Review: Cafe Malacca
Apart from the large sign with the name of the restaurant, you'd be hard-pressed to tell from the decor what kind of cuisine the place serves, which makes the quality of the food a pleasant surprise.
Malaysian/Singaporean and Western
about HK$220 without drinks or the service charge.
apart from the large sign with the name of the restaurant, you'd be hard-pressed to tell from the decor what kind of cuisine the place serves, which makes the quality of the food a pleasant surprise.
there are two menus - one listing Straits cuisine, and the other a generic hotel-coffee-shop list of dishes such as pasta carbonara, bolognese and chocolate sundaes. We ordered the Straits dishes only.
the beef rendang (HK$88) had tender meat, but the sauce hadn't cooked down long enough, so it wasn't sufficiently intense. The Malay fried chicken in spicy turmeric marinade (HK$53) didn't have much flavour.
the otak otak (Peranakan spicy fish paste wrapped and grilled in a banana leaf, HK$32) could have used a little more time on the grill, but it was moist, with balanced, slightly spicy flavours. The satay, available as chicken or beef (we asked for a combination) and priced at HK$72 for six pieces, was very good. The meat was tender and moist, the peanut sauce tasted home-made and it was served with soft pillows of rice cakes. The fried carrot cake (HK$63) was piping hot, plentiful and delicious, with cubes of grated turnip cake cooked with bean sprouts, prawns, salted turnip and dark soy sauce. Even better was the Penang assam laksa (HK$82): a bowl of tart, mildly spicy tamarind-flavoured broth, with fish, noodles, pineapple, herbs and ginger flower. The rolled pandan-flavoured crêpe with grated coconut and palm sugar (HK$38) was served freshly made and warm, and it was a nice way to end a satisfying meal.