Malaysia Local Delights Review: Lok Lok Buffet with Free-Flow Ice-Cream For $24.80 Nett

A Malaccan Favourite Brought To Singapore

Lok Lok. What is it? That question kept playing in my head even before I stepped foot into Malaysia Local Delights. After getting a glimpse of high shelves piled with sticks of various meats and vegetables, it occurred to me that the best way to describe lok lok would be “steamboat on a stick”.

Lok lok sticks at Malaysia Local Delights are unlimited for a fixed price of $24.80 on weekdays and $26.80 on weekends and public holidays. There’s no GST or service charge as well! With so many things to choose from with a free flow supply, you can bet we went a little crazy.

Food at Malaysia Local Delights

This place offers an array of 70 different dish sticks and 22 sauces. Some include the iconic Angry Bird fish cakes to eccentric sounding meats dubbed ‘Sweet Intestines’. As for sauces, we spotted the ever-popular garlic chilli sauce and the love-it-or-hate-it cincalok, a brine made with tiny fermented shrimp.

Broth-wise, we were allowed to choose from 8 different soup bases. There were notable childhood favourites such as Chicken Soup but their signature was definitely the Penang Prawn Soup. According to the owner, the latter can only be found here in Singapore. You get to choose 2 soup bases for your lok lok, or add $6 for 1 soup base and half a pot of old-school peanut satay sauce for dipping purposes. 

We went with the Chicken Soup and chose a range of fish dishes, raw meats and veggies. The one that stood out the most was their Sotong Cheese Balls. Bite into the firm meat and you’ll receive a burst of molten, gooey cheese.

I’ve always been a fan of chicken soup, so I enjoyed the broth here. I also liked how many of their fish sticks retained the QQ bounciness even after a hot steep in the broth. As for the meats, some did look aesthetically-dodgy and a bit too chewy for my liking.

The place also serves cooked foods for your satay sauce dipping pleasures. From fried chicken wings to wanton, the variety here is not too bad. However, we were a little skeptical about the freshness of the cooked foods. As we came during off-peak hours, the restaurant was relatively empty and food wasn’t replenished as frequently.

After our meal, we headed over to the ice-cream section for our unlimited supply of ice-cream! Feeling creative and adventurous, we had a go at making our own Coke Float with coke and cookies and cream ice-cream. Even though the quality of the ice-cream wasn’t anything to shout about, I’m still not gonna complain about free-flow ice-cream.

Ambience at Malaysia Local Delights

While you shouldn’t expect any fancy tables or chairs, the ambience here definitely exceeded the dingy hawker stall stereotype with its bright lights. The thoughtfulness of providing plates for both raw and cooked food also put their hygiene standards in our good books.

The Verdict

The variety of dishes and sauces at Malaysia Local Delights can definitely match up to many other steamboat buffets around and for less than $25, dining here is no doubt a steal. Yet beyond the hype of lok lok, this could be just another one of your typical steamboat restaurants, except presented in a different light. 

If you haven’t tried lok lok, I’d say head down to Malaysia Local Delights and check this off your bucket list.

This is an independent review with all expenses borne by Eatbook.sg.