Category: Malaysian

There is quite an explosion of Malaysian restaurants in Sydney. Some of them are actually worth noting.

Petaling Street | Malaysian Hawker Food

Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $11 – $18 main course

Place: 7 / 10

Review:

When I heard that Petaling Street opened in Kingsford, I was so happy. The first time I went to Petaling Street, I tried its Steamed Fish with Radish ($15.80). A whole fish for $15.80 (rice included) was actually quite rare in Sydney! You can actually stop reading here and just order that fish when you go there next time.

They have quite a few options to choose from and luckily I went with quite a big group once. This way, I can showcase what they have. For the entrée, we ordered Vegetarian Spring Rolls ($5.8), Roti Kosong ($6.5) – Malaysian roti with curry dipping sauce, and Chee Cheong Fun ($7.80) – a popular breakfast food that has a combination of rice noodles, fish balls with chilli and special sweet sauce. This is the essence of Malaysian Hawker Food.

If you would like a traditional Singaporean/Malaysian dish, you could always go for Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice ($11.50) – Traditional hawker steamed chicken with chicken flavoured rice and soup. The Hainanese chicken was as expected. We also ordered another traditional Malaysian dish in Petaling Street, the Penang Fried Koay Teow ($11.50).

My favourite dish in Petaling Street (after the fish) is the Mar Mite Chicken Ribs with Rice ($11.80) – Steamed rice served with Chicken ribs in Mar Mite sauce. I tried this dish out of curiosity and it turned out to be pretty good. I love how the marmite actually gave a unique sweet dimension to the ribs. They also gave you the main dish option for $ 16.8.

You could also order Laksa or Mee Goreng ($10.80) but on this occasion, I did not really try them. Unfortunately, just like many other Asian restaurants, service was its weakest element.

The final verdict for Petaling Street: Malaysian Hawker Food

Petaling Street offers plenty of Malaysian food choices. If you can overlook the service, the food they served was actually pretty good and affordable. I love their Mar Mite Chicken Ribs, but I think most would appreciate the $15.80 whole fish more.

Details:

Shop 4, 438-448 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032

02 9662 8880

http://www.petalingst.com.au/

Mar 18, 2014
Harry’s Singapore Chilli Crab

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Harry’s has moved to a new venue, please check restaurant website for its new address.

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Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $50-60 per person

Place: 7 / 10

Review:

We conclude our feast-ival January with another Chilli Crab restaurant. Harry’s Singapore Chilli Crab restaurant has quite a confident sounding to its name. It even has the owner holding a mud crab as a picture on its billboard sign. We only ordered four dishes this time, but that was because there were only four of us. Nevertheless, I am still amazed how we could finish those dishes!

Our first dish of the day was (this is what’s written on the menu) Harry’s Pepper and Salt Calamari ($22.50). I think it was the dish flawless dish of the night. It was presented quite nicely and had an extra sauce should you require it. The calamari itself was perfectly crunchy and chewy at the same time. The calamari was quickly followed by Garlic Sauce Kangkung ($15.00). It was very similar to something that you would prepare at home, it looked very boringly green and tasted equally so.

For our next dish, Today’s Market whole fish in Ginger and Shallots ($38.50), the fish was overcooked. It was quite unfortunate because I think the combination of flavours and presentation were spot on! It had all the flavours of a ginger and shallot dish with additional tofu and green vegetables.

Of course our last dish of the day was Harry’s Singapore Chilli Crab (MP $85 per kg). There was quite a messy feel to its presentation, but then again you WILL get messy when eating a crab. From the taste department, this was the hottest crab that we ordered so far (PS: we always asked the chef to cook the crab ‘normally’). It was accompanied by nice-looking buns although it might be a bit too greasy. The crab was quite on par with other mud crab restaurants I have reviewed before.

The final verdict for Harry’s Singapore Chilli Crab

The dishes at Harry’s Singapore Chilli Crab was quite average. Given the pricey nature of the crab, you would expect the accompanying dishes to be quite enjoyable as well.

Details:

198 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills 2010

02 9281 5565

http://www.harryschillicrab.com.au/

Jan 29, 2014
Malacca Straits on Broadway

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8 / 10

Price: $50 per person

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

We always have a grand fiesta at the start of the year, not only to celebrate the New Year but also to celebrate birthdays of people around me. For the first restaurant of the year, we went to Malacca Straits on Broadway that has a unique specialty: BYO Crab! For $20 per mud crab (they only take this one!), they will cook your mud crab in one of three sauces. It is actually a very good price if you buy one gigantic mud crab (2+ kgs), considering that most places would charge $85+ / kg for similar dishes.

However, I must admit that the star dish was the first one out of the kitchen, Golden Sand Prawn ($26.80) – Crispy prawns served in a batter of duck egg yolks. This dish was perfect in many ways – Crunchy, savoury, yummy all rolled into one! We even ordered a second serving, despite being the more expensive dish of the night; it’s THAT good!

Consequently, the Marmite Chicken ($14.80) – Chicken pieces cooked in honey and Marmite sauce – and Oyster Omelette ($16.80) – Oyster pieces in fried egg batter and served with a tangy chilli sauce – that came afterwards fell short of the high expectation set by the prawn.

It went much better when they brought out Chick Kut Teh ($14.80) – Claypot chicken and oyster mushroom in savoury herbal soup – traditionally made with pork, this Halal, Malaysian restaurant changed the meat to Chicken. It provided the clear and refreshing feeling out of the heavy tasting dishes. Kangkung Belacan ($12.00) – stir-fried water spinach with sambal belacan – further cleansed our palate for the finale.

When the waitress brought the mud crabs to our table, they really made heads turned. They looked very delectable! Our first mud crab was cooked as Dry Curry Crab the menu stated that it was “Our knockout ‘dry’ curry sauce” and the owner (I think) actually said that customers loved this sauce more than the chilli crab. It was the right spice but I felt that it lacked that juicy leftover sauce that you could scoop out of the chilli crab.

The second mud crab had to be cooked Singapore Chilli Crab (Sweet and savoury tomato and chilli-based sauce) way! They offered whether we wanted more chilli or the non-spicy version, and I asked for the way they normally cooked it. Perhaps the only piece missing on the night was the deep-fried bun as they do not serve this.

The two desserts that we ordered weren’t exactly light either. Sticky Rice Pudding with Egg Custard ($5.00) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and coconut milk was probably nice if you haven’t had that much to eat. Kuih Ketayap ($5.00) – Pandan-flavoured crepe filled with toasted coconut and palm sugar and served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream – might be better suited for this occasion.

The final verdict for Malacca Straits on Broadway

If you want to eat Chilli Mud Crab on a budget, then Malacca Straits on Broadway is the place to be! However, you must also try its Golden Sand Prawn as they were literally golden!

Details:

66 Mountain Street, Broadway 2007

02 8021 7069

http://malaccastraitsbroadway.com.au/

Jan 9, 2014
Sinma Laksa House

Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7/10

Price: $401 for 8 people

Place: 6/10

Review:

For those of you looking at the price tag on this week’s restaurant, Sinma Laksa House, it might seem very excessive, especially if you know the restaurant inside out. Truth be told, I actually took quite a gamble when I invited my close group of friends to have a dinner here.

The main reason why I wanted to eat in this restaurant was this solitary dish, Singapore Chilli Crab. I am comparing this dish with the original one in Singapore, chilli crab from Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. There were quite a few differences between the two. In Sinma, they use Mud Crab for the dish (at around $86 / kg). Ours was 2.6 kgs of Mud crab and it was gigantic! They also dumbed down the spice. I guess it would make it edible to the local tongue. I was actually very pleased with the crab (until I received the bill ^_^).

The second dish was a dish recommended by the waitress, Fried Chicken (?). It’s a very ordinary looking deep fried chicken dish with prawn crackers. The portion was also quite big tho. In contrast, the third one, Beef and Chicken Satay, was very yummy. They were grilled perfectly with sides of rice cake, pickles and onions.

Our next highlight (and second most expensive dish) is the Steamed Barramundi with Ginger and Shallot. Together with the crab, they contributed to 2/3 of the total bill! However, they were really the top two dishes of the night. The soup base of the fish was fantastic, and the fish itself was succulent.

As you might know, I am not a big fan of the green stuff, but I think these next two were okay. Long Bean Belachan is a staple food in many Asian restaurants in Sydney. There was really nothing wrong with it, but nothing special as well. I quite like the Stir fried garlic asparagus for its crunchy and tasty asparagus.

Last but not least, we ordered a dish that might need an acquired taste: Sambal Prawns and Petai. Petai (known also as stink bean) has a very unusual smell and was a perfect match for the sambal prawns. The only downside for this was the dish was brought out very-very late in the service (when everything else was practically finished).

The final verdict for Sinma Laksa House

Sinma Laksa House has a very nice Singapore Chilli Crab. Is it worth the value? It would if the restaurant and waitresses were nicer. The rest of the dishes were also nice and presentable.

Did you know?

Without the chilli crab, it would only cost us around $20 per person!

Details:

391 Anzac Parade, Kingsford 2032

02 9313 7663

Oct 1, 2013