Oversea • Kuala Lumpur
84-88, Jalan Imbi • 60 3 2144 9911
YU Soo Chye is the founder of Oversea, perhaps Malaysia’s most famous Chinese restaurant. His father had come from Guandong and had a movable stall selling wanton noodles. Born in the state of Perak (capital Ipoh has some of the best Chinese food in the whole of the country), Yu is a born story teller, from an era before the advent of television or today’s mobile devices.
He holds his listeners spellbound as he reaches into the past and pulls out personal memories of a bygone era. Yu speaks of cooking with pig’s tail, and diners who revel when there is both fat and meat on the bone (some of us are still around).
Founder YU Soo Chye and his son YU Tack Tein
At three years young, Yu followed his father back to Guangdong and only returned to Malaysia when he was 10. He had to start working and thought of being a car mechanic but his father objected. So, instead, Yu helped him sell wanton noodles and attended night classes. That only lasted a year because in 1957, he began work as a kitchen helper and had to wash plates and bowls, clean tables, make tea and other chores
Yu Soo Chye continued working in the kitchen for various restaurants and, with time, learned to cook and was standing behind a wok by the time he was 18. In 1977, at just 27, Yu was promoted to being a chef at a restaurant in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, when the Taiwanese chef resigned.
An even bigger, life-changing break occurred in 1977. The proprietor of a small restaurant in Jalan Imbi, a wok’s throw from Bukit Bintang, was looking for someone to take over the business. Yu grabbed at the chance and Oversea was born.
Hong Konger Renee Lam makes a discovery on her first trip to Kuala Lumpur. Oversea is the only 100 Top Chinese Restaurants in the World 2019 in the Malaysian capital.
BBQ Pork and Char Siew 
Steamed Marble Goby
Flat Roasted Duck
