divine. The sauce has a great balance of savoury, sweet and herbal flavours!

Their meats fared slightly above average, but it’s definitely not worth a special visit to JB. Order their meats when you’re in bigger groups, otherwise you might end up getting not-so-good cuts of meat like we did!

The marinade and the fattiness of the char siew were good, just that they're all thin cuts, so it wasn't shiok. The roast meat was damn normal.

Famous eatery. Unfortunately there was nothing special about its duck. Only the skin was shiok, but that's typical of most duck. I have however separated the bird's discussion from the herbal gravy. The latter was incredible. I can eat unlimited rice with just that.