After having a quick tea break at Mugshot Cafe, we headed to our next stop just further down the road and near to the junction of Lebuh Chulia and Jalan Penang.
Line Clear Nasi Kandar is located in an alleyway which is very easy to miss. If you’re walking from Lebuh Chulia, keep to the left hand side and you should see the above yellow signboard on the walkway once you turn left onto Jalan Penang.
LC is not so much of a restaurant set up. It looks more like a makeshift establishment, hidden right inside an alleyway.
If you’re very particular about hygiene and cleanliness, then this might not be the best eating place for you. But honestly speaking, this sort of ambience is what I call the true blue Malaysian street food experience – it’s as authentic as it gets. Worth taking a risk, anyhow.
This alleyway stall on Jalan Penang is the first and original Line Clear outlet in Malaysia. Not sure if you’ve heard about this but I read in the (Malaysian) news some time back that imposters with the same name “Line Clear” had sprouted up nationwide so do take note when you’re in Malaysia as you’re probably not eating the ‘real stuff’.
Recently when I went to Kuala Lumpur, I got wind that their 2nd outlet had opened at Kampung Baru. That outlet is run by the former management of the original Line Clear in Penang which was forced to evict the premise following a legal dispute between family members earlier this year. Hence there should only be two official Line Clear restaurants in Malaysia – one at Jalan Penang, Georgetown, Penang (which is this that I’m featuring now) and the other at Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur.
For info, nasi kandar originates from Penang and is basically Indian style ‘curry mixed rice’ where you can have rice with different curries and side dishes. The concept is similar to our local Hainanese curry rice.
You just need to pick from whatever’s there on display – these guys would help scoop the dishes onto your plate and you will be given a chit. Grab a table and be seated, the man from the drinks stall will come round to take your order (payment to be settled separately). After you’re done with your meal, show the chit to the person at the counter to make payment.
These fish heads were gigantic! For those of you who are into fish head curries, you may wish to give this a try but please remember to check the price first so you will not be dealt with a shock afterwards. I’ve heard from a fellow local foodie that prawns and fish can be quite costly at seemingly cheap mixed rice stalls like this.
And this was what we got – a delicious mess of rice doused with 2 or 3 types of gravies including curry, one whole fried chicken leg, squids, fried egg, okra and sliced cucumber. All of these for just RM8.50! Cheap and good! The fried chicken was one of the best I had ever eaten – crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. It was very well seasoned and I could still taste the spices used in the marinate/batter. The squids were tender and flavoursome. The okra was crunchy and totally not slimy at all. And what could go wrong with a fried egg?
The hero of the dish would be the combination of sauces that somehow worked so well together. The winning factor was perhaps in the ratio of sauces doused over the rice. Whatever it was, well, this was simply the most tasty and the most satisfying curry rice I ever had. Die die must try when you’re in Penang!!! 🙂
Line Clear Nasi Kandar
177 Jalan Penang
Georgetown, 10000 Pulau Pinang
Malaysia
Opening hours: 24/7