Pak Su and Swiss Garden- when neko goes kuantan...

To be honest, this is my second trip to Pahang. First being to Cherating but never stopped in Kuantan. This would be my second. Now, if it is not for treasure hunting, seriously, i would not have traveled about 1/2 of malaysia. East Malaysia excluded. So far our company hunts have taken us to Johor, Melaka, Pahang, Penang, Ipoh and even east coast at one time, so it sounds like a mini holiday of sorts. We get to stay in nice or lousy places depedent on budget and also location. Only thing compared to external hunts, we never win. Sigh. Read previous blog.

Only thing, is you don't a lot of time to explore - except maybe in the case of melaka, it became like a buying and EATING frenzy for most of the people there. :) What to do in melaka woh. I remember the last trip that stopped at Bidor, people STOPPED the hunt to eat..... ... Imagine about 30 over cars, just cramming into bidor for breakfast/early lunch- tee hee. The ngap tiuh meen people was quite happy that day $$$.


This time around, Kuantan turns out to be a more tamer eating experience than our penang. However, before we start the eating, i must ...tell people about the very nice hotel called Swiss Garden Kuantan. Wah...........what a pretty place to stay next to a rather interesting beach. I didnt manage to spend a lot of time exploring the beach except the morning after the hunt. Night before - i was dead tired and FF and i found anthony bourdain in brazil much more interesting than the heat outside. Also made us very hungry watching him .... *pork*

The picture below, my room leh :) sharing with FF. Wah - lomantic hor...... They do not use carpet in this hotel, everything is mostly tiles and wood flooring - which adds to a rather rustic feel to the place. I love the lamp btw.

For more UPCLASS customers ( not us meaning ) , you can dine at the poolside restaurant and sit in this little, thingie. This one is called Juliet with large pillows. You can bring your buffet breakfast here. By the way, their nasi lemak rocks here and so is their mee hoon goreng. Tastes Old School.

The beach is not like those in Tahiti or something like that, but it is worth a visit if you have kids, there is a lot of sea life there you can investigate - like live star fish. Have you seen live star fish before? Neither did i. They have many many little legs - GROSS. There is also an abundance of hermit crabs to step, i mean look at.

Aiyer, got small eyes one... (that's me pink fingers btw)

We left the hotel around 11ish - as we were peckish even after the full breakfast. Guess all the posing and running around the beach just zapped our energy. I hope no one saw the posing -LOL by a coconut tree. However, googling "good food in kuantan" only came out with Pak Su, with recommendation from Pinkpau - so read by FF on her mobile screen. And no sooner we passed the hotel -we saw the Pak Su restaurant. Our driver - can really turn and break the car-leh.

Luckily it was open, and FF wanted what was known as TRY a bit of everything. Now thinking, we should have called 4 seasons - LOL. What caught my eyes was - yes, STUFFED CRABS. Nothing can go wrong with Mr Su. By the way- no babi ah this restaurant. Dun dream.

Before neko bite it

So we ordered a stuff kewab each - that is stuffed most generously with fresh crab meat and some veg and what not. It was then covered with a soft batter or was it fish paste. And then fried. I thinks. The price is RM6 a pop of crab. We had 1 each anyway. Though i secretly craved for more than 1. You can also dip this in a fresh chilli sauce they prepared but i prefer to eat it without the sauce so i can taste the kewab. { oh mashi .... u reading this? :P - nyeh, nyeh, nyeh }

After neko bite into it

We have a rabbit and an ox in the group, so naturally must have veggie lah. We could not decide on any veggie - so to play safe - CHAP CHOI. This is ok, can't say it is fantabulous, it's just veggie for my tummy :)


The super "stim" asam steamed siakap. Wow... this one hot leh. As in chilli hot. Big regret that i had no rice ordered - since this "sek song only" - wah my tongue burning.... i had to down a few glasses of ice tea to soothe my tongue. The fish was really fresh though but the sauce was quite addictive even though it is hot.


Our favorite of the day, pepper and salt calamari, fried. Oooh super yummy. The calamari was thick but tender and springy. I could not believe i walloped a lot of this. By the way, the tentacles - i pass. Only like the "body" of the squid. This was a pretty big plate of squid which disappeared very fast.

Price wise, this is KL like prices. The dishes above, with drinks, nuts and a plate of rice cost us about RM112 - me thinks. You also get an occasional whiff of sea smell which was a bit too much at one time. But such prices for seriously fresh seafood ( aside from my fav king crab ) i think it is not too bad.

Googling, Pak Su - (turned out some korean names like pak su gun - hmm,) i found a lot of people thought Pak Su was overrated. Guess different people have different tastes. Anyway, go try it for yourself if you are in kuantan.

Restaurant Pak Su
4/1417, Kampung Bahagia,
26100 Beserah,
Kuantan