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Madam Kwan’s Restaurant
F-052, First Floor
Mid Valley Megamall
Mid Valley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel No: (+60) 03 2297 2297
We’re on holiday! Greetings from Kuala Lumpur. More specifically, Midvalley Megamall, in a restaurant called Madam Kwan’s.
Madam Kwan’s started out in a single shop along Jalan Imbi (one of the busiest main streets in KL), originally named ‘Sakura Restaurant’. They became famous for their Nasi Lemak, Curry & Assam Fish Head. Then they rebranded and opened new outlets (with an upmarket modern decor) under the name of ‘Madam Kwan’s’ which offered the favourites from the old Sakura menu plus new ones like the super yummy ‘Nasi Bojari’, aka ‘3 Colour Rice’.
We met up with Jin, one of Louis’ uni friends who was back in KL for the holidays, as well as another friend (and part time personal tour guide), Clayton. After a day of trawling through shops we’d certainly worked up a decent appetite (when they say Megamall, they do mean MEGA!), so there were no complaints when I suggested MK.
In the scale of Malaysian restaurants, Madam Kwan’s is up in the medium-pricied category. The average ‘coffee shop’ or food court meal would cost around RM$5 and fast food chain ‘meals’ cost around RM$5-8, whereas the dishes at MK average about RM$15. Some more exclusive places cost RM$20 - $28 each. But for westerners, when your $1 buys RM$3, everything’s suddenly cheap.
On our last trip 18 months ago, Clayton introduced me to Madam Kwan’s, and i’d been itching to visit again ever since - as you might have guessed from our neverending search for decent Malaysian food in Melbourne.
Enough already! Where’s the food!? Okok.. Last time we had the Beef Rendang, and we were definitely ordering it again this time. For the rest of the dishes, we pretty much went by the pictures/descriptions on the menu, for what looked good. We ordered:
Beef Rendang - Chunks of tender beef cooked in exotic herbs
(RM$13.00 / AU$4.64)
Chicken Curry - Fresh chicken cooked in thick coconut milk and our secret herbs
(RM$14.20 / AU$5.07)
Claypot Seafood Beancurd - Braised deep fried soft beancurd with seafood and vegetables
(RM$21.50 / AU$7.68)
I like Roti with my curry. Always. Unfortunately, Madam Kwan’s don’t serve Roti. And when saying Roti in Malaysia, you need to say ‘Roti Chanai’ or ‘Roti Prata’, otherwise you’re just saying ‘bread’.
For dessert, we ordered a couple of very Malaysian dishes:
Ice Campur - A traditional Malaysian delight
(RM$6.50 / AU$2.32)
Sago Gula Melaka - Palm starch steamed in coconut milk served with Gula Melaka
(RM$5.50 / AU$1.96)
If we had a category for Consistency, i’d give MK 5 Stars. The Beef Rendang tasted just as I remembered it, over a year go. The Chicken Curry was another good choice. There was plenty of both curry and chicken, of which the latter was cooked very well, without turning dry. There was also no trace of ‘curry powder’ taste, so this was obviously made with all the proper ingredients - no shortcuts.
The Seafood Beancurd Claypot was a change of pace, but was still very nice. The vegetables weren’t overcooked or limp, and the seafood was fresh, not chewy. And there was plenty to go around.
I was less impressed with the desserts however, but i’m not a big fan of Gula Melaka (palm sugar), and that’s about all that gave these two desserts their flavour. I might just order an extra main dish next time, and skip dessert altogether.
Madam Kwan’s is definitely worth a look on any trip to KL. In fact, KL is worth a trip just for the shopping and food alone.
Yeah, great restaurant and top food at good prices. But, the policy of allowing people to puff cigarette smoke all over the diners means I won’t be returning.
BTW, I am not just talking about someone lighting up after a meal but a party who sat there and smoked constantly for the duration of our meal!
Left by tim lloyd on June 14th, 2008