7/206 Bourke St, Melbourne CBD
Having been on the hunt for good Malaysian hawker fare for which Melbourne seemed to be sadly lacking, I was pleasantly surprised to hear of a new place which has been rumoured to be “the real thing”.
Jalan Alor, famously named after the street in KL’s Golden Triangle district, is situated in the new 206 building just next to JB Hi Fi. It seemed to emulate the distinctly upper class mamak ambience while retaining some old world charm. One thing I couldn’t get over was the placement of pot plants on each table. It’s not something you see regularly in restaurants. The wooden tables and stools were painted a concrete grey, I suppose to give it the illusion of concrete, for whatever reason I couldn’t fathom. It had a nice homey feel to it, despite being smack bang in the middle of a shopping complex, but for the 20 minutes or so I was there, it did feel like a little piece of KL.
Pot plants for all!
The restaurant was quite busy when we got there, but we didn’t have to wait very long to be seated. The waitresses were not really attentive though, we had to wave them over a few times for our order to get taken and to request for drinks.
Penang Char Kuey Teow
For 10 dollars, the serving size was reasonable, and they came with nice big fat prawns, not those miniature shrimps you get at other places. I must say the taste was really close to perfection, however the absence of clams made it just short of authentic. It’s amazing how much of a difference clams make to this dish, however I am yet to find a place which uses clams in their Char Kuey Teow. The dish was made slightly oilier than usual, but was the right degree of spiciness. They were a little stingy with their egg though.
Kon Loh Mee BBQ Chicken
We also tried the Kon Loh Mee. There are a few variations, but we opted for the one with BBQ chicken. It was decent, but it’s not quite like the Kon Loh Mee from Malaysia which typically uses egg noodle. Even so, I think it taste slightly better than Coconut House’s, but Grand BBQ still has the best version.
Taste: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Nice atmosphere, but can get really crammed inside at lunch times. The 2 dishes we tried weren’t quite that authentic but still good and worth coming back for. Bit pricey.
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