Driving to Rompin and Restoran / restaurant Rompin Bahru

The last fishing trip, I took 3 and a half hours to drive from Singapore Customs to Mersing (7 to 10.30pm) and another one hour to get to the fishing chalet at Rompin. The reason was because of the heavy traffic jam in JB going in the direction of Tebrau City and also the number of cars on the road heading to and fro Mersing. However, when I drove back on a weekday night (not Fri), the traffic was much better and I took only 2 hours and 15mins in my vios to drive from Kuala Rompin to JB Customs despite the winding road, 3 pax and 2 large ice boxes in my cars and never having seen the road before in the day.

I have been bringing my 2 new groups of fishing kakis to restoran lei huat at Mersing which I was introduced to on the Pekan light jigging trip. Not because the food is very good but because by the time one gets to Mersing, there aren't very many choices left. The restaurant stops serving food about 10.45pm though and the ambiance of the place (no air con) and toilets remind one of a coffeeshop in Singapore in the 1960s. The hor fun at RM4 is pretty edible and filling I must say and is the ideal choice for a quick dinner before going on to Rompin or Pekan.

One knows one is at Kuala Rompin when one sees this giant marlin statue. Be warned though that after Mersing en route to Kuala Rompin, there is a bridge which one has to go across where there are lots of people fishing along the sides of the bridge, and right after the bridge, there is a traffic police roadblock (both times about 11pm on a Fri night) and the police may ask to see one's driving license.

Anyway, I saw this signboard of Restoran Rompin Bahru outside 7-11 and took a pic of it, never realising that this would be the restaurant I would be eating at all the time for breakfast and dinner when at Rompin or Nenasi.

Here is a pic of the restaurant in the day. It opens pretty early apparently about 7+am and they serve toasted bread, kampong eggs, wanton mee, porridge or meat buns for breakfast. The lady boss speaks English, Chinese and Malay fluently and is very helpful and pleasant (pleasant on the eye too!)

On my first visit to the restaurant (for dinner), she recommended the lotus soup. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Everyone at the table raved about how good the soup was - it came with lotus roots, peanuts and chicken meat (and chicken feet).

We also ordered the fried chicken, sotong dish, and the restaurant cooked the two of the many fishes that we had caught during the day - one grouper and one parrot fish. The sotong dish apparently is a huge draw and all the times I've eaten there with different groups of friends, all of them have polished each and every morsel of this dish. The kangkong is average though and the chicken dish slightly below average.

Here is a close up of the parrot fish dish. Apparently, it is not possible to buy this fish at all in Singapore markets and this was the first time that I had parrot fish. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Sweet succuluent tender white fish meat. It can't compare with cod or salmon of course but if you think that grouper meat is delicious, we had both grouper and the parrot fish at the same seating and the parrot fish meat tastes 10 times better than the grouper's. This restaurant does a fantastic job of cooking both the grouper and the parrot fish (steamed in the same source) by the way.

So where previously I'd always been most delighted to catch a nice greasy grouper, I'm beginning to hope for parrot fishes each fishing trip. Not that I'm dissing a greasy grouper which is amongst the most expensive fishes but I would sure like the Bradmis to land me one big fat parrot fish the next fishing trip. My freezer currently has about 4 groupers, one of which is this one below which I landed on the Bradmis - time to stock the freezer with parrot fishes instead!