Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Review - Malaysian Kitchen

Saturday, 25th Feb 2012


Malaysian Kitchen
910-912 Doncaster Road 
Doncaster East

Cuisine: Malaysian, Asian

Taste Rating: 7.5/10   Value Rating: 7.5/10

Malaysian Kitchen on Urbanspoon

Malaysian Kitchen is beside busy Doncaster Road. We went for a very early dinner, walking in as the door opened at 5.30 pm. Parking was easy to find as there was a car park around the corner at the Jackson Court Shopping Centre, and also street parking in front of the restaurant.

We didn't have a booking but being early there was no problem getting a table. At this early time on a Saturday, there were about five tables of diners which would roughly be about 1/3 of the downstairs dining area.

The menu has a large number of dishes. The restaurant is called Malaysian Kitchen therefore, as expected, the majority of the dishes are Malaysian  - Satays, Curry Puffs, Lobak, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa, Nonya dishes, Malay curries, Malaysian Indian Rotis, Nasi Lemak, Bak Kut The,  assam dishes, balachan (or belacan) dishes, different types of Malaysian fried noodles, dishes with curry leaves, dishes using pandan leaves and so on. This is the first place I have seen  Sarawak Tomato Kway Teow on the menu; this is like Char Ho Fun/Sar Ho Fun/Wat Tan Hor, but instead of the cloudy scrambled egg gravy, it comes in a tomato scrambled egg gravy. 

The menu also has a variety of dishes from other Asian countries. Malaysian cuisine has similarities with cuisines from these countries and there are cross-cuisine influences (Alright, I made up the word cross-cuisine!)  There are dishes from Thailand (Green Curry, Thai Chilli Fish, Pad Thai, Tom Yum Noodles, Thai Fried Vermicelli), Indonesia (Gado Gado) and China (Duck Sang Choy Bow, Kung Poh Chicken, Peking Duck, Sizzling Beef), to name a few.

We ordered Pandan Scallops, Spicy Calamari and Balachan Kang Kong.

I really liked the Pandan Scallops. The scallops were large, plump and juicy. They were in a crispy batter made of oats, which is a popular style in Malaysia. Fried fresh cut chillies were scattered over this dish. For a fried dish, it was not oily. There was a side serve of fresh lettuce instead of the pickled vegetables which was listed on the menu. A very nice dish at a reasonable price of $18.00.

The Spicy Calamari was also in a crispy batter and not as oily as you would expect. This dish can be overly salty in other restaurants but not here. In a nice touch, fried curry leaves were mixed into this dish, giving it a nice spicy fragrance.

The Kang Kong was a big serve of young vegetables with crunchy stems. There was a good sambal flavour. Sambal or balachan is a traditional Malaysian prawn paste. It is also a common ingredient in Indonesian dishes. The Kang Kong dish was not chilli hot, which is a surprise as sambal aficionados look for a chilli kick in their sambal dishes.

Overall, we were satisfied with the food and will come back to try the other dishes. There is a good variety of Malaysian dishes in the menu, enough for a few trips back.


Front of the Restaurant

Menu with simple logo

Menu - Pandan Scallops

Menu - Spicy Calamari

Menu -  Kang Kong

Pandan Scallops

Balachan Kang Kong

With a generous sized bowl of rice








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