When you think about SE Asian food, most people are familiar with Thai and Vietnamese food. Very few think of Malaysian or Indonesian food and there are even fewer of those types of restaurants around. While I haven't been to Malaysia before, I can say that the food in Indonesia is good but definitely not as delicious as its more famous sibling countries. But when Deanna mentioned that this new Malaysian place opened up in her hood, it was definitely worth a try.
We had called earlier in the day to try to make reservations and they seemed to have taken our name, but when we called back later to confirm, the person on the line sounded confused and said that they didn't have our name anywhere and that the wait would be an hour. We decided to wing it and go anyways. Strangely, as soon as we walk in, they seated us immediately. WTF - what happened to the 1 hour wait?
My first impression was that this place was bi-polar. It's split up into 2 rooms, one room is decorated with traditional SE Asian decor, while the other room is this weird modern set-up with terrible dressing room lighting. Of course, we ended up sitting on the modern decor side next to the kitchen.
The menu has a nice array SE Asian food that you normally don't see: curry laksa, mee goreng, and Hainanese chicken to name a few. But it also has the usual suspects of pad thai, fried rice, claypot noodles, and chicken and broccoli. We started with the gado-gado salad ($7.95) and I got the Nyonya curry chicken ($13.95) and Deanna got the mee goreng ($10.95). The gado-gado salad is a Indonesian style "salad" which consisted of bean sprouts, jicama, cucumber, tofu, boiled egg, and a very heavy helping of peanut sauce. Ok, it was basically just a giant plate of peanut sauce with some other stuff in it. While I do love peanut sauce, I can't really say that this was any kind of healthy salad but it was unique and tasty. After we got our salad, we then had to wait and wait and wait for our entrees. Maybe this is what the guy on the phone meant when he said it was an hour wait - it wasn't to get seated but to get your food. Luckily we weren't starving so when the food finally arrived we weren't hangry and crazed. This curry is definitely different than a traditional Indian or Thai curry - it's got a sweetness to it that's probably from the coconut milk and cinnamon. It was quite tasty and there was a nice mix of chicken breast and thigh as well as potatoes in there. What I also like about food from this region is the inclusion of a fried egg and cucumber with the rice. Such a delicious combination. I have been trying to avoid white rice but when I do have it, it's like eating ice cream to me and then putting a fried egg on top of it? Yum.
They don't have much in terms of dessert but I do want to give a shout out to their iced coffee ($3.25) - it was close to a Vietnamese style coffee (but served without the coffee infuser) and it was sweet and delicious. Overall, it was a fine meal and I could see as a nice neighborhood hang, but the wait was a bit ridiculous and they should just knock down the wall that joins the 2 rooms together to make it one larger and cohesive space. Total bill: $23/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
1 comment:
You forget the salad was served on a bed of French fries ��
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