IT Roo - The Best Chicken Chop In Town?

• Operating Hours: 10 AM - 9.30 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 17, Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru 80000

One of my comfort food that never fails, chicken chop.

IT Roo is one of the oldest established Hainanese restaurants in Johor Bahru. 

They were awarded “Best Chicken Chop in Malaysia” by The Star newspaper in 2003, hence their tagline “The Best Chicken Chop in Town”. Well, 2003 is very long time ago but with such reputation, we had to check it out.

It was air-conditioned indoor so it was still a pleasant place to dine under the very hot weather. The place is clean but the table a little small for normal dining.

Atmosphere was pretty nostalgic as there are photos and memorabilia from the past that takes you back in 1950s.

IT Roo serve zi char dishes as well, so if you’re not in western cuisine, you could try others. For chicken chop you could choose fried or grilled. The options for the sauce either mushroom or black pepper. 

Of course I ordered their signature fried chicken chop with mushroom sauce. The order was served fast, within 10 mins.

The portion was just nice, the Chicken Chop comes with mushroom gravy with few slice of button mushrooms, coleslaw, fried hand-cut potato wedges and slices of cucumber and tomato.

The potato wedges were not crispy but soggy kind.

It was made of boneless flattened chicken thigh meat that's crispy on the outside yet not overly oily, tender and juicy on the inside. The batter coating was just nice, not too heavily battered, it was crunchy to the bite. 

Mushroom sauce is mild and it does not do much to add any flavor to the chicken, even though it was supposed to be a mushroom sauce, it tasted rather a light chicken gravy with sliced mushrooms. In fact, I thought the chicken tasted good on its own without the gravy.

When sliced open, what you get is white and tender meat.

The food was not bad but I wouldn't say their chicken chop is the best in town.

Do note IT Roo is halal-certified and it charges 6% GST and 2 RM for the plate of peanuts on your table, you can return it when they served it to you.