V Rating: VVV
Where: 39 Lime Street, King Street Wharf
When: Lunch: 12 - 3pm, Mon - Sat Dinner: 6 - 9pm, Sun - Mon 6 - 10pm, Tues - Sat.
Tel: (02) 9279 1170
Price: Entree: $9 - $17. Main: $19 - $28

Late last Saturday afternoon I was seized by the idea that Andy and I had to do something with our night.

Although Andy was looking forward to a quiet night in, he quickly got into the spirit of things and suggested that we throw on our best clothes and go out to a lovely restaurant.
This turned out to be a leetle challenging given the strange custom other people have of pre-booking tables less than half an hour before they plan to eat.

We pinned our hopes on the Malaya, and luckily they offered to squeeze us in for a quick meal if we could be there in 15 minutes (we knew they meant 30. We eat quick).

The Malaya has been around since the 1960s. It’s on King Street Wharf a few blocks along from Darling Harbour and the Slip Inn where Mary famously met her prince.

While there were no Danes in sight last Saturday evening, we were not wanting for princesses as taxi after taxi dumped carloads of Randwick racegoers outside the Cargo bar. We side-stepped them to enter the sanctuary of the Malaya, where staff quickly ushered us to a table by the window, where we could gaze out on the pretty lights of Darling Harbour.

The Malaya is a big restaurant catering to the tourist and business trades. The Malaya serves nonya food. Originating in Malacca, it’s a mixture of Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese cuisine. I love the fact that it’s a quality restaurant that offers a decent range of vegetarian food, unlike so many other Modern Australian fancy pants places.

We’d checked out the banquet menu on the website at home. It seemed great value at $38 per person. Unfortunately you need three people to order it, and we were just two.

We made do with the vegetarian san choi bow for entree, and the Sichaun eggplant and sayor masak lemak curry for main.

The vegetarian san choi bow came with soft tofu in a thick, savoury gravy that contrasted nicely with the fresh lettuce. The highlight of the meal for Andy was the Sichuan eggplant, one of the Malaya’s signature dishes. Again, respect to the Malaya for making a vegetarian dish a signature item.

The eggplant came in thick chunks, but was soft and well-cooked throughout. The sauce gave the eggplant a sweet, caramelised coating that filtered through the flesh.
I liked the vegetable laden sayor masak lemak, but it was hot. If you want something less spicy, try the salt and pepper cauliflower (almost as good as salt and pepper tofu).

By 8.00pm, when we finished our dinner, the Malaya was full of party goers, families and couples enjoying a romantic night out. We skipped away from the madding crowd, full of good food and good wine humour.

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