[Bandung Trip] Mamak Kitchen

Hi Eaters.

This restaurant was the first to start my Bandung trip with Openrice crews and also fellow Openricers from #myfoodTiramisu. I remembered all along the way to Bandung I was pretty hungry. Since all of us left early in the morning to avoid heavy traffic, I didn't have the chance to get breakfast.
Well at this first stop, I got the chance to meet some of fellow Openricers and also foodbloggers from Bandung. Okay, without further delay, let me tell you about my culinary journey at Mamak Kitchen.
Located side by side with the Heritage factory outlet, this restaurant is just easy to find. Looking at the facade, you might think this is a pricey restaurant, but let me tell you this...it's quite affordable!
Through this restaurant you can go directly also to the factory outlet, or if you happened to be shopping and need a lunch break or just a relaxing drink then you can certainly make a stop-by here.

The interior looked nice and certainly it was comfortable. Although I would suggest they add chairs that has cushions just to make it more comfortable.
Okay, let's go straight to the food! The restaurant offers culinaries from 3 countries, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. How about Indonesia? Well, there's another restaurant under the same management called Warung Sangrai that specifically serves Indonesian food, and I will talk about it in another review. But for now let's just see what food from those 3 countries which were served that day.

Hainan Chicken Rice - IDR 36K

As a fan of Chinese food, I always craved for Hainan rice in every Chinese restaurant. I just loved the savory taste of that rice which has been cooked together with chicken stock. And the Hainan rice at Mamak Kitchen was quite good. Sometimes I find Hainan rice don't have that strong savory chicken stock flavor, but this one had it. The chicken was nice too. Juicy and tender.

Nasi Lemak Chicken Curry - IDR 35K

The curry sauce was good. It had that nice balanced flavor between the saltiness and spiciness. The Nasi Lemak was delicious. I can really felt the savory coconut milk in it. I would probably more like it if the chicken part served was the chicken breast, and it was served with more curry sauce.

Nasi Lemak Fried Chicken - IDR 35K

Same plating and components as the Nasi Lemak Chicken Curry. But here, the curry chicken is replaced with fried chicken. Well, it tasted good. But I think fried chicken is just common international food. I would prefer Mamak to serve a signature chicken dish either from Malaysia, Singapore, or Thailand. Perhaps Thai Pandan Chicken could be an alternative.

Tom Yum Noodle - IDR 36K

Thailand-styled noodle served with seafood. I loved the soup, it's refreshing. The sourness and the spiciness were in a perfect balance. I liked the heat in every mouthful of the dish. 

Ee Fu Mee - IDR 32K

It's delicious. The soup was just right in terms of flavor and thickness. The vegetables were cooked beautifully. I wouldn't say I loved the plating though. For my consideration, it's kind of a mess. I prefer the traditional Yi Fu Mie where the noodles are shaped like basket. The noodles in this dish, it just seemed like the cook grabbed some noodles and just put them in the pan and fry them. A good dish needs esthetic looks.

Seafood Horfun - IDR 32K

It's kinda hard to tell wether this dish used hor fun or just plain kway teow. But frankly, the taste was good. The flat hor fun noodles was pretty firm, and really nice to chew. The soup was also good, though my fellow Openricers said it tasted like Cap Cai. Probably since it also uses corn starch for the soup.

Crispy Chicken Curry Rice - IDR 34K

Rice served with chicken breast coated in crispy savory batter. The chicken itself was really delicious. The batter was so tasty and the actual chicken meat was seasoned too so it didn't felt bland. In my opinion, the curry sauce should come in a bigger portion.

Chicken Green Curry Rice - IDR 34K

Honestly I loved this curry more than the other curry dishes served. It had more striking flavors and I think it's delicious. The spiciness was more bursting here.

Spicy Basil Chicken Rice - IDR 36K

Spicy Basil Chicken Rice or commonly known as Pad Kra Pao Gai is a quite reknown Thai dish. It's got great flavor. It's quite spicy but at the same time the acidity also gave it a nice compliment in flavors. And I really love the sunny side up egg with that runny yolk. Yumm!

Singapore Fried Rice - IDR 33K

For my consideration, this Singapore Fried Rice has transformed too rapidly to adjust with local palate. I'm not saying that it tasted bad, I'm just saying it went to the wrong direction. It sort of tasted like Indonesian fried rice. It would be better if Mamak would make Sambal Fried Rice, something that shows Singaporean style more. This dish actually tasted good, just not as I expected.

Papaya Salad - IDR 23K

Thai Papaya Salad or commonly known as Som Tam, made from shredded unripe papaya. This one had quite strong acidity level. It's more sour than it is spicy. It's quite refreshing.

Crispy Thai Salad - IDR 26K

This could be consider as my favourite Thai dish, besides Suki. The Crispy Thai Salad, or known as Nang Krob Pad Heng in Thailand, are Ccrispy dried beef skin crackers glazed with tom yam paste. Just by looking at this dish visually had got me drooling. Flavors were exceptional. Delicious. Enough said.

Canai Chicken Curry - IDR 26K

The flavors were good. The canai bread was also nice. But I think the curry sauce as the dipping for the canai is just not much. 

Now, let's go to dessert.

Canai Milo - IDR 25K

Sweet canai bread with Milo powder fillings, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I would've thought that the dough would be brownish and the Milo was infused and cooked along to make the canai bread. Well, I guess I was wrong. The taste though, it's pretty nice. 

Canai Triple Banana Ice Cream - IDR 29K

Canai bread served with sweet banana slices and also 3 scoops of different flavored ice cream: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, and then dressed with chocolate sauce.
Simply delicious. If you're a sweet-tooth lover, you will love this dish.

Now let's go to the beverages. FYI, there were quite a lot of beverages served that day, but once again this was a food tasting and also Openrice gathering. It's so crowded with people and sometimes the foods or the drinks had already run out even before I tried or photographed them. So I'm just gonna write about the drinks which I got to taste.

Ice Thai Green Milk Tea - IDR 19K

Milk infused with green tea. Why did I say that instead of green tea infused with milk? Well primarily because the green tea was too mild. It's sweet, but I was hoping for bolder, might be slightly bitter taste from the green tea.

Ice Teh Tarik - IDR 15K

This one tasted better than the green tea. The flavors were right.

Hot Tea Tarik - IDR 15K

The hot version of the Ice Teh Tarik. Flavors were the same too.

Ice Milo Tarik - IDR 17K

It's sweet and refreshing. I loved how it didn't come out too sugary. And the Milo was quite strong here too.

Overall conclusion, this restaurant certainly has got me excited about the culinaries in Bandung. As the first stop of my Bandung culinary trip, it did an amazing job to wow me with its delicious cuisine.
I loved the place, the ambiance, and the good service. And certainly I would recommend this restaurant to be visited for you, people of Bandung, and also for those who would want to explore Bandung culinaries.
Prices are fair and quite affordable too. So it's another plus point you can enjoy from Mamak Kitchen. Give it a try!

Keep on chewing!


Jazzy Dee

Twitter: @jzzydee
Instagram: @jzzydee
Questions: ask.fm/jzzydee

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Mamak Kitchen

Jl. LL. RE Martadinata No. 63 (Heritage Factory Outlet),

Phone: (022) 95085664

Bandung, Jawa Barat