Malaysian @ Malay Village

Being a Malaysian, having a feast at a Malaysian restaurant is always a delight, although I do get a bit more critical than usual. So for lunch one day, a friend and I went to Malay Village in Chinatown Sydney. This place is diagonally opposite to the crazily popular Mamak. It serves more variety than Mamak and yet is quite empty whilst Mamak has a continuous line outside the shop right opposite.

The reason was clear why this was so. The food is significantly more expensive and I am not sure if it is necessarily of better quality.

Otak-otak

For entree, we had Otak-otak ("brains"), which is a savoury cake made of fish and spices. It tasted good but the portion definitely could have been more generous.





Roti Canai









A Malaysian meal is not complete without roti!  Strangely, the roti was served in a ball haha... normally, roti is crispy, flaky and flat... the taste was not bad but it definitely didn't have the texture that I was looking for... can't recommend it unfortunately... the curry sauces were watery and they didn't serve dhal curry which is my favourite type of curry that goes best with roti

Penang Char Kuay Teow

One of the most popular and my favourites is Char Kuay Teow. This one tasted quite good especially considering that it didn't have any pork lard in it. The price for the noodles was a bit steep though. At $14.90, I reckon it should be 2 or 3 bucks less.

 

Nasi lemak

We tried another classic Malaysian dish, nasi lemak with beef rendang. This tasted quite good but again, I will be able to get this in another store for at least 3 bucks less. The piece of egg given was a tiny eighth of a full egg. Not very impressed I was.

For dessert, I tried the cendol, which is a green dessert originating from Southeast Asia. It is served with coconut milk, brown sugar and red bean sometimes. This dish was decently good. Not the best I have tasted but I can't complain.



My friend got the pandan sago. Pandan is a leaf that is fragrant and used as flavour for many Asian desserts and even used to cook nasi lemak. This dish again was very small, although because it is quite rich the size may be enough for most people. Still, it wouldn't hurt for the restaurant to be a bit more generous in its serving size.

Rating

Food: Tasty and authentic. As a Malaysian, I couldn't complain really.

Ambience:

Sitting outside in the fresh air on elevated grounds of Chinatown is a luxury that is not easily found in the area.

Value: Poor value for money, when comparing to other Malaysian restaurants

Nutritional value: The ingredients seemed reasonable in quality, but being Malaysian it is not particularly highly nutritious given the high carb and sugar content.

Overall: Not dazzling but quite deelicious...