Pan mee battle: Chai Cha Teh (10 years) vs MadChilli Pan Mee (1 year)

Pan mee might look humble, but a good bowl has plenty going on. You need springy noodles, savoury toppings, enough moisture to bring everything together, and of course, chilli that adds flavour instead of simply setting your mouth on fire.

For this battle, I went with two spots that sit at very different stages of their journey. Chai Cha Teh has been serving its pan mee at TTDI Market for almost a decade, while MadChilli Pan Mee is the newer name, having opened its first outlet in 2024.

One has had years to win over regulars. The other has built its identity around chilli. I tried both to see which bowl I’d actually want to order again.

Why these contenders?

Both Chai Cha Teh and MadChilli Pan Mee are Muslim-friendly, but that’s about where their similarities end.

Chai Cha Teh has been a familiar name at TTDI Market since 2016. It has the sort of setting you’d expect from a market eatery, with a steady stream of regulars and weekday crowds that can stretch outside during peak hours.

MadChilli Pan Mee is considerably younger, but the brand has already expanded beyond its first outlet at Berjaya Times Square, with locations including MyTOWN KL, Setia City Mall and Central i-City.

The interesting part is how differently they approach the same dish. Chai Cha Teh keeps things relatively comforting and balanced, while MadChilli puts its chilli front and centre.

Chai Cha Teh

Tucked among the stalls at TTDI Market, Chai Cha Teh is easy to walk past if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Once lunchtime rolls around, though, the crowd makes it considerably harder to miss.

The eatery has been around since 2016, but owner Chua Chai Chuan’s food journey started earlier with otak-otak and cooking pastes. After customers began asking to try his cooking, he eventually opened Chai Cha Teh and expanded into the dishes it is now known for.

Despite hearing about it for years, this was actually my first time trying it. I went for the Dry Chilli Pan Mee (RM9), of course.

At RM9, the bowl was surprisingly generous. It came loaded with minced chicken, anchovies, mushrooms, shallots, spring onions and a jammy egg, giving me plenty to dig through with every mouthful.

The noodles were thin rather than the broad, flat kind, but that worked in their favour. They had a satisfying QQ texture and held onto the toppings nicely.

What stood out most was how moist the supposedly dry noodles were. The jammy egg and minced chicken created a creamy coating that brought everything together without turning greasy or heavy.

The flavour was savoury and understated, with little bursts of umami from the anchovies and mushrooms. Even the minced chicken had more flavour than the usual soy-sauce-heavy topping.

The chilli oil was crispy, dry and deceptively easy to underestimate. I only needed a little to wake up the whole bowl, so those with a lower spice tolerance might want to start small.

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MadChilli Pan Mee

MadChilli Pan Mee is the younger contender here, with its first outlet opening at Berjaya Times Square in October 2024. The brand has since grown to several outlets around Klang Valley, including MyTOWN KL, where I went for this comparison. This particular outlet opened in June 2025, which is pretty recent!

The concept is pretty straightforward but has a lot more variety than Chai Cha Teh. If you like chilli, there are plenty of ways to get your fix.

I ordered the Signature Minced Chicken Dry Chilli Pan Mee (RM13.90), which arrived as a sizeable bowl topped with minced chicken, crispy anchovies, spring onions, chilli crisps and an egg. It also came with soup.

At first glance, it looked similar to Chai Cha Teh’s bowl, except for the heaping chilli. Once I started eating, though, the differences became more obvious.

The noodles here were also thin, but flatter, and had been tossed in soy sauce. The entire bowl was noticeably drier, with a firm egg, crispy anchovies and minced chicken that didn’t bring much sauce of its own.

That made the accompanying soup more important than it was at Chai Cha Teh. A few spoonfuls helped loosen things up and made the noodles easier to eat.

Where MadChilli did pull ahead was the heat. The chilli crisps had a much stronger presence, giving the noodles a more assertive kick. It made me reach for another bite specifically because of the spice.

The flavours underneath were still savoury enough to keep things from becoming one-dimensional, but chilli is clearly the star here. It was pretty spicy though, so proceed with caution.

Verdict

For me, Chai Cha Teh takes the win.

Its noodles had the better texture, the jammy egg added much-needed richness, and the minced chicken brought more moisture and flavour to the bowl. I also liked that the chilli could be added gradually rather than taking over from the start.

MadChilli Pan Mee isn’t a bad bowl at all. In fact, I’d point spice lovers in its direction first. But when looking at the whole bowl rather than just the chilli factor, Chai Cha Teh gave me more of what I want from pan mee.

And at RM9, it’s pretty hard to argue with the value too.

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