Mamak

Last week's restaurant visit was to Mamak. I was a little skeptical as it only got 69% of likes on Urbanspoon. However a guy from work was keen to go there so we went and joined the queue. Maybe to our loss we didn't have roti or satay.

When we finally got to the doorway this was the view of the restaurant - still in a queue.  We almost lost our spot because after moving in further the waitress booted everyone outside, but I was comfy standing where I was and I wasn't blocking the doorway so we stayed there.  Of course the people before us on the list got shown through and then despite us telling the woman that the people in front of us were outside she then ignored us when it was our turn.  Got it sorted out though.

I think the best part of the restaurant is watching them making rotis in the windows - unfortunately some phone and skydrive issues (thanks for the delay microsoft in telling me my skydrive upload failed after I had removed the photo from my phone) I lost the photos I had of the front.  The rotis they were artistically making looked yummy, and came on a silver tray with dipping sauces.

Looking at the main prices - ouch!! (well when you're in the mood to spend about $10 on lunch :)) Thankfully they had a lunch specials menu which was a smaller server of the mains with rice.  I think the way to go is with a couple of extra people so you could order different stuff and share it.  Despite other reviews saying service and food coming out was stupidly quick we waited a while before asking the person wiping tables if we could order with them.  She then didn't acknowledge that I was talking when I placed my order, looking at my friend when he ordered.. which made it a bit weird - but at least she eventually read the order back to us.

I had the Sambal Udang which indeed came with a fiery sauce.  So for $12 I got I think 4 prawns, a little bit of coleslaw stuff and a stack of rice.  Was disappointed no roti came with their special and didn't feel like spending an extra $5.50 on it. I ended up scraping most of the sauce off because it was too spicey for me - but it tasted nice.

My friend had the Kari ayam (classic chicken curry).  I tried a bit of it and found the sauce nice and a little sweet.  It obviously had a decent kick to it as he was sweating profusely during the meal!  In terms of atmosphere we basically had to yell to one another to try to carry on a conversation.  So I'm not in a hurry to go back unless it was a quiet time.  I like being able to hear what the person across from me is saying, and the lunch special left me hungry.

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