Old Town Kopitiam Mamak

Lvl 2, Shop 11, QV Square, Melbourne 3000

Visited: 29th Dec 2011

We came here tonight as we had a craving for something curry - well, I did anyway.  It's not the first time we've been here - we came to Old Town Kopitiam Mamak months ago - MerlinFan had the chicken curry laksa and although I am usually not such a huge fan of curry, I had to agree that it was pretty fantastic.  

As soon as we got here MerlinFan decided she wanted the chicken curry laksa too.  Once MerlinFan decides on a dish she is pretty much unyielding in changing her mind.  Now there was not much point in us both getting the same dish, and MerlinFan was getting a bit feral about sharing (by that I mean sharing two different dishes between the two of us), so I thought it best to back off and try something else.

There was a special, the Mamak Special char kueh tiaw, so I chose to have that instead.  It was basically cooked with seafood - prawn and squid.  I am not a seafood fan, so I asked if I could change the menu, and the waitress said yes.  I asked for chicken instead so the girl taking the order asked if I wanted no seafood at all.  Forgetting that it came with fishcake, I said yes.  Darn.  I like fishcake.

My char kueh tiaw (stir-fried rice cake strips) with chicken was actually really good, loved the nostalgically familiar stir-fried taste.  The flavours were all there, and they were very generous with the ingredients - they were not like some restaurants where in the char kueh tiaw you could literally count the pieces of meat with the fingers on one hand.  There were huge chunks of egg and lots of chicken - however it was chicken breast though, so it tended to be a bit dry.

Char kueh tiaw with chicken

MerlinFan's chicken curry laksa was still generous with the eggplant, chicken, fishcake, bean sprouts and tofu, but the soup was really watered down.  The first time we were here, the curry laksa was really rich and thick, literally like noodles in curry.  Nevertheless, although it wasn't as good as it had been the first time around, MerlinFan said if the place hadn't been so noisy and packed, I would have been able to hear her slurping away as it was still pretty good.

Chicken curry laksa

We had the bandung cincau drink which was basically grass jelly in rose syrup and milk.  The last time we had it, it was great and insanely sweet!  Tonight to my disappointment it tasted very watered down, and there was also not much ice in there so it wasn't exactly cold.  And it had been served in one of those big mugs before, but now it was in this ordinary glass.

Bandung cincau

My one peeve about this place is that you can only use your credit card if your meal is above $30.  Guess what, ours totalled to $24.90.  Great.

Anyway, the food here is pretty authentic - had the roti chanai last time which was really good too.  If only they could maintain the consistency of the dishes at all times.