Mee Bandung Abu Bakar Hanipah, Muar

Mee Bandung Abu Bakar Hanipah (11 September, 2016)

Mee Bandung Abu Bakar Hanipah (GPS: 2.04654, 102.56619) is a famous mee bandung restaurant in Muar, Johor. It operates out of Kedai Kopi Wah San (though most people wouldn't even know the coffee shop by that name; the Abu Bakar Hanipah Mee Bandung stall completely eclipses it), which is on the ground floor of Kheng Jai Wee Kuan Building.

Abu Bakar Hanipah's stall is so famous that it has been visited by many famous people including the Sultan of Johor, the former Menteri Besar and former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Chef Wan, to name just three. The stall dates back to 1930, when it was started by Abu Bakar's father Hanipah. Abu Bakar himself started working for his father at the age of seven, washing plates, and has spent his whole life with the business, which today grew to three branches, one for each of his three sons. The main branch of Mee Bandung Abu Bakar Hanipah is at Jalan Abdullah in downtown Muar. For his two other sons, Abu Bakar set up branches at Medan Selara Tanjung Emas and Pagoh.

My wife and I had the opportunity to try out Abu Bakar's mee bandung at his main restaurant on Jalan Abdullah and meet up with the man himself. The stall is open daily from 7:00 am in the morning and continues until 4:30 to 5:00 pm in the evening. There is no fixed off day, usually one of the week days. The stall is usually open on the weekends.

I had a chance to sit down and have a chat with Mr Abu Bakar, who is such a friendly and obliging man. He even let us take photo of him at work. According to him, times were tough in the early days. At that time, many customers were poor and would seek out various ways to avoid paying. In his early days, his mee bandung sold for just 30 sen per plate. It was not unusual back then for 5 people to share one single plate. Also, to avoid paying for their meal, they would hatch up all sorts of excuses, such as putting hair into the plate and accusing Abu Bakar of hair in his mee bandung. How much times have changed.

How do we find the mee bandung? I like it, though, to be honest, I found it to be incredibly sweet (but that does not surprise me too much, as I found most of the Malay and mamak fare to lean to the sweet side. When we ordered, we were asked whether we take beef, to which we answered yes. The mee bandung has small pieces of beef, with one whole egg and several small prawns. It was RM5 per plate (as of September, 2016). In addition to the mee bandung, we also ordered the satay. I learned that it was Javanese satay. Not too bad. It cost 70 sen per stick. The coffee shop is Chinese operated. We ordered ice barley and ice coffee. It came to RM2.90 (which my wife felt was rather steep for Muar).

Abu Bakar Hanipah is a true businessman, ever looking for opportunities to expand his business. Anybody wanting to purchase his sauces can order it directly from him and he would courier it to them using Pos Laju. The following are the addresses of his shops.

Mee Bandung Muar
69A, Jalan Abdullah,
84000 Muar, Johor.
Phone: 012 264 2720

Selera Bandung Muar
No. 9, Medan Selera Tanjung Emas,
84000 Muar, Johor.
Phone: 016 656 5755

Selera Bandung Muar
No. 9, Agro Bazar Pagoh,
84600 Pagoh, Johor.
Phone: 012 259 0046