By the time our meals arrived i’d given up on being ‘wowed’, considering that there should have been more people with butts-on-seats on a Friday night. I’d expect more patronage even on a tuesday night if there were any hidden treasures here.

Chicken Satay - I didn’t mind the taste of the satay sauce, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t replicate at home with a can of Ayam Satay Sauce. As for the satay sticks, I can’t really say much - as they didn’t really have much flavour (unless you covered them with the satay sauce). At least the chicken wasn’t dry I guess.

Char Kway Teow - Floury rice noodles, a few b-grade prawns, a few vegies, covered with a wholesome burnt taste throughout. I’ll give Louis 5 stars just for clearing his plate.

Nasi Goreng - My Nasi Goreng didn’t taste that great, but if you were coming from the Char Kway Teow it really did taste a lot better (comparatively). It had a certain level of spicyness (spices, not chilli hot), but was still so far off the mark it wasn’t funny. And the chunks of carrot were just.. strange.

Evidently the bits of meat through it were Rendang, so i’m especially glad I didn’t order a plate of Rendang Curry because there was little or no taste to that, either.

I’ll live in hope the next one we find will be decent.

It might seem that i have been bagging every Malaysian restaurant in Melbourne, but if they didn’t suck so much, i might have something good to say. But as it is, this is yet another Malaysian restaurant we are striking off our list.

The restaurant was dimly lit, with nary a customer in sight. The was only other table occupied, but fair enough, we will not judge a restaurant based on the amount of clients - it could have been a slow night. Not the best decor, but the walls had very Malaysian-themed posters and photos, and there was Malay music playing. The ambience was distinctively Malaysian, but can we say the same of the food?

I looked through the menu - a decent selection of mostly Chinese and Malay food. I decided on Char Kuay Teow, but decided to ask the waitress if they put cockles in their version. After all, what is a sinful dish of Char Kuay Teow without cockles to complete it? I was rather annoyed when the waitress just gave me a blank stare. I presume she was Malay, thus not familiar with how the authentic Chinese version is done. That should have been sufficient warning, but i decided to order anyway to see how far off the mark they could get. Here’s my verdict of everything i sampled:

Chicken Satay - Thick chunks of chicken, but unfortunately nothing like the tasty bite-sized skewer sticks so common on Malaysian roadside stalls. I would say its a problem with the marinade and cuts of meat. The satay sauce almost made it, but not quite. Besides, what kind of place calls itself Satay Inn, but serve tomatoes and cucumbers in place of ketupats (Malay rice dumplings)?

Char Kuay Teow - Dry, overladen with garlic and tasting a tad burnt, this was a far cry from the guilty pleasure of the Penang version. The noodles were stuck together, and flavor-wise i could only taste burnt bits of the wok and too much garlic. The more i ate, the more i looked forward to writing a scathing review (which you are reading). Honestly, the best comparison i can say to give you an idea is - know how lots of Malaysian stalls like to train their Indo/Filo maids to do Chinese cooking, ending up with sub-par versions just to cut costs? This tastes exactly like that.

Nasi Goreng - I had a taste of Damien’s dish as well - i think it couldn’t make up its mind whether it wanted to be Chinese fried rice or nasi goreng.

Ambience:
Food:
Service:
Value:
Verdict:	Hardly authentic, mildly edible. We won’t be going back.