Smoking Hog @ SS2, Petaling Jaya

It’s A Swine Affair!

If you are a porcine fan, I guarantee that you will be swooning at Smoking Hog! Full blast porcine glory in its most unadulterated swine laden menu, it is a restaurant that caters to foodies like me who cannot resist porky dishes. Located in the bustling square area of SS2, Petaling Jaya, this restaurant is discreetly located on the first floor of Crab Factory. The entrance is rather discreet as one enters by the side of the building of the Crab Factory restaurant. There is no signage but a little hanging piglet gives it away. It’s rather an exciting and secretive moment as one heads into the entrance to Smoking Hog. Sharing the same owner as Crab Factory, T.Y. and team goes all out in pleasing porcine fans with its creative and rumbustious menu.

Upon entrance of the restaurant, one is immediately transported to a world of dark and mysterious space filled with a mix of stylish yet quirky ambiance. Flanked on both sides by the open kitchen and the bar, one walked past into the dining area. By the bar, a stairway, lined by a wall filled with artistic impressionist’s paintings with much quirkiness of animal head on human body, lead diners up to another level of dining, a more private one with an open balcony. Though it was dark, I could see a large and serious looking smoking machine where Smoking Hog has all their bacon smoked. Yes, they do take their hog seriously. The team tries to make magic in their own kitchen, going all out in curing, smoking and turning pork to various heavenly pieces of porcine pleasures.

We knew it was going to be an epic night of porky fare the moment we saw the menu. Choices are decent with enough dishes to tempt me from ordering one of every dish. Nevertheless, we tried not too but opted for the signatures of Smoking Hog.

Dinner commenced with Japanese sake and Umeshu of Kirei Umeshu with Collagen (RM65/bottle) and Yamadanishiki Special Junmai (RM65/bottle). Both served chilled in special glassware that allows the ice kept in separate compartments to chill the alcohol without diluting it. Absolutely love the Kirei Umeshu for its rich sweet plum wine notes while the Yamadanishiki Special Junmai had a full body boldness and smooth note of the King of Sake rice – Yamadanishiki rice.

First up was Egg Bomb (RM15). Looking every inch its namesake, the Egg Bomb is gracefully plonked on a vegetable ring surrounded by a creamy sauce speckled by black sesame seeds. The bomb proved to be an explosion of perfectly poached egg with a molten egg yolk center enveloped in creamy mashed coated in a crispy fried panko crumb. It’s pure comfort food between the egg and the mashed with a nice element of seaweed and cream sauce.

I simply cannot get enough of the Bacon-Wrapped Takoyaki & Kimchi Baby Octopus Salad (RM34). Octopus takoyaki balls are wrapped with bacon and piled on with piquant kimchi, seaweed and served on a bed of greens. It’s a plate of bombastic flavours. Super yum in flavours and textures. I don’t know how consoling it is to call this a salad but hey, I am certainly feeling less guilty about devouring this… Must order!!

It’s practically on every table I see that evening. Smoking Hog’s Signature Bacones (RM32) is alike a breakfast dream come true for me in every sense. Bacon cones filled with scramble egg, mashed and baked beans proves that bacon can turn an ordinary dish into something extraordinary. The bacon cone is simply crispy and super yum in every possible flavour sense. May be a bit messy to eat this but hey, anything with bacon is worth it. Kudos to the team at Smoking Hog for this creative dish…

Caesar Salad (RM23) is not spared the porcine touch and comes laden with bacon, poached egg, crispy anchovies and all the other trimmings of the salad. Extra points for the perfectly poached egg with oozing egg yolk.

The pastas are Smoking Hog is super scrumptious! We had three pastas and all three scored points for flavours and textures.

Pig’s Tongue & Bacon Matriciana (RM31) would be a first for me. I didn’t think I would enjoy pig’s tongue but I did. It’s tender and provided a good bite to the dish. Of course, there’s plenty of crispy bacon to make this pasta even better. The sauce is intensely tomatoey and spicy too which gave the dish an overall solid A+ for flavours.

Double Smoked Duck Carbonara Fettuccine (RM39) was set with a glass cloche and came hidden in the midst of smoke. Though I didn’t managed to capture the smoke effect, I must concur that the carbonara was deliciously rich and wonderful. Another dish with perfectly poached egg, lots of cubed smoked duck and mushrooms with luscious cream sauce, the pasta also had a tinge of smoky note. One word of advice, scoff this down while it’s hot for the full effect of the luscious egg yolk coating the strands of the silky fettuccine pasta. May be compellingly rich but its pure comfort for the soul…

I am pretty sure that the Spicy Lemongrass & Seafood Tagliatelle (RM41) is the only seafood dish in the menu. Nevertheless, it still scored with us as the pasta has a lovely Asian lemongrass twist on the usual tomato sauce. It has a savory, spicy and lemony note and comes with generous portions of prawn, clam and octopus as well as fish.

More tongue and this time, it is was in the Grilled Pig’s Tongue Burger (RM25). A super thick and juicy pork patty played host to the slices of tender pig tongue. Finished with sliced onions, pickles, cucumber, tomato and lettuce with sesame seed bun, it’s a mega burger to be reckoned with.

CW’s Berries ‘Ku Ru Yok’ (RM39) is a luscious and fruity take on the classic Chinese sweet and sour pork thought it reminds me more of the ‘Kau yuk with Mantao’. Slices of tender pork belly braised in a sweet and unctuous berry sauce served with warm mantao, sautéed beansprouts and mushrooms, raw onion slices and cucumber. What I really enjoy was the pork belly with the pieces of soft sweet cherries and strawberries. Never knew pork and berries go so well despite it being very fruity and sweet. A clever Western take on our Chinese dish!

Smoking Hog does go out of the ordinary when it comes to their menu and the next one is a take on the Korean rice cake where it goes into the Baked Rice Cake Lasagna (RM25). It’s quite a good one because I enjoyed the light and chewy rice cake in this lasagna. Layers of tomatoey and cheesy yumminess…

Dessert time but it’s more of a sweet and savory dessert list than the usual sweet one. Think salty and sweet bacon in every dessert!

First up, Dutch Babies with Honey Candied Bacon & Tomato Salsa (RM25). Well, there’s also sweet Dutch Babies but I happen to be a fan of sweet and savory one and so I adored the fluffly Dutch Baby pancakes with crispy edges and fluffy middle paired with honey candied bacon and tangy tomato salsa. Drizzle maple syrup over these babies and you’ll get a heavenly pairing that is across between breakfast and dessert rolled into one. There’s plenty of other variations to go with the baked Dutch Babies like Caramelized Banana Fritter & Ice Cream or Nutella, Crumbed Cookies & Ice Cream for the sweet tooth.

French Toast (RM30) sounded simple but it’s not. This one is jazzed up with whisky!! Talk about a happy ending… thick slices of bread is dipped in egg and crumbed with lots of nuts has whisky caramelized banana and honey candied bacon all rolled into one mega French toast sandwich. Served with Vanilla ice cream and maple syrup, it obviously cannot get any more heavenly than this … have this for dessert or even brunch, whichever rocks your boat, it will be heavenly.

I like how the Smoking Hog team thinks. Starting and ending with bacon makes perfect sense to me, an ardent hog fan. And so when I saw Bacon & Egg Ice Cream (RM24) on their menu, I knew I had to have this. If I am going to crash my whole week’s cholesterol in one meal, I might as well go all out and finish with a big bang. That said, a fabulous Bacon & Egg Ice Cream with plenty bacon in each spoonful. Damn, this is just so damn fabulous!

What an epic meal of pork and bacon! Gather up your family and friends for a treat at Smoking Hog. Dishes there are creative and cleverly concocted to please many porky fans. The team literally makes everything from scratch downright to smoking their own bacon. And that’s a plus sign how passionate the team behind Smoking Hog is…

SMOKING HOG

(above Crab Factory)

3rd Floor, Jalan SS2/64,

47300 Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03 7865 9239

Website: www.smokinghog.com.my

Facebook: www.facebook.com/smokinghogmalaysia

Business Hours:

Tues to Thurs   4pm-12am (dinner)

Fri to Sun    12pm – 3pm (lunch) 6pm-12am (dinner)