mamak

Taipei restaurant – Mamak 檔 星馬料理 Awesome Malaysian food in Taipei!

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Mamak is situated just off Zhongxiao East Road, closest to exit 2 of Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT station. The yellow-painted walls call you as you turn onto lane 223 of section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, beckoning you in.

The bright yellow paint of Mamak makes it stand out on the side of the road in Eastern area. Lights bounce of the yellowness and make it look inviting.
The yellow walls of outside also come inside. And the food stall-like tables with the stall-like chairs compliment the laid-back approach that Mamak is clearly going for. Note that all of the servers wear tropical looking shirts, too.

When you make it inside, you’ll find it to be just as bright as the outside. Mamak has gone for the food stall-type folding tables with small stools. Honestly, they’re not that comfortable, but for a quick lunch fix, they’re fine.

Mamak 4

There seems to be quite a collection of Malaysian memorabilia throughout the restaurant, especially all over the walls.

Check out the most up-to-date menu on their Facebook site, here.

Our Mamak order:

  1. 辣死你媽仁當 Là sǐ nǐ mā rén dāng Nasi Lemak with chicken rendang
    • $220
  2. 鴨蛋炒粿條 yādàn chǎo guǒ tiáo Duck egg fried Kaoy Teow
    • $190
  3. 印度煎餅 yìndù jiānbing Roti Canai
    • $70

But what was it really like?

3 shell-on shrimp sit on top of the fried noodles with egg, beansprout, and various other things on this plate. The banana leaf decoration is actually a banana leaf just painted on the plate, huh? Ridiculous if you ask me.
Duck egg fried Kaoy Teow $190

We opted for a slightly less spicy version of this by asking for 小辣 xiǎo là. The waitress was confused for a long time, which was pretty odd. I think she was worried that we didn’t like spicy food. But, in reality, Malaysian food that’s spicy can be quite intense, so we were just scared that Mamak was going to serve up too much heat for us to handle. Eventually, though, she understood our thoughts and got on board with allowing us a slightly less spicy version of the dish.

But what was it like, though? Worth it? No.
I wasn’t impressed, personally. The rice noodles were too soggy, and there wasn’t much flavour in the dish at all. Adding to that was the annoyance of having to peel the prawns… Would it have been better if there was more spice?

4 deep fried chicken drumsticks come doused in sauce, dressed with rice, chilli, dried fish, peanuts, a hard boiled egg, and some cucumber slices
Nasi Lemak with chicken rendang $220

The Nasi Lemak, however, was on-point. The chicken drumsticks were delicate and tender, and the sauce was spicy yet flavourful. I love the small crunchy fish and the peanuts on the side, especially paired with Mamak’s deliciously fragrant rice (think Thai-style coconut-like flavoured rice).

You gotta get you some roti when you come to a restaurant like Mamak. Here it is served with 1 sweet sauce (which is just condense milk) and a spicy peanut curry sauce.
Roti Canai $70

I don’t necessarily know what I was expecting with the roti. It was a good vessel for the sauce, but I guess that is all it was ever supposed to be. The lightly spiced curry and chilli sauce was delicious, and I inhaled that sweet, sticky condensed milk as my dessert. Would I get it again? Maybe, but I wouldn’t say it is a ‘must’ order.

The bottom line

So will I return? Definitely.
Will it be as soon as possible? Probably not.
Why? The noodles didn’t taste of much, and although the Nasi Lemak was delicious, I feel like the Malaysian dishes at Mr. Chee Kopitiam are slightly more refined.