Mamak - Haymarket

The weekend was met with rain. It made it gloomy and humid and wet - ruining our attempt at enjoying the Japanese Summer Festival at Darling Harbour. Well, it meant we had to have a good meal to cheer us all up.

For 4 people, we were luckily escorted to an empty table at this busy popular Malaysian place without any need for waiting. When we sat down, my partner wanted to order atleast 10 things on the menu. Luckily, myself and our company had a bit more self-control and settled for just 6 dishes.

Drinks first, my partner's Teh Tarik ($3.50), which is a hot classic malaysian sweetened tea, was super super sweet yet nicely so. It has a centimeter of froth on the top as the tea is "stretched". Some people believe that this stretching process is what makes the milk tea yummier. Well, I thought it was yummy, as did my partner. I ordered the Kopi Ais ($3.50) which is essentially super sweet ice white coffee. It tastes like the coffee lollies I used to buy from Asian grocery stores except nicely ice cold. Mmm... YUM. So unhealthy, but I could so drink it everyday.

Teh Tarik - $3.50

Kopi Ais - $3.50

Foodwise, we ordered the Kangkung Belacan ($13). This is stir-fried water spinach with chillies and shrimp paste. As myself and our other female companion does not tolerate chilli well, our dishes were all ordered "mild" with a side plate of chilli (as our male companions love chilli). The water-spinach was nice - soaked in the shrimp paste and was chilli especially when you accidentally bite into a chilli flake (thought I, but not my partner). Very tastey with juices that don't leave your memory easily.

Kangkung Belacan - $13

A non-spicy choice, the Mee Goreng ($10.50) was decided upon. The hokkien noodles were stir-fried and tossed with eggs, prawns, fish cake slices and bean sprouts. It bought with it a sweetish taste that gets you going back for more. Not too oily, yet not dry. Pretty good.

Mee Goreng - $10.50

We also ordered the Sambal udang ($18) which is tiger prawns stir-fried in fiery sambal sauce. We asked them to dumb down the "fieryness" - which they luckily did, making this a very yummy tastey yet not overly tastebud numbing experience. The prawns were also nicely cooked - no soggy and mushy, but a good elasticy-type chewy.

Sambal udang - $18

We couldn't step out of Mamak without ordering Roti. We ordered the Roti Canai ($5) which was served with two types of curries and a dab of spicy sambal sauce. The roti was oily, but not overly so, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I think the currys were nice? My company had no complaints, and I didn't feel like trying it LOL.

Roti Canai - $5

A surprisingly awesome dish was the Ayam Goreng ($12 for 4). This was four super hugemungous, super juicy, super tender and super crispy skinned slabs of chicken. It was really very WOW. It felt as though I was eating KFC, except having a HUGE piece of it, and the chicken tasted better - marinated with herbs and spices and super super tenderness. However, whilst I'm talking this up, please keep in mind that it is just chicken after all.

Ayam Goreng - $12 for 4; $3.5 per piece

Last but not least was the skewers ($14 for 12). We ordered half chicken and half beef. It was awesomely chargrilled tasting, tender, tasty, and complemented the sweet and spicy, slightly chunky, satay sauce very well. The fact you get a bowl of satay sauce meant that we could lather it on the skewers if we wanted to.

Chicken/Beef Satay Skewers - $14 for a dozen

Overall, the food here was awesome! No wonder they are usually packed out with seemingly endless lines on most nights!

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30/40

Mamak
15 Goulburn St
Haymarket
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9211 1668