A very long menu at Long Bar

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!

We made a book­ing at Long Bar because it was a Fri­day night, but giv­en the res­taur­ant’s Brandon Street loc­a­tion in Lamb­ton Quarter which is deser­ted by 7pm, we might not have needed to. Still, giv­en Long Bar’s pop­ular­ity at lunch­time, it was bet­ter to be safe than sorry.

Lunch­time diners miss out on the very extens­ive full menu though, includ­ing a whole page of veget­ari­an mock meat options like sweet and sour “fish” and “mut­ton” curry. In the spir­it of things, we order veget­ari­an “pork” steamed buns. The filling tastes a lot like roast pork, but I’m not a big fan of the bun itself – too gluggy.

A much bet­ter entree is the chick­en wrapped in pandan leaves then grilled so it’s subtly infused with the fla­vours. The fried pork dump­lings aren’t any­thing spe­cial, so they’re soon for­got­ten when the mains come out.

With four of us, we tried to order a range of dif­fer­ent styles and anim­als. The noodle bas­ket that the mac­a­demia chick­en is served in is nov­el, and the meat very tender even if the sauce is a little goopy.

The pea­nut sauce on the mee rojak is deli­cious, and the veget­able mix is intriguing, but I’m not a fan of cold noodles.

When we were agon­ising over what curry to order (there were many, many options), the wait­ress cau­tioned us against our ini­tial red curry choice, say­ing it was very spicy. I’m not opposed to a lot of spice, but one of our friends had a cold and thought it would­n’t be a lot of fun. Instead we went for a merah curry, which was beef cooked in a spicy tomato sauce, as I’d nev­er heard of it before. It was expens­ive (in con­text) at $22, and did­n’t wow us. The orange beef, how­ever, was divine, crispy and chewy with a hint of chili. We were glad to share the plate, how­ever, as it was so rich.

If you like Malay­si­an food, Long Bar is def­in­itely worth a vis­it at night so you can exper­i­ence their full range. Let me know what new dis­cov­er­ies you make in the depths of the menu!