With a lot of sadness, my Malaysia Kitchen jaunt was rounded out with dinner at Paradise Point’s Sayang Malaysian. Apparently my desire to try a Malaysian restaurant outside our suburb was “weird” according to Nick, and akin to driving across Brisbane for a meal. That didn’t put me off, I’ve certainly driven across town for a good meal, so we drove half an hour to a cute restaurant just off the main strip in Paradise Point which is north of Southport. Look at me, I’m slowly getting better at Gold Coast suburbs!
Sayang Malaysian is a family owned business and I really loved that you could tell the business was run with love and humour. We were greeted and served by the chef/ owner, his wife and daughter, and the menus were absolutely joyful to browse through with huge colour illustrations. I was too shy to ask, but I wonder if someone in the family drew them? Speaking of the menus, the range of dishes was pretty broad with hawker style food as well as other fusions of Malay, Thai and Indian, and there was a page dedicated to vegetarian and vegan dishes! Horah!
The restaurant was pretty busy when we got there and there was a little wait for our entrees, but I actually preferred having the time to talk to Nick. A lot of the places we’ve been to served us so quickly we were out the door without having swapped more than a sentence!
I had the vegetarian curry puffs to start and was a little surprised at the small size, but when I bit into one I knew why they were so small… the beautifully curried vegetables inside were quite bitey! Nick reported that his calamari rings were cooked to perfection, so I couldn’t resist stealing one. Yes I’m a vegetarian now, but I have a bit of seafood now and then, and who was I to resist when Nick was raving about delicious calamari?!
I asked our waiter what she would choose if faced with the option of laksa or char keow teow, and she advised the latter unless I wanted to swim in laksa! Then she went on to say that her Mum only has laksa at home because it’s so messy! I agreed that it’s definitely a messy food and something I reserve for ultra laksa cravings, and went for the char keow teow. I told Nick to get the devil lamb because it sounded dramatic and naturally he acquiesced to my demands.
The vegie char keow teow was aaaaahhhhhmaaaazing. So many vegetables! So much tastiness! When the chef came out to say hello (he stopped for a chat with every table!) I had trouble forming superlatives. Nick almost preferred my dish, but once he got into the devil lamb he was raving about it.
And what is dinner without dessert? A FARCE. I was hoping to order the sago gula malaka because I have faint memories of my Mum making sago dessert for us when I was a kid, but alas there was no sago. We settled for ice cream, hand made by the chef, which came out all moulded and in fancy sauce! I’m not a huge ice cream fan but my mango ice cream was delicious, kind of like a home made Weiss bar.
After patting our satisfied bellies we waddled out of Sayang Malaysian quite enamoured of the place. The staff are all charming and friendly, the food is ultra yummy, and the atmosphere is fun and lively. It’s definitely a place to bring my out of town friends to show them how fabulous Gold Coast Malaysian is.
Sayang Malaysian
10 Grice Ave, Paradise Point QLD
Phone – (07) 5529 5881
I dined at Sayang Malaysian as a guest of Malaysia Kitchen Australia as a Blogger Ambassador. This is my last post of four reviews over the last few months.
Eek, you look really really cute. I love your hair in that picture. And now I want a vat of ginger beer.
Sounds like you found a winner here. That sounds so delicious I shall have to try it myself.
I’m glad I am not the only one who only eats laksa at home. It gets all over my chinny chin chin!
Your outfit and hair are wondrous:)