The Malaya | Darling Harbour
If you want nice Malaysian food, I'd highly recommend Malaya. It's not somewhere you would want to go to every week but every once in a while is good. It can get quite pricey but they do have lunch specials. The Malaya is a waterfront restaurant located in Darling Harbour on King Street Wharf. The customer service was different on a few occasions. We've visited The Malaya at least four times now and each time, the service was different. We've had fantastic service and not so memorable experiences. Either way, we always returned because we enjoyed their food.
Pork San Choy Bow
Fruitasia (left) and Mei Ling (right)
If you want to feel fancy yet don't feel like drinking alcohol, the Malaya offers mocktails (and they are so pretty). The fruitasia is literally jampacked with pieces of fruit - fresh strawberries, lychees, passionfruit, red grapefruit, apple and cranberry juices. You can see it and taste the flavours in every sip. It's almost like a dessert if you like.I haven't tried the Mei Ling but it has fresh banana, passionfruit, mango nectar and coconut juice (I'm not a fan of banana so refuse to try it).
Pork San Choy Bow
This may be the best San Choy Bow we've had in a while. The pork has a hint of wok hei with water chestnut, onion, shallot. It's served in a crisp lettuce leaf. It's surprisingly not messy to eat. If there are any leftovers on the serving plate, you know it will end up on my plate.
Szechuan Eggplant
We never thought that we could be in love with a vegetable but The Malaya made sure that we left wanting more. We have been back several times now and believe us when we say that we wouldn't leave this place without ordering the Szechuan eggplant. The eggplant is marinated in Szechuan sauce stir-fried dry style with shallot and dried chillies. You might need to have the eggplant with some rice as the Szechuan sauce can be quite strong on it's own. It is definitely best served as a share plate and provides a sweet contrast to the oily Malaysian flavours.
We never thought that we could be in love with a vegetable but The Malaya made sure that we left wanting more. We have been back several times now and believe us when we say that we wouldn't leave this place without ordering the Szechuan eggplant. The eggplant is marinated in Szechuan sauce stir-fried dry style with shallot and dried chillies. You might need to have the eggplant with some rice as the Szechuan sauce can be quite strong on it's own. It is definitely best served as a share plate and provides a sweet contrast to the oily Malaysian flavours.
Kapitan Chicken
The Kapitan curry is delicious! It's a penang style curry made with fresh chilli, coconut milk and lightly battered pieces of chicken thigh fillet. You can also get this with lightly battered king prawns. I love a good curry, some can be quite watery and some can be too thick. At The Malaya, the Kapitan chicken is just what you expect and what you crave. There is a chilli kick in the kapitan sauce, while its not too hot, it definitely leaves you wanting something heavier to drink.
The Kapitan curry is delicious! It's a penang style curry made with fresh chilli, coconut milk and lightly battered pieces of chicken thigh fillet. You can also get this with lightly battered king prawns. I love a good curry, some can be quite watery and some can be too thick. At The Malaya, the Kapitan chicken is just what you expect and what you crave. There is a chilli kick in the kapitan sauce, while its not too hot, it definitely leaves you wanting something heavier to drink.
Beef Rendang
The beef rendang is an Indonesian style beef curry and The Malaya let's you choose from either a tomato base or a dry coconut base which we only found out later. We always just order the beef rendang without any special request (so I'm assuming it's one with the dry coconut base). This curry is thick and full of spices that make your tastebuds go crazy. When we normally order beef rendang, the beef is usually quite dry from being cooked wayyyyy too long. Only the best beef is used at The Malaya and so the beef is both tender but moist as well.
The beef rendang is an Indonesian style beef curry and The Malaya let's you choose from either a tomato base or a dry coconut base which we only found out later. We always just order the beef rendang without any special request (so I'm assuming it's one with the dry coconut base). This curry is thick and full of spices that make your tastebuds go crazy. When we normally order beef rendang, the beef is usually quite dry from being cooked wayyyyy too long. Only the best beef is used at The Malaya and so the beef is both tender but moist as well.
Salt and Pepper Prawns
It is perfectly fine to re-order another serving right? Yeah let's just say that so we don't feel too bad about our waist lines. The Salt and Pepper Prawns were a massive hit at the table, everybody couldn't seem to get enough of the perfectly golden batter that is extra seasoned. Seriously, these shuold be called EXTRA salt and pepper prawns because they are so damn tasty.
