Malaysia Kopitiam: Carlos and Steve were not impressed

Written by Guest Blogger: Steve Scott

Many is the occasion that Carlos meets me for lunch since we work close to each other. We typically go the same one or two places, but for a change of pace, we decided to try Malaysia Kopitiam, a restaurant Patrick and I used to go to years ago and really liked.

We were not impressed.

Upon entering the restaurant, one is overwhelmed by the musky, bleachy odor often found in basement restaurants. The smell is blended with a raw chicken smell that I found offensive.

The waitress was friendly and professional, but the service seemed to move a bit slow, especially by the time we got to dessert. Maybe we were just in a hurry.

Like many Asian restaurants, I found it difficult to make a good "health conscious" choice for lunch. I asked the waitress for a recommendation of a popular dish. She suggested Chicken Curry, which is a particular favorite of mine. The Chicken Curry was bland despite being billed as spicy. The chicken was on the bone, which is something I detest. It looked as if they just chopped up part of a whole warm chicken and dropped it in the curry sauce. It was served with white rice.

Carlos ordered a dish he picked out on his own with a name that I cannot remember and cannot pronounce. I tasted it and liked it. He said it was 'ok'. Basically, it was beef chow fun (stir-fried beef and wide band rice noodles) mixed with spinach leaves and bean sprouts. It was not very interesting or inspiring, but, at least it looked and tasted better than mine.

The prices seemed high for a casual, Asian restaurant in a dark musky basement at lunch time. Of course, being downtown raises the price of everything.

For dessert Carlos ordered Mango and Sticky Rice and was really excited about it - until he got it. The mango was hard, not ripe at all. When we complained the staff insisted it was fine. The tiny glob of rice was drenched in a sickening gooey sauce. I had a little taste of the Mango (yuk) and the sticky rice (lame). It didn't really seem like sticky rice, just a glob of rice with a bigger glob of gooey stuff on top.

We both enjoyed going on the adventure, and it was still fun to break out of our routine. I don't know if they have gotten lazy, or we ordered the wrong things, or they simply offer crappy stuff for lunch, but, there is certainly no need to go back.