Restaurant Todak (Masai, Johor Bahru, West Malaysia)

Daughter and her pals managed to eat at this seafood place in Johor Bahru called Restaurant Todak and they didn't even drive! They had taken a cab. So Mike and I decided we should try to locate it by car. Daughter joined us but the boy declined as he's 'not into seafood'. We set the GPS and it was easy enough to locate.

Here we are in the muted setting sun:

 

Restaurant Todak, Masai, JB.

 

We had stopped to shop a little before heading to Todak and had arrived around 6.30pm. It was already VERY crowded and a little chaotic. I was told by a staff member (and they are all over the place, moving about) we had to find our own table, so we did. Mike found a table in the open air section (they have a sheltered section) and the waiter was trying to dissuade us, telling us it might pour (cos we had felt a few drops falling). But we decided to take a chance and it turned out to be a good decision. The seating area of this restaurant is huge. There are many, many tables, I kid you not.

 

Surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult to get the attention of the waiter. No menus so you kind of second guess what you should order at a seafood restaurant. The waiter spoke Mandarin and I had a bit of difficulty catching the meaning of some words when he tried to explain the choices available.

 

Never having eaten there before, I was very careful to ask the estimated cost of each seafood dish as we ordered (don't really need any surprises after a meal).

 

The ambience is nice. I'd probably suggest to go earlier to catch more of the evening sun (and hopefully evening breeze). The taste of the food is only so-so to me but the reasonable price more than makes up for the lack of standard. When I say standard, I am actually unfairly comparing their standard to Singapore's more popular seafood joints' standards. I'm not going to be some idiot Singaporean, telling you the price is so cheap, so cheap. Then every Ah Beng and Ah Seng from our island will be flocking to Todak (actually, they already are, given the number of Singapore cars we saw parked there). I will only say, some dishes are more worth it than others and you won't feel the pinch as much as you would in Singapore. We definitely received no shocks. In fact, we were pleasantly surprised.

 

Would I go back? Definitely. But this time round, I would order MORE crabs. I know what dishes to skip. Not going to say. To each his own.

 

Hubby, like son, is not 'into seafood'. Yet, he patiently weaved his way through the causeway jam (ONE AND A HALF HOURS) and got a tad lost while following the GPS so that we found the restaurant in double quick time! LOL. He munched through his mantous and cracked crabs for us with this huge metal contraption (much like a huge table stapler). He was happy just knowing his ladies were happy and we love him for it! Todak, we'll be back!