Malay House - Underwood

Been seeing quite a few photos on insta about the newly opened Malay House, over in the increasingly bustling shopping hub that is Underwood Marketplace. Having read Brisvegustation's detailed post about the restaurant, I decided to go for an early lunch while their opening specials were still on.

Arriving just past 11.30am on a Saturday, I was pleased to get a table without waiting, especially as a queue formed roughly 15 minutes after we were seated. Having said that, the restaurant was definitely quite small and could probably not accommodate more than 30~40 people.

 

Menus were provided. They were really quite short, but contained all essential elements we were looking for, with rice and noodle dishes, as well as a short selection of drinks.

Taking advantage of the opening special, we got free drinks with each main purchased. They came out fairly quickly after ordering.

  

I ordered the hot white coffee, which was quite strong, very smooth, but also very sweet. Will definitely have to ask for a sugar reduced option next time. My companion ordered the soya cincau, being soy milk with chopped up grass jelly. She found it mild and refreshing, having ordered it without ice, it was cool enough for the middle of winter. With the cincau having been chopped up, it was small enough to go up the standard straw, which she appreciated.

After a not insignificant wait of about half an hour from ordering, our mains came.

My companion had the Nasi Lemak with prawns. She found the coconut rice to be strongly flavoured and very fragrant. Prawns were well seasoned in a tangy sauce and the anchovies on the side gave it an extra kick of flavour. Only improvement is that there could have been more prawns in the dish, which was dominated by sauce.

I ordered my standard Wat Tan Hor, The dish looked deceptively small but the stir fried rice noodles were densely packed under the rich and smooth egg gravy. In fact there was so much rice noodle, there ended up not being enough topping to go with the dish. Nevertheless I loved how the caramelised noodles were pan fried to a perfect texture which complimented the sauce well. Toppings of fish cake, fish ball and prawns were ample but fairly standard.

Price Range: $10 - $20pp

Taste: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: 8/10