Café Malacca

Cafe Malacca is the long standing restaurant in Traders Hotels (now called Hotel Jen and part of the Shangri-La Hotel Group.) They serve authentic Malaysian and Singaporean classic Hawker dishes- especially from Penang! (How exciting! I still remember going to Malaysia, Singapore- and just feasting away at all the delicious food!) I was excited to go for a Cafe Malacca for a tasting and see what all the buzz was about! Also they're in this year's Bib Gourmand Michelin Guide. Get ready for a feast!I start with a Young Coconut Juice, one of my favorite drinks! Its light, smooth and refreshing!We start with an assortment of appetizers recommended to us! This was 1/4 of the food we would end up consuming!!! Such a beautiful spread of food!!Satay Chicken & Beef (usually comes with 6 pieces, ours is 4 pieces- tasting size) $82. Grilled chicken, beef skewers in traditional Malay marinade served w. an aromatic peanut sauce, rice cakes, cucumber and onion wedges. The skewers were sizzling hot- absolutely flavourful and perfectly juicy even without the accompanying Malay marinade.Gado Gado; a warm vegetable salad w/ eggs, fried bean curd, peanut sauce dressing topped w/ Emping (Melinjo crackers) $68. I loved how fresh everything was. Usually it comes with the peanut sauce dressing already mixed in- but I honestly preferred that it wasn't. Because I could portion out the sauce by myself!Chwee Kueh $60 These are steamed rice cakes topped w/ a savoury and sweet radish & pickles. They have a chilli sauce on the side. The Water cakes are a famous Singaporean breakfast favourite or snack!! I LOVVVVEEEED these. I gobbled these up soooo fast. The texture is nice, sticky and similar to mochi with a fuller and warmer feel. I loved the dice radishes and everything about it was sooo good.Rojak; a vegetable and fruit salad w/ Chinese crullers in a special Penang prawn paste rojak sauce, topped w/ a sprinkle of peanuts $62. This was my least favourite of the bunch. But it was just something I wasn't used to! It's very sweet, with a more of a sweet and sour taste to it.Klang Bakut Teh; A Klang specialty of herbal pork rib soup accompanied by Chinese cruller and rice $98. SOOOOO GOOD!! I actually LOVED everything about this hot Bakut teh. This is definitely a favourite of mine and Cafe Malacca did not disappoint. It was sooo good. Flavourful, hot, perfectly savoury and sweet. The pork meat was soft and tender and I loved the fried Chinese crullers (and they gave us sooooo much!! BONUS!) as well as the tofu cakes!! Yum, yum, yum- will definitely come back for these.Penang Assam Laksa, a signature Penang dish of thick rice vermicelli in a tangy and spicy fish-based soup, garnished w/ fresh pineapple, mint, cucumber, onions and ginger flower accompanied by a dash of black shrimp paste. $88. The soup base is completely home made- everything is all natural, and made fresh. Its more watered down- so it definitely feels lighter than the other laksa soup bases!Some of the mains!!!! YUM!!!! That Bakut Teh...amazing!Penang Char Koay Teow; a signature Penang hawker dish of stir-fried flat rice noodles w/ prawns, Chinese sausage, chives and bean sprout $89. This was another delightful main! I loved it!! The flat rice noodles were sweet, and in perfect texture with load of chinese sausage, chives, eggs and bean sprouts! So good.Close up of the delicious Bakut Teh! One of my favourite dishes, for sure!! Want to go back for this.Homemade Barley Water!Desserts Trio!! We didn't even dent this! (Till afterwards, for a midnight snack!) ....So much food!!!Coconut Jelly; refreshing jelly made from fresh young coconut. No sugar added. $30 Really nice and light! I didn't have too much of this.Kuih Dadar; a rolled pandan- flavoured crepe filled w/ grated coconut in palm suagar. $32 This was great. I loved the texture, filling and again, another really light and healthy choice. I liked that it was a different take on pandan!Durian Pudding $42. I'm not a fan of durian- so I didn't have any of this! But it looked really good!…Read More

I had a large numbe of Singaporean classics last time I was in Singapore, but I've been on the lookout for a local place to offer up the same. Cafe Malacca is high-end street-food, not cooked on the street. The first dish that came was the Penang Char Koay Teow, stir fried flat rice noodles with prawns, chinese sausages, chives, and bean sprouts. Another reviewer described this as very spicy, but that is really not true; it will tingle your lips a bit, but there's no real spice to it. At the hawker stalls I visited in Singapore, they'd ask you about the spice level and there was chili sauce at the table; here, it's just one level of pretty mild spice. It's hard to get something so carb-y wrong. The shrimp were really well-cooked, and the veggies were still crisp and not overly wilty from the stir-fry. I'll say that the Chinese sausage is a net negative-- it's insanely sweet. Chinese candy meat. The noodles are good, but only stand out b/c Hong Kong Thai and Malaysian restaurants have such poor track-records with noodles. Good, B+.After that came the Beef Rendang. This has no spice at all, so I'm not sure why it's indicated as being spicy on the menu. It's got "warming spices" like cloves and cardamom, but nobody would call it spicy. The beef is amazingly tender-- you can cut it with a spoon. There's very little sauce, and it comes with more rice than it needs to (rice not pictured). I definitely thought it was good, but not mind-blowing. B.I won't say that I know every inch of Singapore, and I've never been to Malaysia, so maybe this is a thing. But I never noticed it before. It's just breaded and deep-fried pieces of eggplant. Oh, they're good. A little too salty, but nice and crisp, with juicy and tender eggplant within. This is on the "vegetables" section of the menu, and I really suggest not getting it if you want vegetables. I think we didn't realize "fried eggplant" meant "deep-fried eggplant." It was really heavy. Great tasting, just way too much fried stuff for a vegetable side. OK: C+.The "carrot" cake (called "turnip" cake and really radish cake) was very similar to the Koay Teow noodles in terms of seasoning and ingredients. It wasn't spicy (and wasn't advertized as such on the menu). The menu said there were prawns, but I didn't see any. It was pretty good. I'd recommend not getting this AND a noodle dish, just because of the similarity. B+I liked the food at this place a lot. The prices were reasonable. Nothing blew me away but it was all very good. I fully think that something else on the menu might really catch my fancy. Everything struck me as being the equivalent of good street food, nothing amazing, but the sort of thing you'd buy all the time if it were cheap. Here it's not cheap, but it's at least affordable, and it's closer than Malaysia. I'll probably come back. Overall: B+…Read More

Cafe Malacca is a hotel restaurant at Traders Hotel by Shangri-la at West District offering authentic Malaysian Cuisine. Cafe Malacca was named after the Strates Malacca where traders from Middle East, India, China and Indonesia passed by and also brought in spices and cuisines to Malaysian as Early as in 18th Century. Influenced by a rich multicultural heritage of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian, the dishes offer at Cafe Malacca are diverse but keep very authentic.The restaurant is spacious with two compartments, where one compartment is in a more causal settings with long wooden tables and padded rectangle chairs; the other compartment is a more formal dining area with individual tables and chairs.The menu was extended where Malaysian, Singaporean, Indian dishes can be found, Western dishes were also provide to hotel guests in case they miss their home food. There is also a special menu on top of the al la carte menu right now which we picked some to try!Mutton SatayThe colourful mutton satay dish consists of 6 grilled mutton skewers, raw purple onions, cucumber and rice cake, served with sweet peanut butter satay sauce. Everything on the banana leaf were meant to go with the satay sauce. The mutton skewer did not have the gamey taste that I expected but was tender and aromatic with smokey aroma. I love the raw purple onion the most on the plate, soooooooo spicy!RojakA totally unknown dish to me, Rojak is a very Malaysian homey appetiser. This glossy brown sauced dish was actually seasonal fresh fruits, vegetables and Chinese cruller (Yao Tiao) mixed with a house made sauce of Malacca palm sugar and Penang shrimp paste. The dish was very sweet with strong shrimp paste taste and a hint of sesame taste. The first taste was kind of funny, but I got used to it soon. Not a bad dish but not my cup of tea.Singapore Otak-OtakThis flavourful dish is mashed pacu fish mixed with yellow ginger, wrapped and grilled in banana leaf. With a smooth and creamy texture, this dish is named Otak-Otak, sadly means brain in English because the Singaporean thinks it looks like brain... Anyway, the mashed pacu was extremely delicious and quite spicy in taste. Yum!Sambal Cabbage SproutsThe cabbage sprouts were supposed to be pretty spicy from a broth of sambas and red chili, but not really as it was overly watery. The flavour was not too strong either due to the same reason.Ipoh Bean SproutsThis fat looking bean sprouts is on the special menu and was imported directly from Ipoh, Malaysia. I have never tried Ipoh's bean sprouts before so I was very excited. The bean sprouts were fat, crisp and had good water content. Loved it!Penang Char Koay TeowThe Char Koay Teow is a signature Penang hawker dish that you can find easily on the street in Malaysia. The flat rice noodles were quite thin and were stir-fried with amazing aroma from the wok. It was crazily spicy and was mildly sweet from a mix of samba sauce and spices. The Chinese sausage made the dish much yummier!Penang Assam LaksaThis Singaporean Laksa was served in a coconutty fish broth, garnished with fresh pineapple, mint, cucumber, onion, ginger flower and black shrimp paste. The thick rice noodles was a bit soft in texture but we left it for a while before tasting it. The shrimp was big but too mushy in texture. The fish cake was delicious with a bouncy texture. The Tofu puff was fat with puffy body and slightly crispy crust. The bean sprouts were from Thailand and were crisp. The broth was tangy with a strong shrimp paste taste but was a bit too sweet for my liking.Nasi LemakThe Nasi Lemak is a traditional breakfast fond in Malaysia. The rice was made with coconut cream in a portion of 1:1, no water is used for cooking! The rice was creamy with a hint of coconut taste but slightly soggy. The fragrant rice was served with crispy fish, fried egg, chicken and samba sauce. The deep fried chicken had a crispy crust with savoury and tender inner. The dish was multi-textured with a mix of creamy rice, crispy fish, tangy chicken and bouncy egg, with the additional of samba sauce, the dish was delectable!Durian PuddingDurian is not everyone's thing but this Durian Pudding is a must try! The pudding was strongly fragranted with durian aroma and flavour. The pudding was smooth and bouncy. I love love love this!Kuih DadarThe Kuih Dadar is another great dessert at Cafe Malacca. The rolled pandan-flavoured crepe was filled with grated coconut and Malacca palm sugar. Moist and sweet fillings with chewy crepes, this dessert was another favourite of mine.Kaya ToastKaya toast is a traditional Singapore snack, the bread is usually pressed thin and toasted with a spread of kaya on it. The toast is similar at Cafe Malacca except the bread was not pressed before toasting. This result in softer texture toast but I like my crispy version.Crushed iceThe crushed ice is a off the menu item but you can request for it. The crushed ice was topped with a vanilla ice-cream with rose syrup and Sarsaparilla, below the crushed ice was homemade jelly, sweet corn and Attap Seeds. I do not really like the taste of Sarsaparilla, but the overall texture of this crushed ice was pretty good!I have tried lots of special traditional Singaporean & Malaysian dishes that I have never tried or even heard of before. I can see cafe Malacca does put a lot of effort in offering authentic food by making their own sauces and importing fresh ingredients directly from Malaysia etc. I would love to come back to try their Hainan Chicken Rice and But Kut Teh in the coming future.…Read More