SMH Good Food Guide 2011
Terry Durack & Joanna Savill

Mamak

The best thing about having to wait in line outside this funked-up Malaysian diner is that you can watch the chefs in the open kitchen twirl their pale white roti dough in the air then slap it on the fiercely hot griddle until it is flaky and golden. OK, so it’s the only good thing. We hate the queue. But luckily it moves fast – and you find out why as soon as it’s your turn to grab a table. This is no-fuss, high-speed, wipe-clean Malaysian. Orders are whipped away, noodles, curries, sambals and crushed-ice desserts come fast and furious, and lingering is not encouraged. A dozen sticks of chicken satay come hot off the (real charcoal) grill with an overly sweet but delicious nutty sauce. Crusty, spicy ayam goreng (fried chicken) is the big order, and kari ikan – great chunks of mackerel and eggplant in a smoothly balanced curry sauce – is a highlight, especially with that fabulous roti on the side.

Score: 13.5/20

The Age Good Food Guide 2011
Janne Apelgren

Interstate – Sydney

Mamak

There are no bookings; there’s always a queue; the decor is clean, bright and modern; and you have to bring your own booze. That all adds up to a small price to pay for sensational Malaysian mackerel curry, flaky made-on-the-spot roti bread, fried chicken and sizzling satays.

SMH Good Food Guide 2010
Simon Thomsen & Joanna Savill

Global Gems

Mamak

The Malaysian canteen of choice for roti addicts – they make them in the window – is hardly a secret. Just spot the lines outside. But crunchy, flaky, more-ish roti (eat them while hot for maximum effect) are perfect with their accompanying curry gravies and sambal or with chicken or lamb in spiced sauce. Roti even come as dessert. Have an iced dessert drink on the side, Malaysian style.

The Sun-Herald
Scott Bolles, May 2, 2010

If you don’t like queues, don’t go to Mamak

If you don’t like queues don’t go to Mamak. It is a good-natured, well-behaved pavement queue - quieter than seniors sweating on Shirley Bassey tickets - but any more bodies and you'd expect some police presence. Thankfully, once you're in the door and seated, the food arrives quickly.

Sydney has seen its fair share of Chinese-Malaysian. We love its nonya cooking, with its emphasis on aromatic spices. But Malaysia is a country with several distinct ethnic cuisines and a big part of the success of Mamak is its focus on hawker-style street food.

A glistening upmarket dining room would only betray the core of Mamak's brief, so we're not fazed when there isn't one. And while it has had the design dust sprinkled over it, at its heart Mamak remains a slick, smart canteen for anyone with an itch for the street flavours of Kuala Lumpur.

You can tell Mamak means business simply by looking at the food. There's none of those over-bulked satay sticks of the standard Sydney variety - this place serves the slimmed-down authentic Malaysian model in chicken and beef ($8 for six).

Rookies might find nasi lemak ($7.50) an overly simple introduction to Malaysian food: fragrant coconut rice served with sambal and an assortment of peanuts, cucumber, anchovies and hard-boiled egg. But Malaysians lap it up like Sunday-night dinner.

The shredded yam bean and cucumber salad ($12) doesn't take me somewhere I'm particularly keen to revisit; the stir-fried tiger prawns with the kick of sambal ($18) are more my ticket. But what I'm really here for is to relive the comfort of the mild chicken curry with potatoes ($15), mopped up with arguably Sydney's best roti. It transports you to another place. And all without the airfare.

In a few words: Authentic Malaysian food in Chinatown.

Come here for: The flaky roti.

The Weekend Australian, The Weekend Australian Magazine
John Lethlean and Necia Wilden, April 17, 2009

Great Australian Bites

Wasn’t it Paul Keating who insisted we were, in fact, part of Asia, not Europe? Nothing new, of course, to a generation of curious Australian diners for whom the flavours of Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam had provided cut-price, passport-free gastro-tourism for years. Lemongrass, chilli, shrimp paste and garlic seemed a natural fit with the Aussie palate, especially when it came packaged in such discounted, no-frills inner-city wrapping. And Mamak, on the fringe of Sydney’s Chinatown, provides a direct link to Australia’s first wave of South-East Asian laksa and stir-fry canteens. Noisy, cramped and unfashionably utilitarian, there is, however, a very good reason you will need to queue most evenings in Goulburn Street for a table: delicious, powerfully authentic Malaysian food at prices that must surely embarrass Sydney’s stellar diners. The wait is worth it and besides, when was the last time you watched a guy making roti while you stood in line for a table? Suffer it. Dream about the tamarind-tangy, deeply spiced fish curry with tomato, okra and eggplant. Get your palate ready for a plate of verdantly green water spinach fried with fresh chilli and scoops of garlicky shrimp paste. And just try to imagine a plate of light, flaky, crunchy roti light years ahead of the mass-produced commercial muck most Malaysian restaurants use. Mamak is the quintessential Great Australian Ethnic Café.

The Sydney Morning Herald, the (sydney) magazine
Simon Thomsen, October 6, 2008

10 best new restaurants

Yes, storm clouds might be gathering over the restaurant industry as everyone worries about whether there's enough money left over to dine out, but it's still full steam ahead for Sydney's most creative chefs, who continue to come up with imaginative ways to convince diners to open their wallets.

The past year's delicious panoply of newcomers includes high fliers such as Universal and Berowra Waters Inn, which rank among the finest, as well as more modest and great-value places such as Mamak, which are equally enjoyable.

And while everything from butler to rice has doubled in price, fierce competition for dining dollars means restaurants have borne most of the costs so far, ensuring that meals remain good value.

The 2009 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide features 51 new listings, in a sure sign that the city's dining scene continues to thrive. Here are 10 that caught the attention of the (sydney) magazine.

Mamak

Yes, Sydney is world class when it comes to how much money you can spend on a night out, but the bargains are there if you know where to look - in this case, a bustling, no-fuss take on fast food, Malaysian style. No wonder there's a nightly queue being entertained by roti cooks at the front window making wonderful, crisp and flaky flatbreads. They knead, stretch, roll and grill with such mesmerising speed and precision you know exactly what to order first.

This is authentic, street-hawker food, full of bold, spicy flavours, arriving faster than Michael Schumacher for very few ringgit. A basic, irresistible roti canai comes with spicy dhal, and a dollop of jammy sambal. Wnf-like chicken satays are perfumed with lemongrass and charcoal smoke. Ayam goreng is deep-fried chicken so perfect the Colonel would weep with envy. A soft lamb curry redolent with clove is slightly sweet, while stir-fried water spinach with chilli and shrimp paste is a funky mix of heat, sweetness and gentle bitterness.

There's a golden cone of crisp, buttery and sweet roti tisu for dessert, or the sugar rush of jellies with condensed milk over shaved ice. All that's missing is a drive-through.

15 Goulburn Street, Haymarket. Phone: 9211 1668.

The Daily Telegraph, Weekend
Michael Hampton, August 9, 2008

Taste of the real deal

As the saying goes: “Let’s start at the very beginning, that’s a very good place to start” – but to describe Mamak, I’d like to start at the end, with dessert. Although when I tell you dessert is served with curry you might think I’m talking about the beginning of the meal. Confused?

Perhaps I'd better start at the beginning – although anywhere on Mamak’s menu would be a good place to start.

Mamak is a Malaysian market or street-style eating house – authentic and delicious – on the edge of Chinatown. It opens at 5.30pm and on a cold and rainy Tuesday at 5.20pm we still have to join a queue waiting for the doors to open.

It specialises in roti. Unlike the Indian version, Malaysian roti is more like filo pastry, but without the butter, fried on a griddle at the front of the restaurant.

There are 10 roti on the menu – six savoury and four sweet – and here’s where I get back to dessert.

While the sweet rotis can be served with ice cream, traditionally they are served with curry – spicy, savoury curries and a sambal. Surprisingly, their fieriness works wonderfully with the sweet roti bom ($6.50}, which is crisp on the outside with an elastic interior drenched in sugar syrup. I’d go back time and again for just this taste sensation.

It was an intriguing highlight to an already enjoyable meal, starting with murtabak ($9.50) – a roti stuffed with a flavoursome but not overpowering combination of minced lamb, egg and curry leaves, served with the same curry dips and sambal as the bom.

Ayam goreng (four for $10) is marinated chicken pieces deftly coated with bold spices and deep fried until the chicken is succulent and the coating crisp and oil-free.

Rojak (below, $10) is a Malay term, roughly translating to mixture. Here, a salad includes an eclectic mix of prawn tuilles, coconut fritters, fresh shredded yam bean and cucumber and a hard-boiled egg topped with a rich, fragrant peanut sauce – a moreish dish we continue pick at throughout the meal.

Nasi lemak ($6.50) – a Kuala Lumpur staple – is true to its roots with coconut rice surrounded by sambal, whole peanuts, hard-boiled egg, cucumber and fabulous crispy-fried anchovies. It seems incongruous but works marvellously.

Beef satay (also chicken, far left, $8 for six, $14 per dozen) can be a bore but not at Mamak where succulent, fragrant strips of beef, smoky from the charcoal grill, are served simply with spanish onion and cucumber with a nutty, spiced sambal-based dipping sauce.

Mamak is not licensed (BYO $2 per person) but Malay teas and coffees ($3.50) – hot and cold – are addictive and complement the food beautifully.

Mamak is a fast-paced place and the food arrives in no particular order but is always pleasantly delivered. It’s a bit cramped, a bit chaotic but that’s how it should be.

All they need is someone selling trinkets at the door.

The verdict:

• Food: Malaysian roti and satay
• Drink: BYO
• Dress: Casual
• Expect to pay: $20
• Value for money: 4/5
• Overall rating: 4/5

The Sunday Telegraph, Insider
Clair Weaver, June 7, 2008

It’s spiced up city eating

First the bad news: you may have to queue to get into this narrow little eatery on the edge of Sydney's colourful Chinatown.

But the good news is there's a feast of live entertainment in the front window, where masterful roti cooks twirl dough into a translucent skin before dropping it into a bubbling mass on a large hotplate.

We are lucky to secure a table on arrival shortly before 7pm, as the rock-bottom prices are matched by an egalitarian no-booking policy.

The interior is not flash and it's clear people are here for the exceptional food.

Seduced at first whiff, we order roti canai ($5) - a delightfully crisp, scrunched puffball of elastic dough with a flaky top.

Pulling strips of it off to mop up puddles of accompanying curry dips and spicy sambal is a deliciously tactile experience. We promptly order two more.

My well-travelled dining companion is deeply impressed by the kari ikan ($14) - big chunks of meaty whole fish, okra, eggplant and tomato swimming in a tangy red curry. Complete with bones and a strong chilli kick, this is truly "a curry to put hairs on your chest'', he declares.

Having taken a few mouthfuls myself, I pray this is merely a figure of speech.

A nasi lemak ($6.50) is an intriguing combination of coconut rice, peanuts, a pile of crispy dried miniature fish, hard-boiled egg and sambal. But this bizarre dish makes sense, with every ingredient combining to create perfectly balanced harmony.

To wash it down, he has a traditional kopi 'o' ais ($3.50) - a refreshing sweet black coffee served over ice in a half-pint glass mug.

My sambal udang ($16) is a satisfying plate of a dozen stir-fried tiger prawns spread with a thick chilli sauce, which leaves my mouth buzzing pleasantly.

A dessert of roti tisu ($7) - roti shaped into a wafer-thin cone with vanilla ice cream on the side - is fresh off the hotplate, sweet and highly addictive, as is the ais kacang ($5), a brightly coloured traditional Asian dessert of sweet red beans, grass jelly, rose syrup and sweetened milk on a bed of shaved ice.

Essentially high-quality and affordable street hawker food, Mamak began as a humble food stand at Bondi's Organic Market in December, 2006, before developing a cult following at the Chinatown Night Markets and then opening as a restaurant eight months ago.

Mamak is clearly well on its way to becoming a Sydney institution.

MAMAK 15 Goulburn St, Haymarket
Phone: 9211 1668
Food: Traditional Indian-Muslim food from Malaysia
Service: Quick and friendly
Why go: Best roti canai this side of the Indian Ocean

Qantas Magazine
Pat Nourse, February 2008

Lazy Sunday afternoon

It’s all about the flavour here. It certainly isn’t about the décor. This is a long, skinny room –permanently perfumed with the scent of the hotplate – that’s not unattractive, but best described as functional (and “functional” is more than can be said of the tiny, translucent napkins). No, it’s all about the deep-down-and-dirty complexity of Malaysian hawker classics, rendered here at Mamak as well, if not better, than anywhere in Sydney. Pulling together many of the more appealing aspects of Chinese and Indian cuisine and throwing in a dash of Straits exoticism all its own, Malaysian food is utterly suited to picking and pondering, sharing, dipping and nibbling – all good things in a casual (and cheap) Sunday bite. Don’t miss the satay sticks – here saved from the usual mediocrity by merit of charcoal grilling – and the rotis, light and flaky fried flatbread, served with curry sauces for dipping, filled with egg, or even stuffed with coconut jam or fried crunchy and sprinkled with sugar for dessert.

The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Living
Simon Thomsen, November 6, 2007

The spicy aromas of Malaysia arrive at the table fast and furiously good.

This is my kind of fast food. Five minutes after ordering, we've run out of room on the small laminate table in this bustling, spice-laden nook of Malaysian street food. At Casey Stoner speeds, Mamak's kitchen has assembled lamb curry, chicken satays, mee goreng noodles and steamed rice. By the entrance, the diners queueing for a table are entertained by roti cooks who knead and stretch dough with artisan flair. They spread the flatbread thinly before folding it and tossing it on to the griddle, smothering it with oil.

The results are close to Sydney's finest. An entry-level roti canai ($5) is crisp-edged and flaky, yet soft and stretchy. After cooking it's quickly scrunched, then served on a silver platter with two curry dips, including a spicy dhal, plus a dollop of jammy sambal. It's unexpectedly rich and filling. The menu features five savoury and four sweet versions, plus murtabak ($8.50) filled with spicy chicken or lamb. I order a murtabak but what arrives seems to be the roti telur bawang ($6.50) with an omelet-like filling of egg and sweet red onion without a whiff of meat. It was appealing enough to allay complaints.

Mamak was a highlight of last summer's Chinatown Friday night food market but now it has a permanent home - a long, plain, skinny, yet already slightly scuffed red and white room with bench seating stretching down one wall. The waiters, clad in black T-shirts, are young and funky. It's crowded, loud, doesn't take bookings, is BYO (water glasses for wine) and the paper napkins, smaller than a Bondi bikini, are pretty useless. I love every minute of it.

This is Malay food that pulls no punches, ripe with the peninsula's melting pot of Indian, Chinese, Indonesian spicing.

Sometimes, it reeks of belacan, the fermented shrimp paste, at others, it's perfumed with coconut and lemongrass. And then there are the teas and coffees ($3): lush, sweet and spicy, made with condensed milk and designed to withstand the assertive flavours. They're an acquired but potentially addictive taste and the theatre of teh tarik (pulled tea) as it's "stretched" - poured between glass and cup to create froth - is a joy to observe.

Meanwhile, six chicken satays ($6) huddle together as waif-thin strips of meat beside a rubble of chunky raw red onion and cucumber. Their size makes them whimsically ephemeral. The taste is unbelievably authentic - slightly sweet with a perfume that's both lemongrass floral and charcoal smoky. The satay sauce is equally agile and attractive.

Mamak, Tamil for uncle, is also the name for the Kuala Lumpur stalls serving cheap, fast Indian-Muslim inspired dishes. Owner-chef triumvirate Julian Lee, Alan Au and Clement Lee capture an authentic spirit, both in the bustling atmosphere and what's on the plate. They did it the hard way, giving up corporate jobs in Sydney to head for Malaysia and learn how to cook the real deal.

Ayam goreng ($3 each, $10 for four) is deep-fried chicken so perfect the Colonel would cry tears of envy. Golden pieces of crisp-skinned leg and thigh are gently spicy, the marinated flesh bristling with flavour.

The two curries ($12) I try have vastly different personalities. Lamb curry, full of large just-soft-enough meat chunks has a slight sweetness, spurred on by the notes of clove. Fish curry, studded with oily Spanish mackerel, still on the bone, plus tomato, okra and eggplant, is pleasantly sour with tamarind and electrified by chilli.

I'm less impressed by sambal sotong ($14), since the stir-fried squid is an unappealing grey amid the marvellously complex chilli sambal. The thick slices, all finely scored to increase their tenderness, nonetheless seem weary and the texture is nondescript.

Kangkung belacan ($10) is a thrilling blend of nutty, stir-fried water spinach, chilli and shrimp paste, with heat, sweetness and gentle bitterness. It's funky, confronting and a little lascivious.

Malaysians lift the bar on sweetness when it comes to dessert. Ais kacang ($5), a lurid combination of red bean, minty grass jelly, sweetcorn, rose syrup and condensed milk, poured over a mound of shaved ice, is typical of the region but there's more class - and skill - in roti tisu ($7). Literally meaning tissue, the dough is spread thinner than a butterfly wing and as widely as pizza. It's sprinkled with sugar and lightly cooked then shaped into a giant cone. A scoop of commercial vanilla ice-cream is irrelevant beside the crisp sweetly buttery pastry, which glows translucently golden, finer than a single sheet of filo.

Mamak's not a place to linger. It's best to set a good example and let others have a turn, since you'll want to keep coming back. Despite ordering an excess of food, I was hard-pressed at each visit to spend more than $60 to feed two. The best things are life may not be free but you can do pretty well for only a few dollars more.

The Summary This authentic, Indian-influenced Malaysian street food is full of passionate flavours at low prices.

• Value: Fantastic.
• Owners/chefs: Julian Lee, Alan Au and Clement Lee.
• Service: Fast and groovy.
• Food: Malaysian.
• Wine: BYO ($2).
• Vegetarians: Enough, but check the ingredients if you're strict.
• Child friendly: A bit too challenging and crowded.
• Noise: Loud and rowdy.
• Wheelchair access: No.
• Score: 13/20

Time Out Sydney
Myffy Rigby, November 21, 2007

Time Out Sydney Hot 50

The roti is what it’s all about at this brand new Malaysian restaurant. You can have them sweet or savoury, thick buttery or thin. Or not all – they also do an exceptional nasi lemak with chicken curry, respectively. The satay sticks are great; order twelve and get a mix of chicken and beef.

Time Out Sydney
Myffy Rigby, January 30, 2008

Time Out Sydney Hot 50

If you haven’t eaten roti before (it’s a kind of Indian style flat bread made with clarified butter, flour and eggs popular in Malaysian cuisine), this is a good place to start. They also do a cracker chicken curry and some of the city’s tastiest satay. Make your way down to Chinatown crack snappity.