Yong Leong Seafood Restaurant is one of the best Chinese Seafood Restaurants in downtown Kuah, Langkawi.
Whenever I land, my clients often say, “Let’s eat at YL tonight.”
While many eateries in Langkawi, from Chu Char restaurants to cafes, restaurants, and hotels, the most important things to consider are fresh ingredients and consistent taste.
In Langkawi, you can get the best seafood and Bak Kut Teh pork dishes.
From simple chicken rice to grilled sambal squid, garoupa, and boiled blood cockles, our menu offers a variety of options. Enjoy kerabu chicken feet, stir-fried kangkung with belacan, and fried oysters.
Many visitors look for cheap seafood.
Budget and wallet-friendly (affordable price) don’t always come with the highest quality of freshness.
If you do your daily marketing at the wet market and cook, you can get cheap eats at home.
Most seafood restaurants’ prices are reasonable instead of cheap and affordable. There is a difference.
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Yong Leong Seafood Restaurant – Decades of Great Taste
I’ve been to Langkawi since late 2008, and my recommendation is Yong Long Seafood Restaurant, fondly known to locals as YL.
As Langkawi is a tourist town, business is seasonal.
During the high season, the restaurant is packed every night, and the customers sit al fresco under the stars just off the pavement.
You will get about four to five tables of diners.
YL serves almost everything from vegetables to seafood to Pork cooked in different styles.
The food may be slow on busy days, but the taste is always good.
What to Order at Yong Leong Seafood Restaurant (YL)?
With the abundance of fresh sea seafood in Langkawi, the best orders are the seafood.
- Fresh Fish
- Sweet Clams
- Fresh Squids
- Pork Knuckle
- Vegetable Dish
Yong Leong Seafood Restaurant Menu
There is a menu, but the locals order by checking on what is fresh with the owner.
Most of the time, we will place our order based on what is freshly caught.
The owner will recommend based on the number of pax at the table.
He will often let us “under order” to add more dishes if we feel hungry later.
That makes good business sense and saves customers from over-ordering and wasting food they can’t finish.
You can look at the seafood on ice in the restaurant if you prefer.
We just let Uncle make his recommendations for a fine meal ahead for us regulars.
How to order?
At most Chu Char style restaurants, the cooking style is Chinese/Asian.
Typical recommendations start with seafood as this is a seafood restaurant, after all.
Uncle will recommend the fresh fish; you pick the cooking style.
I will go with steaming for highly fresh fish just caught a few hours earlier in the afternoon – the best way to enjoy fresh fish.
Chai Por Hoo – Steamed Fish with “Chai Por”
In Kedah and Langkawi, the locals enjoy a “Chai Por Hoo,” a steamed fish served with a mountain of salty-sweet Chai Por (pickled radish) for a nice flavourful crunch.
Each restaurant has a different version.
One of my favorite ways to enjoy fresh fish.
Please don’t order Fried Fish at a seafood restaurant!
Verdict: A good rendition of the original dish found in Alor Star
Steamed Fish with “Chai Por” (Preserved Radish bits) Photo: Doris Lim
Fresh Squids
The squids in Langkawi are incredibly fresh.
If you go up to the rooftop of the tallest building in Pantai Cenang, you will see the squid boats in the bay.
There is nothing more delicious than fresh squids (calamari) cooked right.
Squid must be cooked for either a short or very long time.
Otherwise, they turn rubbery and are not worth the time chewing.
The optimum time to cook squids correctly is two minutes over high heat.
We ordered the squids in two styles.
- Squid Fried with Dried Chilis and Spring Onions
- Deep-Fried Squid
I like both, but the best is the crunchy Fried Squids with just flour, salt, and pepper.
With fresh seafood, I like the simple minimal cooking to taste the freshness of the sea.
Stir-fried squid with Dried Chili, Spring Onion, and Deep Fried Squid in flour, salt, and pepper. Photo: Doris Lim
Sweet Clams
Langkawi has the best sweet Clams and Blood Cockles.
This is the only place I will eat Blood Cockles.
I usually skip shellfish.
The sweet clams are fat and juicy.
The restaurant is meticulous in cleaning these.
I watched their food prep and was impressed that the workers checked and sorted each clam before bringing it to the kitchen.
Verdict: Sweet juicy, and very delicious.
Sweet and Sour Clams. Photo: Doris Lim
Chinese Braised Pork Knuckle in Claypot
The star dish we look forward to the most is this gorgeous, Chinese-style Braised Pork Knuckle in Claypot.
Many call this a sinful dish but will order it if they can find this on the menu.
The collagen beneath the pig’s trotters’ skin is good for the skin.
Getting good Braised Pork knuckles is not as simple as putting everything in a clay pot and waiting.
Braising is an excellent method of cooking that produces meat with the tenderness of a braised dish.
You will want tender but slightly chewy meat.
If overcooked, the Pork becomes too mushy and falls apart. If the knuckle is undercooked, it becomes too tough.
I enjoyed the dish’s deep soy aroma with the dark gravy that allowed the fat and collagen to melt completely.
You will want to eat this gravy with fried mantou to mop up the juices!
Verdict: Very delicious.
Chinese Braised Pork Knuckle in Claypot. Photo: Doris Lim
Yong Leong Seafood Curry
One of my downfalls is eating rice. Chinese curry sauces are usually less spicy than Indian Curry.
So ordering a curry here will not wholly overpower the more delicate flavors like fish and seafood.
The curries at YL are mild, creamy, and deliciously flavorsome.
Prawn Curry
The chunky King Prawns in this recipe make the dish outstanding.
Prawns are just cooked and sweet when you pull off the shells.
Verdict: Delicious.
Curry Fish
If you have a shellfish allergy, you can ask for fish fillets or chunks, which are easier to eat.
Some fish connoisseurs will ask for the fish head instead!
Curry Pork
A good meat curry is always a good thing to order, especially Wild Boar Meat instead of Pork.
Verdict: Creamy Mild Curries that don’t overpower the taste of seafood and fish.
Stir-Fried Sea Cucumber with Vegs
Gamat, or sea cucumber, is one of Langkawi’s symbols with great medicinal and healing properties.
Sea cucumbers are very low in calories and fat, but they are high in protein, making them a weight-loss-friendly food.
They have many health benefits, including antioxidants.
Consumption of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli is associated with a decreased risk of some cancers.
Phytochemicals, especially sulforaphane in broccoli, are believed to offer some degree of cancer prevention.
So this dish is deceptively simple but powerful in terms of health benefits.
Verdict: Stir-fried Sea Cucumber is springy instead of gelatinous and mushy when braised.
It goes well with vegetables, seafood, and rice!
Sambal Okra
Fresh Okras or Lady’s Fingers stir-fried with Shrimp and fiery Sambal, is a potent dish that is not super hard to prepare and pleasing to sambal chili lovers.
Stir-Fried Celery
This refreshing and delicious dish combines crunchy celery with chicken, carrots, soy sauce, and sugar.
Real-Life Story at Yong Leong Seafood
One night when we were there, the owner was perplexed when making a recommendation for a new customer and threw his hand in the air as he repeated their conversation.
Boss: You try our fried chicken?
Customer: KFC makes a better chicken.
Boss: You try our fish head curry?
Customer: My mother makes better curry.
Boss: Prawns? Clams? Squid?
Customer: I am allergic.
So the moral of the little story is this. If you’re on holiday, have some seafood and maybe fresh fish. YL’s prices are reasonable.
Don’t worry.
Ask first if you have to.
It’s just that the food is good, and the price is reasonable, so you don’t have to settle for stir-fried veggies, an onion omelet, and a braised too foo for dinner.
Conclusion
What is Langkawi without cheap seafood, right?
If you want to try another outlet, you can check out my Year-End Celebration at Rootian Seafood Restaurant, Langkawi.
The food is exceptional, and the price is not low there.
Yong Leong Seafood Restaurant
Address: Lot 36, Persiaran Mutiara 2, Pusat Dagangan Kelana Mas, 07000 Pulau Langkawi, Kedah
Telephone: +604-966 8495
Opens Daily: 12.00 pm – 3.00 pm & 6.00 pm – 12.00 am
