Murtabak @ Restoran Victory Arab Street, Subang Jaya

Fans of the famous Victory Restaurant in Arab Street, Singapore can rejoice as they don't need to travel down south for their famous murtabak with the recent opening of a branch in Subang Jaya. It must be famous because everytime I do a Google search on Singapore murtabak, two names keep popping up - Zam Zam and Victory who are located side by side each other on Arab Street.

I must admit, I have yet to try the murtabak in Singapore hence I can't vouch for whether it's the same as the one served in Victory but I have been told by the owners that the cooks used to work in Victory Singapore's kitchens. Moreover the Singapore owner's son is also overseeing things here.

They serve four varieties of murtabak here - chicken, beef, mutton and sardine which comes in various sizes i.e small, medium, large and extra large. My version was the extra small beef murtabak for RM3. The prices for the other sizes range from RM5 for the small portion to RM12 for the extra large while the sardine version is cheaper at RM4 for the small portion to RM8 for the large portion.

I managed to catch the cook making the murtabak and in this version, they add two eggs in it. One inside together with the minced beef and onion filling and another one outside of the murtabak when it is placed on the hot plate for it to cook till crispy. Unlike other murtabaks whereby the outside and the filling tends to get soggy, here the filling is drier and more crispy on the outside. It tastes excellent when paired with their curry and the thick vegetarian dhall they make out of African lentils.

Besides murtabak, another specialty is their briyani rice which has chicken, lamb, meat, fish and even prawn versions. I must admit it's rare to find seafood versions. For the fish version, ikan tenggiri is used. The briyani is priced at RM7 per plate while the prawn one is based on the seasonal price. I didn't manage to try their briyani but the rice does smell really good so that will be slated for another visit.

Restoran Victory arab street
No. 21-1, Jalan USJ 9/5Q
Taipan Business Centre
Subang Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 8023 5924

(Halal. Open from 9.30 am to 11.00 pm. This is at the road which has the famous Pizza vs Satay and Soo Kee's Son's Noodles. It is also near the Al Falakh Mosque. Parking can be horrendous here but there's a private parking nearby. Alternatively, you can also call ahead to place an order and pick it up from the restaurant. The GPS coordinates are N 03 02.775', E 101 35. 252')

Updated on 12/2/2007 - check out USJ.com's forum for comments from those who have tried the murtabak.

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Murtabak + Victory + Arab Street