Mamak

15 Goulbourn Street

Haymarket, Sydney 2000

Ph: 02 9211 1668

I've been hearing a lot about some Malaysian restaurant 'Mamak' through fellow food bloggers, and decided to come and see what all the ranting was all about. So i hear the roti's are to die for, & that they serve things with 'condensed milk', and that you can't book, & that there is usually a long line of people waiting to get seated.

I have a 'thing' about waiting in line for things, anything at all may it be food or fashion or ticket booths. But, the way the people have been talking about how great this place is, i put all that aside, and embraced 'lining up for some good food'.

I was hoping that the line wouldn't be too long (it was about 7pm when me & Richard got there), there were about 10 people in front of us? But i didn't mind waiting as we had some entertainment! Richard got this shot of one of the talented chefs working his magic on their roti's.

It's quite hypnotizing actually, watching him & the other guy rolling, twisting, throwing & spinning the roti dough.. I found myself staring with my mouth open, and having Richard nudge me to move up and fill in the empty spot in front of me.

I think we waited about half an hour before being able to get a seat. Inside the restaurant was very bustly with lots of waiters & waitresses scurrying around taking orders & serving up food.

We ordered some tea, special 'stretched' tea, that came in a pretty big mug :) They were both really sweet, just the way i like my hot drinks.

Teh Tarik classic Malaysian sweetened tea, "stretched" for a frothy topping

Kopi Tarik Malaysian White coffee, both $3.50 each.

The tea was really nice, but VERY VERY strong. Warning to caffeine sensitive peoples (like myself). i drank this at about 8pm, and wasn't able to sleep until 3 or 4am that night :(

Richard & I shared everything, because that's what we love to do hehe.

Maggi Goreng $10.50

a popular mee goreng variation using Maggi noodles

The noodles were spicy, and had vegies, tofu, was very saucy & flavoursome. Doesn't beat home made mi-goreng though :) mm..

Roti Telur Bawang $6.50

Egg & onion roti served with 2 curry dips & spicy sambal

The roti - was nothing special. They served everything on a metal plate, so our food went cold really quickly (not because of the time taken to take photo's!)

So because of that, i didn't really enjoy the curry & roti. So onto desert roti's, that i hoped would make up for the cold curries...

Roti Kaya $7.50

Filled with a traditional spread made from pandan & coconut

This was my favourite dish of the night, and made me regret getting savoury roti's at all hehe. Pandan, used to be my favourite spreading on bread when i was younger. I'd spread it on sooo thickly a jar finish off in no time. Served with icecream, i now understood why the foodbloggers love this joint so much.

Roti Pisang $7.50

a popular roti with freshly sliced banana's

This roti Richard liked alot more than my pandan one. The banana in it wasn't too overpowering (im not a huge fan of banana's actually) & even though we were full (and maybe ordering two roti's for desert was too much) we still managed to finish everything.

A few weeks later we came back for some desert only, & ordered the roti that everyone LOVEd so much.

Roti Tisu $9.00

paper thin, extra crispy, & served tall.

I was told to order this with icecream & condensed milk. The roti was soo crunchy, with sugar crystals stuck to the inside of the roti. It was like eating paper actually, i wasn't very satisfied by the end of it. It really felt like i hadn't eaten anything haha..

My verdict on the place? A tiny bit overhyped. Except for the roti kaya, which would be my only reason for coming back!

Bonta Vita

Shop 10-02 Regent Place

501 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: 02 9267 2212

After seeing Shez post up about an italian-malaysian restaurant, i really wanted to try this place out myself.

Months later i was able to spend a day out in the city & remembered that this place was on my to-eat list.

But only a couple days before i saw a post on NotQuiteNigella's that made me think twice about coming here.. Someone threatened legal action? No photo's allowed? (and a sign out front to prove it), Manager posted a comment supposedly covering up for a mean comment that was left on Lorraine's site? This slowly turned me away from wanting to eat @ Bonta Vita anymore..

But the rizza sounded so intriguing, and i had planned for this for ages, & we were practically in the same block coming from Norita..

Whispering to Rick whilst walking into the restaurant.. "Do you think we should keep our cameras away?" and "Do you think they'll confiscate it?"

My friend Ben suggested we casually take pictures of ourselves with the food in the background haha/ It aint a crime to take pictures of eachother???

We were pretty hungry, after only having breakfast at about 10am, some cake & drinks at 2pm, and now it was 4pm we were starved for some food. My friends Wensy & Ben liked the sounds of malaysian-italian food so i had already booked us a table. 4pm was not quite dinner time yet, so the place was pretty empty..

After opening the doors & stepping in, we heard a man yell out in an extremely condescending tone.. "hell-ooo, we have customers". What a way to greet customers ? ..

The waitresses were friendly, not very good english speakers (this annoys me at restaurants), but she did her best to help us with menu enquiries & ordering.

Mezi di Piatto $21.95

After taking a couple of photo's, & checking to see if any workers were giving me a "put that camera away" look, or anyone that looked like they were coming to confiscate it (Lols), no one said anything (although, it might just be my imagination, but from the corner of my eye i thinks the owner was looking over at our table everytime a flash went off??!!), so i went on happily snapping away as i usually do at any other restaurant.

A variety of dips including eggplant, hommus & guacamole served with slices of toasted bread. The bread tasted stale, much like old Cabramatta bread rolls. The dips tasted very.. un-fresh. Except the eggplant dip, that was nice. But the other two seemed like they were taken off the shelf of a Woolworths or Coles or something like that. So for $21.95, this dish was expensive :/

Hainanese Chicken Rice $17.95

Rick ordered this as there wasn't much on the menu that he could have (he can't eat wheat dairy tomato chilli eggplant and various other things for the moment). The dish came with a ginger & garlic dip, & was decorated with coriander & a sprig of mint, and sliced cucumber. He didn't look like he enjoyed it, mentioning that his mum made it one hundred times better than here.

Rizza No. 7 $16.95

This was why i wanted to come to Bonta Vita, for their Rizza's (roti+pizza=rizza!). Quite frankly, it was a huge let down :( While the pastry LOOKED crispy, it was really soft &.. sort of soggy, and it was just so bland the filling didn't go well with the texture of the rizza. We chose the Rizza No.7 which was Char Grilled eggplant, green peas, grilled onions, mushroom, tomato, mozzerella served with vegetarian sauce. & also Rizza No. 1 Bocconcini, pesto, cherry tomato, mozzarella served with BV sauce. (i didnt get a picture of this)

The rizza much reminded me of the soggy gozleme that i get at fairfield markets (which is so much nicer??! & only costed half the price.

Roti Canai (i think??) $9.95

I don't remember what this was, looking over the menu it must be this.. basically it was just crunchy sheets of pastry, that was really buttery & flakey in the middle. Slightly sweet, and served with two types of dips. Wasn't a big fan, we actually didn't finish it either..

We didn't finish most of the dishes, not because we weren't hungry, but because the food wasn't that nice and we'd be forcing it down. Rick finished his rice though, he was pretty hungry.

All in all, we were all bitterly disappointed, & i feel really bad for taking my friends here to eat :(

The ambience was horrible, having the owner (i assume he was the owner) talk to his workers in such a rude way, doesn't scream 'friendly' at all. I'm happy to say that i have tried out Bonta Vita, but sadly won't ever go back ever again.

Istana

277 Church St
Parramatta NSW 2150
Phone (02) 9687 5113

We've been wanting to try this Malaysian restaurant for a while, but were afraid to go in because it looked so empty each time we walked past. Being a little indecisive, we decided to try it out. Not being too hungry, we ordered two dishes. Seafood Mi Goreng and supposedly Seafood Nasi Goreng. I say that only because there was chicken in it after we ordered.

I think we confused our waitress by making her think that only one was to have no chicken. It all worked out in the end since I ate the Nasi Goreng and Betty had the Mi Goreng.


The Nasi Goreng was richly flavoured with the usual amounts of kecap manis and oil. The Nasi Goreng on it's own was quite nice, but when eaten with Sambal Chilli it's like having a rave party in your mouth with everyone charged up ready to rock.


The Mi goreng was a tad on the oily side as well, but I'd say this rips the packet Mi Goreng over a hundred times over! The noodles were pretty springy and the prawns weren't the usual frozen prawns you'd get with asian food. These were real prawns, without the plastic and tasteless texture. I absolutely loved it!

Alongside the two dishes we ordered, I ordered a fruit punch. It was a decent punch with lots of sweetened fruit chunks. I'd have this on a hot day for sure.