Bao Bao vs. Cha Cha Pan Mee

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Saucer loves Pan Mee. Seriously. He has to have pan mee at least once a week, without fail. And because of that, I was dragged into his craze. OK, I quite like pan mee too, fine.  We went to quite a number of pan mee shops before but I would like to focus on these two, simply because they have pretty similar names, similar dining environment and similar pricing.

Bao Bao Pan Mee is a chain restaurant widely available around Klang Valley. I believe there are even 2 branches in Puchong alone! The interior of Bao Bao Pan Mee was neat and tidy, but it was a little too warm since it was in the afternoon.

Bao Bao Pan Mee interior

What attracted me once I sat down was the choice of sauces available, all four of them. I tried each of them and found that I loved the yellow greenish one the most, as shown in the picture below. It was a combination of chili, lime, garlic and more. The taste was just very appetizing and spicy.

Choice of sauces

The drink menu was not really extensive, and I chose the Lime juice which was refreshing in the heat of the noon.

Lime juice

We ordered two bowls of soup pan mee, one with pinched noodles and the other with thick noodles. The soup was very fragrant with the smell of anchovies and the portion was pretty huge too.

Thick noodles pan mee soup

I have one gripe though, I found that the thick noodles were too thick. In some cases, I even found some of the noodles uncooked. The same goes with the pinched noodles. Saucer was also complaining that they were a tad too thick especially at the middle part of the noodles.

Pinched noodles pan mee soup

Bao Bao Pan Mee at Puchong Jaya

After tasting the Bao Bao Pan Mee, we tried Cha Cha Pan Mee the following week. Cha Cha Pan Mee is located at Aman Suria, PJ. My first impression was that the interior was really tidy and cooling, since the shop was walled and has air conditioning. Cha Cha Pan Mee wins on environment for sure.

Cha Cha Pan Mee interior

The menu was simple and only had one page.

Cha Cha Pan Mee menu

However, Cha Cha Pan Mee only had 2 choices of sauce, losing to Bao Bao Pan Mee’s 4 choices.

Choice of sauces

The drink list was pretty normal with nothing too extraordinary.

Milk tea at Cha Cha Pan Mee

Saucer ordered pinched noodles in soup again, for direct comparison.

Pinched noodles pan mee soup

This time, the difference was distinct. The pan mee was very smooth and thin. One could just have fun slurping the noodles. The soup was also fragrant with addition of vegetables, minced pork and mushroom. The difference was that Cha Cha served the anchovies separately on a small plate, so one could customize his own bowl of noodles.

Pinched noodles at Cha Cha Pan Mee

I, on the other hand, tried the dry version of pan mee, with thick noodles.

Dry pan mee

The noodles with soft and smooth, though not as thin as the pinched version. The mixture of minced pork, mushroom and gravy was perfectly concocted. I enjoyed the pan mee to the very last bit!

Dry version pan mee

All pan mee came with a separate bowl of soup with ‘fu chuk’ and fried anchovies.

Soup with ‘fu chuk’

Fried anchovies

Since we went on a Sunday, Cha Cha runs a special promotion every Sunday! A plate of fried dumplings for only RM1! What a steal! We ordered that without thinking and weren’t disappointed.

Fried dumplings for RM1

The dumplings were not oily and were filled with marinated pork. The skin was also thin and each dumpling was nicely wrapped. Really good deal for the price we paid. Not to be missed if you visit Cha Cha on a Sunday ya?

Fried dumplings with pork fillings

As you can see, the clear winner is indeed Cha Cha Pan Mee. If only they have more branches, especially in Puchong, I would definitely visit it more.

Restoran Bao Bao Pan Mee
23A, Jalan Kenari 9,
Bandar Puchong Jaya,
47100 Puchong Jaya,
Selangor

Restoran Cha-Cha Pan Mee Original
K-G-1 & K-G-3, Jalan PJU 1/43
Aman Suria
47301 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor

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