Normally when you’re looking for a good restaurant of a specific ethnicity, you look for the one filled with people from that ethnicity. But being in Camberwell/Hawthorn, and being medium priced, i’m not sure that Okra ever gets packed out with Malaysians looking for the tastes of home. Looking around, I think Louis was the only patron who could claim Malaysian heritage during our visit.

That said however, our first taste - the Sambal Belacan - could not have been more Malaysian. There was the faint smell of prawn paste (very faint, thankfully) and minced chilli, and it tasted just like the authentic stuff - plenty of zing. Heck, Louis was even contemplating on asking the owner for the recipe!

[Louis’ Take: Simply put, the sambal belacan was authethic and very…formidable. It was a pleasant surprise to find this here - i believe Okra made this from scratch and it is very similar to what my grandmother in Penang makes, so i am duly impressed.]

In light of this, we were quite excited for what lay ahead.

Entrees:

Gai hor bai thoey - Pandan leaves! I don’t know why, but I can never find these anywhere. I’ve got a whole bunch of recipes that i’d love to try, if only I could buy some. Anyway.. after unwrapping the chicken and tasting it… it tasted ok, but i’d expected more flavour. I’m not sure what spices they’d mixed in with the chicken, but I think it would have been better if they’d marinated it (for longer). As it was, it tasted ok, but you needed a bit of that quick-fix sweet chilli sauce. (The purists will be pulling faces now).

Loh bak - This was the standout dish of the night, at least in the savoury section. I haven’t yet tasted this one in Malaysia, (possibly in Feb!) but Louis said it was rather close to the original. The pork pieces had lots of flavour which complimented the initial flavour from the beancurd skin. Add to that just a dash of the sauce, and it was a complex yet pleasing little package.

Sweet potato and yam wontons - I’m not sure i’ve ever known sweet potatoes or yams as flavour powerhouses, and combining them into fried wontons/dumplings is no exception. Again with the sweet-chilli sauce it makes quite a munchable entree, but really - it could be anything inside and you wouldn’t really tell. Authentic? Nay.

Spicy salt and pepper calamari - If you’ve read previous posts, you’ll know I like my calamari with plenty of salt and spice. Unfortunately, this one was lacking both. The batter was crispy, which was a little strange, but it tasted ok as far as calamari itself goes. It wasn’t chewy though, so the calamari itself was quite fresh. Needed more salt and spice, and I thought $14.00 for the portion size was a little bit rich - drop the garnish and fill the plate (or lower the price).

Mains:

Gado gado - Peanut Satay sauce dumped on top of some steamed vegetables, served warm. Not quite what I imagined from any of the Gado Gado recipes i’d ever read, but that’s what we got. It tasted ok, (shared between four you don’t have to munch through a whole lot) but i’m still not sure what it was trying to be.

Ayam bakar Padang - I think we can safely say that if there’s sweet chilli served with something, then expect the flavour to be a bit lacking. The chicken was barbequed very well, nice and juicy, but the flavours were so faint I really couldn’t tell that there was supposed to be lemongrass, garlic and galangal in there.

Sambal Prawns - I would have possibly expected at least a couple more prawns in this dish for my $27.90, but whatever. What I found disheartening is that the word Sambal is in the title, but I couldn’t find it in the dish. There was no zing. whatsoever. There was something going on in the sauce, the flavours were trying to do something, but whatever it was they’d cancelled eachother out. If I got the sambal belacan from our crackers and dumped it in there, we might have been on the right track - but as it was, sorry.

Gang keow wann gai - Again, another disappointment. Authentic green curry? Firstly there wasn’t enough sauce. Green curry is never a dry curry, so it needs lots of sauce - we had Roti sitting there waiting to soak it up. The taste was certainly there, but it was really vague. I’ve had this happen at home when you get the taste right, then dump another 2 cans of coconut milk in, you also need to add more curry paste and spices. Except there wasn’t the sauce either. Lastly - cut the chicken pieces smaller, please.

Desserts:

Durian Ice Cream - The manager said this was home-made. Never having tried Durian before, I was pleasantly surprised, but at the same time I could understand how some people dislike the taste. It’s strong, which is something you don’t really expect from a fruit. Nice and sweet (and probably fattening), a little is a good thing.

Sago Pudding - I love sago pudding - except when someone mixes red bean paste through it. Luckily, Okra didn’t do that. This was nice, but I thought maybe the sago itself needed a bit more sugar throughout. The coconut cream was interesting, but didn’t really impart that much flavour as a whole - the gula melaka was the main thing you noticed.

Taro Parcel - This was quite nice, the pastry, ice cream, and taro. But as I said before, taro is a mild flavour and you could quite as easily replace it with red bean or something else and still have an interesting dessert. This one would be very easy to replicate at home.

Black Rice - I liked this one the best. Again it would have been just that bit better with more sugar throughout the black rice, but the custard layer balanced it out a bit more. The palm sugar (gula melaka) is still a bit of a strange taste to me, but all in all it was pretty good.

Crackers & dip were fantastic, Entrees were pretty good, Mains were.. ok, Desserts were better. Okra didn’t have a huge menu, but I thought we chose some of the most interesting dishes on it.

I like strong flavours. In comparison, my parents have simple tastes. I know there’s kind of a ‘happy medium’ you have to find, being a restaurant owner. I’m sure some people would think all the food was great as it was, but that’s getting back to my earlier comment on whether a place is full of ‘locals’. It’s how the food is meant to be, not how you like it.

I wanted to like everything, don’t get me wrong - it was pleasant, but the majority of the dishes just didn’t rock my socks off. It wouldn’t take much to fix, maybe even a note on the menu to ask the chef to ‘crank it up’ if you like it that way?

Worth a look to make your own judgement, anyway.

I must say, it was a lot of food that we ordered (against my better judgment), but i wasn’t paying so i won’t complain about it.

Entrees:

Loh Bak - The Penang Hokkien classic. I suggested this one, and i am glad they did a decent job. Perhaps a bit lacking in the spices department, but still very tasty and a substantial starter at a price cheaper than almost every other entrees.

Sweet Potato and Yam Wontons - I wasn’t aware that these were sweet potato and yam until much later. I initially thought they had chicken fillings, and as such they seemed a mushy and devoid in flavour. It’s an option if you are vegetarian, but i would suggest you otherwise save your $7 from the tiny fillings and spend them on mains instead.

Spicy Salt and Pepper Calamari - I have had some great spicy salt and pepper squid before, primarily at Vietnamese restaurants. This one was quite forgettable - not enough salt, pepper and chillies.

Mains:

Gado gado - An Indonesian staple, but there’s nothing great about this particular serving. The peanut sauce was a bit weak.

Ayam bakar Padang - Another Indonesian/Malaysian favourite. Perhaps i think too much of classic Ayam Bakar Padang from Malaysian hawkers, but in terms of presentation and taste, it’s as though Okra took sticks of satay and scrapped off the meat onto the plate. Other than, the meat was succulent but needed additional spices to top things off.

Sambal Prawns - The sambal belacan served to us a condiment was excellent, but the sambal they used for a base for this dish was watered down and mixed with sweet chilli/tomato sauce. It’s kind of puzzling, perhaps to cater to delicate tastebuds? While prawns can be served this way in Malaysian Chinese restaurants, its usually called something else. If its called Sambal Prawns, they are expected to go all the way!

Gang Keow Wann Gai - The name is a mouthful, but it basically means Thai Green Curry. I am happy to say that this one turned out to be rather tasty. For curries, the stock usually makes or breaks the end result, and in this case they must have used

Desserts:

Durian Ice Cream - Very nice creamy texture, and the durian flavour was distinct. The owner said they made this themselves, and i won’t be surprised if they actually did.

Sago Pudding - On the right track with this recipe. I just wished the gula melaka (Melaka palm sugar) flavour was a bit stronger.

Taro Parcel - No comment. I didn’t try much of this.

Black Rice - Not a big fan. I found it to be a bit lacking in flavour.

Ambience:
Food:
Service:
Value:
Verdict:	Excellent service, with a number of strong dishes. A great place to go for Malaysian, Indonesian and Thai fusion cuisine all under one roof. Not quite the taste of home, but still very enjoyable.