Crowd favourites include vinegar trotters, yam cake and Hakka salted steamed chicken in rice wine broth (All photos: Low Yen Yeing/The Edge)
If there is one thing optimists and dreamers like to believe, it is that starting over is always possible. In fact, beginning a new chapter can sometimes be the better decision. This certainly holds true for food and beverage (F&B) industry veteran Fay Cheng, whose enduring passion for good food and feeding the community always leads her to the ever-chaotic yet rewarding restaurant scene.
Most who know Cheng would likely have met her during her years as one of the co-owners of Oriental Cravings. Situated in 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya, the popular haunt was known for its traditional Malaysian Chinese comfort fare and consistent flavours that reminded patrons of grandma’s cooking — the epitome of good food. If you were to walk by the establishment on any given day at peak hour, full tables and a long queue (sometimes with more than an hour’s wait) were a common sight.
After 17½ years in the hectic restaurant industry, Cheng and her former business partners made the tough decision to shut Oriental Cravings down during the pandemic. The closure actually felt like a huge respite for Cheng. For a moment, closing this chapter in her life seemed to be the next move. “I thought I was going to retire and had plans to relocate to the UK,” she recalls. “But I spent about three months there and got so bored! I just knew it was not for me, so I came back to Malaysia.”
She dabbled in a few projects, but her mind was always on F&B. Cheng attributes what happened next to fateful timing: The same leasing company that had helped acquire the unit in 1 Utama approached her with a proposal for a space in KLGCC Mall, a new building located right beside the greens of Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club. Her god-daughter Karen Kok, whom Cheng had wanted to work with for a long time, was ready to pivot from the corporate scene to something different. What officially sealed the deal, though, was the opportunity to rehire the original chef who had helmed the kitchen at Oriental Cravings.
2.png
On Oct 24, nearly four years after Oriental Cravings closed, Cheng and Kok opened Third Serving. The name is a reference to Cheng’s third F&B venture and a cheeky joke. “When the food is good, you go for a second helping. Ours is so tasty that you ask for another after that,” she laughs. The restaurant’s Chinese name can be seen on its exterior wall. The primary characters translate directly into “from the heart”, and are a homophone for “restart” or “rebirth”.
At first glance, the menu bears a similarity to Oriental Cravings’. The crowd favourite claypot loh shu fun — rice noodles with minced pork and dark soy sauce — is a nostalgic order for returning customers and the ideal introduction for newcomers. Other signature dishes include Hakka salted steamed chicken in a gingery rice wine broth, tangy and tender vinegar trotters, chee cheong fun served with savoury pork curry, yam cake garnished with shallots and dried shrimp, and golden beancurd with a fragrant topping of stir-fried pork and preserved vegetables. Ingredients are diligently sourced, as the owners are passionate about offering natural flavours.
As neither Cheng nor Kok is particularly social media savvy and just “wanted to see how things go”, they decided not to double down on marketing leading up to the opening. “We hoped that word of mouth that we were back would gradually attract old regulars,” explains Kok, who used to help out at Oriental Cravings as a teen. KLGCC Mall had less foot traffic than 1 Utama. So, when the restaurant began pulling in throngs of diners — the kind determined enough to wait for a table — within its first couple of weeks, the small team was shocked.
“I’m completely overwhelmed by the reception we’ve received!” Cheng exclaims. “People come in to tell us how much they missed our food. There was this boy who grew up eating our loh shu fun since he was about 10 years old. He went away for university, and Oriental Cravings closed before he returned. Apparently, he went around all of KL to find something that matches the taste he remembers, but couldn’t. He came by recently and shook my hand, thanking me for opening again.”
Kok noticed something even more surprising — a large portion of Third Serving’s customers had never patronised Oriental Cravings. Some had never even heard of the previous place. Many also came from further areas of the Klang Valley. “These are folks who don’t usually come all the way here just for one meal, so to see this kind of crowd was completely unexpected.”
1.png
Even when the lunch crowd is at maximum capacity, Cheng, Kok and the staff make it a point to ensure each table is satisfied. When they stop by for a quick check-in, it becomes clear why patrons keep coming back for more. Third Serving’s honest flavours and soulful dishes come with a side of genuine human connection. Food has always been the simplest form of showing love in Asian communities. From the generational recipes that remind the owners of their families and hometown of Segamat, Johor, to how they work tirelessly yet always find a minute to personally tend to you, it all comes down to honouring the meals they grew up eating and sharing a taste of that with others.
New beginnings usually mean fresh perspectives. While the staple dishes will definitely not be going anywhere, Cheng’s love for experimenting with food means diners can expect Third Serving to not only be a place for authentic tastes, but modern interpretations as well. “My chef is really good at making chilli crab — his sauces are amazing!” she says. “I’m thinking about creating some dips for the after-lunch crowd, the kind of thing you can bring a bottle of wine to sip on while you snack and chat. We want to make things a little more interesting here and not be limited to just the old dishes we are known for.”
Lot 3F-03, Third Floor, KLGCC Mall, 1, Jalan Bukit Kiara 1, KL. Open daily, 10am to 10pm.
This article first appeared on Nov 17, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.
