4/5 for satay brothers. here's what i've been able to gather about satay brothers on my own: this restaurant started out as a food stand in the atwater market, one of the city's biggest and best farmers' markets. it was opened by two brothers and people loved their take on singaporean street food. finally they opened their own restaurant only recently in the sud-ouest. in fact, it was voted as the #4 best new restaurant 2013 by cult mtl, which is how i heard about it. i've gotten the impression that the public was very excited about their transition into a real brick and mortar location, but i am also to believe that the atwater stand is also still operational, at least in the summertime. unfortunately for me, i missed all of this hype and simply strolled into the restaurant without all of the excitement and anticipation behind my visit.
the location isn't anything glamorous from the outside and there really isn't a lot else located around this spot. the tip-off that you've found the right place is the red lantern hanging outside above the front door. once inside, you're greeted with a warm and friendly room, bright with red paint and decidedly tropical and asian in it's theme. we were seated at a table for two by the window and began to take in the chalkboard menu on the wall. the selection is small and the prices are quite low - it's also important to note that they only accept cash as payment. while there are only a few key dishes on their menu, the variety is quite impressive, with each dish being completely different from the last.
i got a coco pure ($2.61) to drink which arrived in a can. in my opinion, coconut water is just as refreshing as plain water. you can't go wrong with this sweet and nutty beverage. they also offer other tropical fruit juices such as lychee and passion fruit, which would be equally good choices.
asian food is typically best consumed family-style, so my husband and i selected four of their dishes and were told that we should have enough food for both of us. the food came up after only a short wait and the first to arrive was the laksa lemak ($9.13). beautiful, red-hot and dangerous. laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup in south-east asian culture. lemak style refers to the use of coconut milk in the broth. they also make their own sambal (chili sauce) in-house, which i found very exciting. the soup consisted of a tangle of noodles and bean sprouts with a few garnishes on top including a quail egg. the flavours were hugely spicy and sweet, holding nothing back. certainly the correct bowl to warm you up on a cold winter's day. next time i'd be interested in trying the mee goreng instead, a fried noodle dish.
next was the green papaya salad ($6.09). this was an excellent way to bring some freshness into the meal, and i'd always wanted to try this type of salad. the twirl of long strands of shredded papaya were a lot more vinegary than i'd expected, almost as if it had been pickled. the dish is slightly tangy, with the fruit remaining quite crisp. i enjoyed the crunch of the peanuts as well.
surely we wouldn't visit a restaurant called "satay brothers" and not try the satay. satay du jour ($6.09 for 3). the name of the dish suggests that they offer different takes on satay each day, possibly with different meats and/or marinades. the three skewers of cubed chicken arrived with house-made peanut sauce and some crunchy cucumber. to be honest, i've found satay to be quite boring in the past. but this satay opened my eyes to what it could be when done well. the meat itself was gorgeously tender and expertly seasoned with a caramelized, glaze-like coating. delicious grill flavour was evident and they tasted perfect when coated in peanut sauce. if you need some satay convincing like i did, let the brothers of satay show you the way. ;)
lastly, we had the steamed pork buns ($6.96 for 2). this was a bit of a funny coincidence for us because we had just been listening to a podcast where the hosts were talking about how much they love pork buns, and were remarking that we'd never tried them. i sure am glad that we've been let in on this delicious secret! you'll often see these buns enclosing the meat completely, almost more like a dumpling, whereas these ones were served a little bit more like a taco. instead of the meat being shredded up inside, this was a gloriously saucy and savoury slab of pork, cushioned inside a pillowy-light bun and alive with asian flavour. so simple and certainly street food, yet so impossibly delicious. these are a must-try.
i would still love to visit their stand at atwater to compare any differences, but this singaporean food was huge on flavours, low on price and boldly exciting. they already seem to have a vast amount of loyal followers and will surely continue to do well.