Category: Reviews | Post by: Andrea Wong
Mamak Malaysian
50 Kitchener St (Chancery Square)
Auckland CBD
Phone 09 948 6479
Open Tuesdays - Sundays: 11.30am - 10.00pm
"This one's a 10 out of 10" declared Banana Bro, as he tucked into a plateful of Mamak's food.
"Which dish?" I asked him. "All of them", he replied.
I think my bro has just discovered his new favourite Malaysian restaurant.
Mamak Malaysian is a little café tucked near the back of The Chancery in the Auckland CBD. The Chancery itself has a distinct European feel and the outside of Mamak plays to this theme with French bistro style chairs and umbrellas, but its food is distinctly Malaysian (Mamak is a Malaysian word to describe Malaysian Tamil Indians).
Banana Bro, Mr H and I settled ourselves around a table outside even though there's room inside... the light's better for photos outside. I'm all about trying to get a good photo!
Jeffrey the owner spent a bit of time to proudly explain to us that Mamak makes its own rotis and imports its tea for teh tarik ($3.50). Looking at the menu, you can easily see that they take advantage of their home made rotis, with no less than ten dishes containing them.
Rotis are on their way but first up, we tuck into sambal grilled prawns ($8) and chicken satay ($14.50 for 8). Already our lips are smacking: the home made sambal sauce on the prawns have a lovely fresh flavour and the satay are succulent.
Satay rating: 8/10
Maybe it's the way that I was brought up, but I love the sharing nature of asian meals - it suits my nibbling, sampling tendencies. We each ordered a main dish but we shared them all: curry chicken, beef murtabak and nasi goreng.
Beef murtabak ($13.50) is basically a lightly eggy beef and onion mixture wrapped in roti and is a typical Malaysian-Indian dish. It's not a dish that you see very often in Malaysian restaurants in Auckland and is a nice dish to include in a shared meal.
My favourite out of the mains was the curry chicken and roti ($13.50) - a nice full flavour topped with fried curry leaves and the roti was fresh and flaky. Was it the best that I've had so far in my trips for Malaysia Kitchen? Possibly. Jeffrey tells us that he only uses chicken thighs. That gets a big tick from me because the thigh is my favourite part of the chicken: it's oh so juicy and flavourful!
Roti rating: 8/10
The nasi goreng ($13.50) didn't look too exciting even with the egg on top. I think I only tried a wee bit - I was too busy enjoying my curry chicken.
I like how Mamak takes advantage of their home made roti and have some less common different dishes like roti tissue ($7.50): tissue-thin, crispy roti served with dipping sauces; and roti pisang ($9.50): a dessert of banana sandwiched between two layers of roti and served with condensed milk.
Of course with me having a sweet tooth and Banana Bro being a banana lover, we had to try the roti pisang. Banana Bro and I loved it! It's quite big and is enough for 3-4 people to share for dessert. This would be even more d'lish if it was made with those sweet finger bananas that you see sometimes.
It's a good sign when you leave a restaurant thinking about what you're going to eat next time. So next time, I would love to try the spicy soft shell crab ($12), the roti tissue and maybe a spicy noodle or laksa. I can't wait, Jeffrey, save us a table outside please!