Kwan Kee Charcoal Steamboat @ Cameron Highlands, Pahang

The second dinner of our Cameron Highlands trip was a visit to Kwan Kee Charcoal Steamboat. The Brinchang Night Market was not open (that day was a Sunday night); so we had ample parking spaces to choose from. Brinchang town was peaceful and less crowded, so we got to enjoy the cool breeze and relaxing atmosphere in the town.

Kwan Kee Restaurant is not difficult to spot, as it is on the main street in Brinchang town, where all the steamboat restaurants and shops were located. There were a few selections, all of them provided charcoal steamboat, a specialty of Cameron Highlands, but we eventually chose Kwan Kee, since it was the most crowded one (typical KL looking-for-food style). Other than charcoal steamboat, the restaurant also caters for stirred fried noodles and typical chinese meals with many dishes to choose from. They even sell venison dishes. Poor deer. Look for the restaurant with many Chinese words sticking around the walls, then you will be in the right place.

The menu for other dishes

The uniqueness of charcoal steamboat in Cameron Highlands is that, all of them has a long breathing pipe extending from the middle of the pot. Our guess for its functionality is that, probably when charcoal burns, carbon monoxide is released, and the pipe is used to effectively ventilate the harmful gases rather than having us, customers to breathe in the carbon monoxide.

Tall tall breathing pipe

Just like other steamboat restaurants, Kwan Kee offers a few types of soup for us to choose from: Tom Yam, Herbal Soup and Chicken Soup. However, if you were to enjoy the uniqueness of charcoal steamboat, you may only choose 1 type of soup base. For Yin Yang soup base, the normal gas stove steamboat is served. We opted for the most ordinary Chicken Soup.

As for the ingredients, it was of quite a huge variety. While ordering, we just had to tell the waitress how many pax of steamboat do we need, then they will prepare the necessary. Typical steamboat set consisted of: Fish Fillet, Chicken Fillet, Pork Fillet, Prawns, Fish Ball, Toufu, Fried Beancurd, Fresh Mushroom, Water Crest, You Mak Vegetable, Cabbage, Spinach, Bee Hoon and Eggs. Extra ingredients like Venison, Pork Balls, Yee Mee and Kim Cam Mushrooms will be incurred an extra charge.

Steamboat ingredients for 2

The dinner costed us RM56.00. RM50.00 was for the steamboat set for 2 persons (RM25.00 per pax), and RM6.00 was for our drinks. Looking at the portion (we did not order any extra ingredients. too full) that they offered, the value of food was considered as reasonable. Kwan Kee Steamboat also recorded visits from various local and international artistes. Photos were displayed on their walls too.

If you visited Cameron Highlands without having Charcoal Steamboat as dinner, your visit is considered as incomplete. Enjoying hot food under the cool breeze was indeed an enjoyable experience.

Kwan Kee Steamboat

Brinchang,

Cameron Highlands, Pahang.
GPS Coordinates: 4.491828, 101.388512