My kingdom for some booze with my satay!
Over the past couple of months I have been reviewing Malaysian restaurants all around Wellington for Malaysia Kitchen (full disclosure – I got refunded some of the costs). It’s time to share the reviews!
Satay Kingdom (Shop 212, Left Bank, Wellington) is named by many people in Wellington as their favourite Malaysian because of its prices. It took out the best cheap eats section in The Annual Wellingtonista Awards for a couple of years in a row until we decided it wasn’t eligible anymore because it’s not licensed. That’s right, not even BYO.
Because a dinner without wine is not a dinner at all, we head to Satay Kingdom on a rainy day for lunch. The outside tables in Leftbank might have a canopy and a heater, but they’re still not very appealing in this weather, so we sit inside at one of the couple of tables, and browse the Capital Times while we wait.
My friend’s lamb curry with roti arrives quickly. It’s a big bowl slick with oil, pieces of lamb and potato swimming at the bottom of all the gravy.
However my Nyonya stir-fried chicken and vegetables is better – it’s loaded with bok choy and beans, and a vague taste of peanuts.
For the sake of comparison, although we had plenty of food already, we also got an order of Beef Satay.These tasted strongly of soy sauce, but had a pleasant char.
All up, lunch came to $31, which was pretty decent pricewise, but we weren’t paying for atmosphere or comfort. Skip the roti if you’re going, and you can have a fairly decent feed for under $10.
Not the best Malaysian eastery but certainly the best value. The place would benefit from some chairs and tables that don’t wobble and desperately needs the years of accumulated grease water-blasted from the paving stones outside. Still one of my fav’s tho…