i knew that this was going to be coming eventually. it was in that position, and had all the clues that it should be a choice one of these days to eat at. that was accessible, fairly affordable, east asian (a big decider for me a lot of the time) and a populist place. cross-overs have been proposed here, but no avail. it was just the right person at the right time. well ... the usual arrangements to meet up with friends, one of them i contacted for the regular meeting. she proposed to go into the city this time, preferably somewhere around charlotte street. upon the lead up to dining here, sending the link through a message via the app i asked her if this looked good. well, the answer was an accepting "yes" and one evening i went here to dine with her. that's basically the arrangement. also, with how many times i passed this by and it looks popular and has been lauded, it was a matter of sooner or later that i would visit here. basically, it was to tick off the list. and the food was decent enough, better quality than normal, and the service was pretty good.
most of the time, you can count of a malaysian restaurant to have a really extensive menu that spans many pages. not this time around, as it is kept to a single page each for the food and drink. it basically has a range of the greatest hits from the malaysian cuisine. they have a rice section and a noodle section plus one with mains for a few signature dishes - think guinness pork, hainanese chicken, and sambal chicken. there is also an entire section for roti, which includes a sweet variety. a more recent addition to the menu is several styles ofcrabbeing cooked. the selection is decent enough, and it has a few good guarantees for a tasty meal. for drinks, there is a bunch of beers, ciders and wines along with house specials (all of them non-alcoholic).
starting off it was a couple of starters. i ordered a couple of scallop dumplings, and the friend went for roti canai. that latter one was the traditional bread that was served with a side of curry sauce. it is a simple concept, but one that is always really tasty. this roti was thin, soft and buttery in texture. that curry sauce on the side was thick and had a good depth of flavour.
when it came to the scallop dumpling, they were both served individually in a little bamboo case. this was a cute addition, and points go toward giving it some presentation. the dumplings themselves were good, and obviously freshly made - the scallop was plump and sweet. it was so good i got disappointed for a few seconds that this was not going to become a yum cha meal. or that i could have eaten more, either interpretation is right.
it was then time for the mains. with my friend, she had been feeling like some beef rendang, having not had it for a while then. so that is what she ordered. as for me, the usual case is that i am having a hard time trying to decide what to order. what can usually sway me is if something is a special, or it is portrayed as one of the restaurant's specialties. also, just going for something a bit different is something i am always willing to do. therefore, i got one of theircrabdishes. the most recommended one by the waitress was the malaysian kam heong crab.
this was some decent rendang. not the best that i have had, but far from bad. the meat was tender and the sauce did have the right consistency which being a thick gravy. what definitely could have made it better is having a marsala mixed into it, preferably one that has a lot of spices and gives a bit of burn in the mouth. not awful, alright as a meal but i definitely am not walking away from here recommending it to someone who wants a beef rendang. let's just put it at that.
in retrospect with the crab, what could have worked is maybe having a hammer or a cracker alongside it to break open the shell some more. going on from there, this was a good meal. it came with not one crab, but two of them and they are around one-and-a-half pounds of meat. when you could get the meat, it was tender practically like butter. on its own, there is a mild and subtle taste and that gives way to whatever seasoning they choose to use - this time it was garlic, chilli, and shallots among other tastes and ingredients. these made a tangy and complex array of flavours, that was slightly dark, fairly sticky and what tied the whole meal together. as a garnish there was a salad on the side.
without any doubt, i knew that trying the sweets - more so the sweet rotis. the one that was gotten was coconut. and it was not too bad; it anything from here is recommened it is to try this. not many places without getting into sunnybank would offer this to what i know. the coconut was done into kind of a jam-like consistency, and was sweet as well as having the characteristic flavour of coconut that i honestly find hard to describe. this was a big piece cut into at least eight to end different portions. yummy. to drink at the end, i went with their iced tea or "teh 'o' ais limon". this was the standard kind flavoured with lemon. i have gotten so used to the bottled kind that this tasted so different; with the lemon in the drink it was a little acidic as well as being refreshing.
what needs to be known is that when it comes to opinions, what one person thinks is mind-blowing could be seen as mediocre in the mind of another person. i try to be as objective as i can and play fair when i reckon that it should have credit whether given or not. that is being said because there was not much that was bad about roti place. having had some time to stew on it, for what it is worth it is perfectly fine. the 4.0 comes from preferences, and i acknowledge this has been made a little less spicy and more palatable to the western tongue. for me, i much prefer the authentic taste and love a bit of spiciness with my malaysian cooking. i practically grew up with food such as this, so there is also that. in the end, this has food that is good quality and is certainly a reliable dining choice for the city central.