Kedai Kopi Yuan Yuan

My goodness… There aren't any other eateries in Tawau that is as (to quote Barney Stinson from HIMYM) ‘legen… wait for it… dary’ as this place. Prominent food bloggers from various places have made their journey to this unassuming eatery (located within the Taman Megah commercial area, on the same row as a bakery called Sweet Secret Bakery) just to get a taste of their ever popular soto dishes. And I’m not even exaggerating when I say that it’s a waiting game when it comes to dining there since most of the time, the place is packed with customers. But I do like the fact that most of the patrons were very understanding and doesn’t mind sharing their tables with other people (which is unavoidable most of the time anyway).

And that is exactly what had happened to me and my mom when we decided that it was finally our time and braved the notoriously crowded eatery ourselves. After waiting for less than a minute, we got lucky and managed to share a table with this friendly Chinese couple and ordered up. Mind you, the place is well known for their breakfast cum brunch staple (that is the soto) so unfortunately they aren’t any other choices of food should you’re not that into the latter. But they do have an extensive choice of ingredients for their soto so I’m sure you’ll find something that you might like. In our case, my mom had ordered their Seafood Soto (of prawns & fish slices) while I’d gone for their Kon Lo Men + Chicken Soto combo instead. And after finishing our meals, I must say that we’re definitely not disappointed. The soto broth was well balanced and saporous, with a generous amount of ingredients being put into each bowl. Their dish is definitely up there when it comes to the best soto in town but I do need to disagree when it comes to their sambal though. A few bloggers has mentioned their somewhat delicious sambal but it was just ordinary tasting for me. But then again, do try them out for yourselves to see whether or not you agree with me.

** Current status – Still in operation (as of February 2018)