Mamak has opened in typical Melbourne heralded style with a Broadsheet introduction and queues out the door. Naturally I wanted to go and see what it was all about and preferably on a weekday night to avoid the weekend crush and foodie friend Kirsten was happy to be my date.
Firstly BYO - great! So armed with a bottle of Margaret River's finest we arrived around 5:15pm and waited for the doors to open. It's a shame there's nothing else around by way of a bar or somewhere to sit and wait except for a manky metal bench. We weren't the only ones waiting though and as soon as the doors opened at least two or three other dining groups went in ahead of us.
It's a decent sized dining hall. The tables are quite close together. There's nothing wrong with it but there's also nothing all that impressive. Wait staff are friendly enough and we were given glass tumblers for our wine quite quickly.
Firstly BYO - great! So armed with a bottle of Margaret River's finest we arrived around 5:15pm and waited for the doors to open. It's a shame there's nothing else around by way of a bar or somewhere to sit and wait except for a manky metal bench. We weren't the only ones waiting though and as soon as the doors opened at least two or three other dining groups went in ahead of us.
It's a decent sized dining hall. The tables are quite close together. There's nothing wrong with it but there's also nothing all that impressive. Wait staff are friendly enough and we were given glass tumblers for our wine quite quickly.
We ordered two types of roti - roti planta described as rich and buttery and roti bawang with lashings of sweet red onions both served with two curry sauces and spicy sambal sauce.
Loved the roti planta and the curry sauces consisted of a lentil one with a rough texture and a smooth gravy type. Both pretty good. The roti planta was on the right side of doughy whilst remaining light and I loved the buttery flavour. The roti bawang was alright - the onion wasn't as caramelised or sweet as I thought it would be. Still had that spicy onion tang which whilst not offensive wasn't what we expected. Still ate it all though but next time would be happy to drop it and try a different one but I'd re order the planta.
As our main courses we had the kari ayam described as classic chicken curry cooked with freshly ground spices and chunky potatoes. There were about 3 potatoes in our serve. The chicken was tasty and there was a good amount of it. I felt the spices hadn't quite cooked out enough as texture was a little grainy but it was good enough,
We also had the ayam goreng - Malaysian-style fried chicken marinated with herbs and spices and full of flavour. It was decent enough fried chicken and again good size pieces.
Loved the roti planta and the curry sauces consisted of a lentil one with a rough texture and a smooth gravy type. Both pretty good. The roti planta was on the right side of doughy whilst remaining light and I loved the buttery flavour. The roti bawang was alright - the onion wasn't as caramelised or sweet as I thought it would be. Still had that spicy onion tang which whilst not offensive wasn't what we expected. Still ate it all though but next time would be happy to drop it and try a different one but I'd re order the planta.
As our main courses we had the kari ayam described as classic chicken curry cooked with freshly ground spices and chunky potatoes. There were about 3 potatoes in our serve. The chicken was tasty and there was a good amount of it. I felt the spices hadn't quite cooked out enough as texture was a little grainy but it was good enough,
We also had the ayam goreng - Malaysian-style fried chicken marinated with herbs and spices and full of flavour. It was decent enough fried chicken and again good size pieces.
The beef satay grilled over flaming charcoal for that authentic Malaysian flavour was served with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce. They were small skinny little skewers and pleasant enough but like the roti bawang not a must order for next time.
Roti pisang served with fresh banana was dessert. Oh and if Mamak do one thing good it's their roti. This was delicious with caramelised banana stuffed inside the roti. You can see the brown discs of banana on the picture and coupled with vanilla ice cream it was a dessert delight.
We paid $35 each for all that food which I thought was a good deal given we were in CBD. It's not groundbreaking cuisine or destination dining but for a quick tasty meal during the week, it's a good call. At least the roti rocks.
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