Sri Ganapathi Mess @ Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Little is known about this eatery in PJ Old Town that is situated in a house. That was the thought that I had in mind before heading to Sri Ganapathi Mess. Once I was there, I changed my thoughts completely. This Sri Ganapathi Mess is located along the row of houses in PJ Old Town, right opposite the entrance to Sekolah Kebangsaan P.J. at Jalan 1/10.When we arrived here, finding a place to park the car was a great problem as there were loads of people heading to this restaurant. It is very easy to miss this house so just drive slowly and the greatest landmark is that it is exactly opposite the school.

Sri Ganapathi Mess at Jalan 1/10 Petaling Jaya

As you can see from the above photograph, it is just a small sign on one of the pillars that marks this house as a place of business. Another thing that you could use to identify the house is the statue of Nandi, or Lord Shiva's Bull which is there on the pillars holding the gates.

The Porch Converted into the Frying Station

The moment you walk in to the house, you would notice the porch which has the Frying Station. Here you could either choose your meat cuts or just walk in too to get a place. Either way, their fish portions are all the same size and you would get a decent piece. Unlike those big commercial restaurants, here they do not charge by the grams and each piece follows a fixed price.

The First Seating Area

As we walked in, I was amazed to see the number of people here. It was the living room of the house and here is where most of the curries and dishes were stored. The place was buzzing with activity.

One of the dining rooms

Curry Station for this room

The entire house was converted into the mess. Each room was a dining hall and we walked through the rooms to find the place that had a vacant and clean table. We found our place and then was attended to shortly. Luckily, we arrived by 12 noon and the crowd though huge, was not as bad as it was by the time it turned 1 pm. By 1 pm, loads of people were waiting for tables and the servers were just crazily running around trying their best to serve people. The wait time was  much longer too.

Basic Meal @ RM 5.00

This is their basic meal set. It also comes with two large Pappadams which were extremely fresh and crisp. The choice of vegetables were also not the normal ones and the quality was good. Once again, they have choices of both Par Boil Rice and common White Rice. A large serving of pickles is also included in this meal. Then comes the curries. Today they had Fish, Chicken, Crab, Salted Fish and Venthayam Curry. I requested for a bowl of crab curry to try.

Crab Curry

The Crab Curry was definitely lovely. I was not in the mood to eat crabs today else I would have also ordered some crabs. This is one of the best crab curry ever served in restaurants. My rating for this gravy is 9/10 . After this, I ordered Venthayam Curry and that was also pretty decent. I would rate it 8/10 .

Fried Fish @ RM 5.00

The fish was definitely good too. It was crispy, juicy and fried to the right level. Priced rightly, I would rate this 8/10 .

Local Goat Perattal @ RM 9.00

There is a much to be said about the mutton offerings. They have the Mutton Varuval which uses the common Australian Lamb. A plate of that is sold at RM 6.00 .  They also have the Goat's Intestines. However for the Mutton Perattal as the above photograph, is made from the local goat and that is why it is more expensive. I find the goat to be overcooked today. Maybe they had boiled it over a long period of time before adding it to the curry. It was too soft beyond what it should be. However, the base curry was delicious. I would rate this at 6/10 .

Prawn Sambal @ RM 6.00

We also tried the above Prawn Sambal as it came highly recommended. I found this dish to be good. It was mildly spicy and the prawns were delicious. Made to perfection, this was one of the best Prawn Sambals (Tamil Style) that I have tried, besides the one that my late grandmother used to make. I would rate this at 10/10 . Highly recommended here.

Crab Rasam @ RM 1.00

Here they have two types of Rasam, Crab Rasam and Chicken Rasam. We opted for the Crab Rasam. This was literally made to perfection. It was piping hot, absolutely delicious Rasam. I savored every drop of it!!! The best Crab Rasam that I have tried in a very long time. I would rate this again 10/10 and strongly recommend this to everyone.

Price List and Offerings

 On the whole, this is a great place to have your lunch. The only setback is that it may be a little difficult to find. Please do also note that they are only open for lunch. They do have some very good dishes sold at very reasonable prices. After your meal, you would have to walk out to the living area and an old grandmother is there going through the bills and receiving payments. This is definitely one of the good places to have Banana Leaf meals.

Address:  47, Jalan 1/10, PJ Old Town,
                46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Telephone: +603 7782 0863

Opening Hours: 1130 - 1500 Daily