Albee's Kitchen

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  10     

Wow and wow. Went this evening and I am still stuffed from the way oversized portions, and the doggy bag trick came into play again. The menu list is incredibly huge, and this may account for some dishes that are obviously pre-prepared (microwave bound) and probably prevented this small eatery from soaring to new heights. There are some specialities, I am sure, but it will take me too many visits to find out. The "marmite chicken" and Tofu was excellent. The Kuching Laksa was a good attempt being laced with all the right ingrediants and an excellent soup, but let down by carbonised prawns and chicken pieces that were carelessly chunky. This is probably the best Malaysian eatery in Sydney, and definitely the best valued one. I find it hard to rate this place given the rigid constraint of the stars system. To be fair to this marvellous joint, I have added 2 stars to the service, and 4 stars to the ambience, as the value should be 17 out of 10. Other Malaysian restaurants should take heed. All those eating there tonight appeared happy and well fed.

Apr 27, 2012 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  10     

My new favourite Malaysian in Sydney! Huge portions and decent prices. Nasi lemak was beautiful, the biggest one I can recall having in this country and it was only $9! Milo Ais and the teh tarik were just as they should be, kacang cendol was very nice, chicken satay was very nice though the peanut sauce tasted a bit curry-ish, still I can't fault this place for what it is, forget ambience and service, you know what to expect when you come to a place like this and it is great Food and nothing more.

Apr 11, 2012 

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  9     

Great place, great food, great price. Try the hainan chicken, the sweets and cendol drink.

Apr 08, 2012 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  9     

Best place to eat if you are in campsie, I am prepared to drive to this restaurant from as far afield as mosman. The food is good. The thing that sets this restaurant apart is the ample servings. Everytime I go there with a hungry big guy, they have been full and are happily smiling, satisfied with the portion size and the yumminess of the food.

I can't say which dish is the best on the menu. Some notable dishes are the hainan chicken and the prawn fried rice noodles with egg gravy. Overall, great value, good food. Will definitely come back again and again. Oh wait, I have come back again and again.

Jan 10, 2012 

6.3 Average

Food  8      Ambience  2      Service  8      Value  7     

This is a fairly decent Malaysian/Chinese feed. Don't expect any ambience, but if you have correct expectations on that you'll be right.

Oct 04, 2011 

4.8 Average

Food  5      Ambience  1      Service  4      Value  9     

Went on a cold winter's night on a friday. The place was packed and several people were waiting for a table. We were lucky to get one with almost no waiting. With 171 items on the menu it was hard to choose. Ordered the rendang beef and curry chicken. The chicken was on the bone but was tender. There was no place on the communal table to put the bones so they had to stay on the plate.

The curry was too watery-more like a soup in texture. The beef was also very tender but lacked enough spice, should have had more bite to it. May try other dishes next time. One of the most disappointing Malaysian outlets that we have been to. Worse still is that on a cold winter's night they had the front door wide open all the time. We had to endure a draft for the whole meal. Not good. Went back again to try diffferent dishes and see if they were better.

A prawn curry was good and the curry puffs were very good as they were part meat and part egg but the beef curry we had was very very very oily and the beef was so tough that we did not eat it. Had to keep closing the front entrance door due to the cold and we should not have to do this.

Have been back several times since the above review and the food is much better and they have fixed the problem in winter, of the front door.

Jul 26, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  9     

Lets be honest, Albee's Kitchen isn't really a restaurant, its more of an eatery! Therefore, I think its only fair to rate the ambience based on what I would expect from an eatery. This is why I have scored it quite high. The dining room was clean and I felt comfortable eating there. No problem. I actually prefer to eat at a place like this because from experience, restaurants who renovate the dining room usually reopen with the menu 20% more expensive to recover the costs! anyway....

The food was great and the portions were huge. My Nasi Lemak with rendang was excellent. I did catch her reheating the rendang in the microwave but who cares, you can't make a curry in ten minutes and I'm sure most restaurants make curries the day before and reheat as needed. I also ordered the Char Kway Teow and couldn't believe it when she came running out of the kitchen with a mountain of noodles, Literally! the serving was so big that I couldn't get anywhere near finishing it (I'm a big eater!) and had to ask for a take away container so I could have it for dinner.

All washed down with the homemade iced herbal tea (chrysanthemum was one of the secret ingredients). All in all a fantastic little cheap eatery which I look forward to going back to.

Jun 19, 2011 

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  10     

I observed most people just expected their food to be tasty, Nobody demanded their food to be both tasty and of good sanitary standards, given I am after all placing my health and wellbeing into the hands of the shop owner. I usually ask to go to the ladies each time I go out to eat, so that I can check out their resturant's kitchen on my way. I found this restaurant actually had kept its kitchen surprisingly cleaned.

Very rarely can I find a Busy restaurant in Sydney meeting all these conflicting criteria: very tasty food vs excellent consumer value and vs very clean kitchen. Yep this place is worth my time to do a review. By far this is the best place to eat in Sydney.

May 01, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  9     

I think most of the people who complain about the ambience, or tackiness, of the place are not Malaysians. I, a staunch, patriotic Malaysian has been going to Albee's at least twice a month and never been disappointed. I especially love how varied the menu is. And it's all Malaysian food. Well, Chinese Malaysian, anyway.

Most people may not know that there are two rooms at the back for larger groups, or private dining. Have tried and loved their assam laksa, Sarawak laksa (my hood), loh mee, nasi lemak, Sarawak kolok mee (not quite hometown authentic, but it's passable), nyonya fish head curry, wat tan hor and the list goes on.

Apr 21, 2011 

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  9     

It looks more like a takeaway shop than anything, but what's on offer is quite a variety of Malaysian food. I only tried the Penang har mee, and would say it's good comparing to many others I've tried around Sydney. I'll take my malaysian friends there next time and see what they say about authenticity.

Mar 26, 2011