Mamak Malaysian Restaurant

If you’re craving Malaysian in Auckland CBD, you’re in luck. We have Mamak Malaysian Restaurant, located at 50 Kitchener Street. Generally, most Malaysian food are in food courts, especially in the CBD, so it’s great to see one located by itself.

Some samples below:

Tofu Salad ($8)

Nasi Lemak with Beef Rendang.

Satay Chicken on Rice.

Beef Murtabak

Teh Tarik.

I didn’t keep track of the prices, but they are around $13 per meal. The tapas are around $8. It’s located in a nice place. If it’s not too cold or windy, it’s a great place to eat outside. In terms of pricing, the dishes are a bit on the high side, especially the tapas for its rather small portion size. The staff is friendly and the dishes are not bad. The laksa, mamak mee goreng, beef murtabak and curry chicken dishes are recommended.

Have a go. Rating = 8/10.

Malay Restaurant

Malay Restaurant was opened recently in Newmarket – very near to T Mark and Archie’s restaurant. It’s a fresh competitor for Malaysian food in the Newmarket area, competing against Selera, MyStop and Laksa House. My first impression was good – from outside I think it shows a lot of promise, quite nice decorations and appears to have authentic Malay food. So, it was harmless to give this place  a try – samples below:

Prawn Noodle Soup.

Mee Goreng.

Curry Chicken on Rice.

If I can remember, each dish was $9.90. The food was not horrible but not that great. It’s still an alternative Malaysian food place and well situated as well. Parking is not that hard to find especially at night. But I thought some of the dishes had too much MSG. Hopefully, someone can recommend something else they tried here and was great, but for now I am not sure if I’ll be back.

Rating = 7/10.

Vietnam Cafe

Lately for the past several months, I’ve been trying to find alternative Vietnamese restaurants. And yes, there is one in Otahuhu called the Vietnam Cafe. I used to know the place because it was near my old work place (Mt Wellington). Ah, those were the days.

Vietnam Cafe is quite easy to spot, it’s off Atkinson Ave. It’s pretty much the route you’d use if you’re coming from Mt Wellington towards Otahuhu, or taking the Princess St offramp.  The parking is harder to spot because it’s at the back. You’d spot the cafe, but most likely miss the turn for the carpark!

The place generally looks dodgy because of the car park. And it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s owned by Vietnamese. You be the judge. =)

A few dishes were sampled as shown below:

Combination Noodle Soup.

Vietnamese Noodle.

Curry Chicken on Rice Noodle.

Traffic Light.

I’d say the best dish to try is the combination noodle soup.  The rest are OK. I even tried the “Traffic Light” drink which was somewhat disappointing. The dishes are cheap though, $10 for the curry chicken on rice noodle and vietnamese noodle. The combination noodle is $12. Traffic Light is $3.50.

Personally, if you do go there, just get the combination noodle soup. It’s not bad. The rest you’d have to cross your fingers. I found the curry chicken rice noodle a bit plain. The drink was also a bit plain. However, one thing I notice is the fried spring rolls which “looked” good.

My rating is 7/10. Good enough for me because of one dish. Perhaps they forgot to add MSG on my curry chicken. =) 

On another note, I believe there is another Vietnamese place opening very soon on Beach Road (near Foodtown/China Restaurant). Can someone confirm this? I’m interested to find out if it’s already open, or going to open. I knew about it because they sold a damn good Pho (noodle soup) during the Lantern festival.