The restaurant has served loyal customers from near and far. In its heyday, foodies from nearby Taman Melawati and its surroundings – some coming from as far as Shah Alam, Kajang, and occasionally Singapore – frequented the restaurant, some daily, for its extremely affordable Hakka fare.

Highway Ampang used to see long queues on weekends, and a healthy number of customers during the week, at its original commercial location near Ampang’s Flamingo Hotel, now a fenced-off empty lot cleared by the state government to build the SUKE Highway.

Now situated in a house in Kuala Ampang, the restaurant only sees a smattering of its long-time clientele, a far cry from its prime, and the restaurant has found it steadily more difficult to maintain its business.

The final straw, according to the restaurant’s 63-year-old proprietor Elaine Siow, was the high licence fee of RM2,000 every six months for a restaurant in a residential area, drastically higher than the RM900 per year they used to pay at their original commercial location.

Despite its troubles, Highway Ampang has maintained its low prices. Iced Chinese tea here costs 60 sen, and the various yong tau foo dishes – vegetables stuffed with fish paste, fried tau foo and fu chuk (bean curd), sui kow (Chinese dumplings) and so on – are a steal at RM1.50 across the board.

Some may question why the restaurant has kept prices so low. Siow, who has run the place with her two sisters since she was 17, says that the reason has always been their wish to serve all customers regardless of income.

“We are not so business-minded as to only want to make money. We want everybody to come here and eat, not just ‘rich’ people who can afford to pay RM2 (per piece). We sell our food at RM1.50; some people take two bowls of rice and three pieces of yong tau foo, that’s RM6 to RM9.

“Some of these people, we don’t even charge them for Chinese tea,” she told FMT.

Race and religion has also been no barrier to service here, as Highway Ampang has also seen a large number of Malays among its regulars for its Muslim-friendly fare.

Part of the humble restaurant’s draw is the fish paste used for stuffing, which is made in-house, as well as the broth the yong tau foo is served in, which Siow proudly says has no MSG and draws its flavour from fish bone.

Long-time customer Ong, 77, who comes here with his wife every day for lunch, enthuses over the work put into making the fish paste, compared with more commercial ventures that buy their paste from suppliers.

“They make their own paste from the fish they buy. Other places have their paste supplied, which uses cheap quality fish and has a lot of additives such as flour. Here, they use good fish – ikan parang (wolf herring fish),” he said.

“We have tried other places. We tried another big restaurant elsewhere in Ampang. We ordered 20 pieces, but couldn’t even finish them. It was different.

“The Chinese tea here is RM0.60. Elsewhere, it’s at least RM1. The yong tau foo here sells for RM1.50. The place may be smaller, but being big doesn’t matter if the food’s not good,” he said. “It’s going to be a big problem for us once they close down here.”