We decided to do some things a little differently for this Malaysia Kitchen experience. First, we would go out for dinner, not lunch. Second, we invited a family of our friends to accompany us. Total number of eaters? Eight. Very doable.
After weeks of indecision (to which my friend can attest) I finally settled on Nasi Lemak House in Carlton as it was very close to an event I had to go to in the afternoon. The timing wasn’t terrific, though, as I was still unwell and not all that keen on being out in general. Never mind, I swallowed a concrete tablet and toughened up.
The restaurant itself was serviceable – and bright!
It’s not flash by any stretch of the imagination, and we had to forage on a shelf in the corner nearby for our own glasses of water and cutlery. Still, by 6.30pm it was packed and it was obvious these were mostly return customers.
The food
Their website says that Nasi Lemak is Malaysia’s national dish and it is their specialty. A good portion of the menu is devoted to variations of the Nasi Lemak’s and are all served with coconut rice, cucumber, anchovies, peanuts, fried egg and poppadoms…
… as you can see here.
I should say that the children – or ours at least – barely touched any food. At least until Riley ate a fried tofu ball (such as you see above on the left) because we told him it was chicken and Keira ate some rice she begged off someone else.
This Penang Char Mee (stir fry egg noodle with prawns, cockles and beanshoots) was what we ordered for Keira but our request for it to be non-spicy either went unheeded or it is the house’s version of what non-spicy is!
This is about as far as I got with my Laksa. I don’t know if it was my off-colour taste buds, or maybe because I prefer a more fragrant, lighter laksa, but this didn’t really work for me.
This is Adam’s dish and I wish I’d chosen it. While the Beef Rendang wasn’t the best I’d ever had, the meat was tender and the kick of the flavour in the sauce was more hunger-satisfying.
We didn’t linger. The kids were still hungry and as there were no desserts to order we made a group decision to walk a block to Lygon St for ice-cream.
In their favour, Nasi Lemak House is value for money: the portion sizes are generous, which is no doubt why their customers (many local students from the nearby university) are so loyal, and is just as you’d expect from a place that touts itself as providing hawker food experience.
Their main business, you can tell, is with takeout orders. Those interesting in ‘fine dining’ will need to go elsewhere.
Nasi Lemak House
115 Grattan Street
Carlton, VIC 3053
(03) 9348 1572
Nasi Lemak House
We dined as part of the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Ambassador Program.
