Weekend at Melaka - Part 5: Jonker 88

We saw Jonker88 as we first strolled along Jonker Walk to check out the street prior to exploring Central Melaka's attractions. There was a long queue outside, which automatically made us curious about its menu. The rule of thumb for most places is to find those restaurants or eateries where a lot of people usually eat, most especially the locals. These restaurants are popular mainly due to the food and probably because of the reasonable prices. Jonker 88 seemed to fit both judging from the information on the menu displayed at the entrance.

Queue at the entrance of Jonker 88 - people are queued to order their food at the entrance to the restaurant and then proceed inside to be seated carrying their food on tray(s). Turnover is quite high and sharing tables is the norm so it's not so difficult to get seats inside. Payment is made also at the entrance after you make your orders.

Two orders of mee kia noodles with fried shrimp dumplings - the Clairvoyant originally wanted to get another dish (I think it was seafood) but unfortunately, they were all out of the dish (it was apparently among the most popular)

Close-up of delicious noodles and dumplings

The Clairvoyant enjoying her food - I took this photo also to get a shot of the restaurant interiors. The restaurant, like the other buildings are also homes and many mementos can be seen around including souvenirs and other items used as decors. There are no similar tables or other furniture and some seats are actually benches fabricated to maximize the seating capacity of the restaurant.

Hanging on the wall are many framed items including a photo of Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek, the last leader of a democratic China and first of Taiwan.

There were more images of Mao Tse Tung, however, but to be fair there were also those of Bruce Lee and...Mona Lisa. But what catches one's attention are tables full of people enjoying their meals. Often these are groups of friends or entire families who regularly eat at the Jonker 88.

On the way out after the meal, you see a few more tables and items for display including handmade noodles (mee sua and mee kia) for sale for you to try cooking your own meals at home.

Looking back at the restaurant, the entire ground floor has been converted for the business. The area shown in the photo above was most probably the original eatery and shop. The area where we ate our meal was most probably what used to be the living room.

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