Sambal The Malaysian Food Experience

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

This place makes me feel like I am eating in a dining hall. It is loud and echoy. I was seated near the entrance to the kitchen where I could hear staff scraping clean plates. The staff also liked to stomp their feet loudly on the wooden floors when walking around, only adding to the noise.

We went there for dinner and ordered the Hainan Chicken "served with rice". When the rice comes, it becomes obvious that the senior staffs are trying to get as much money from you as possible, serving a bowl shaped mound on a small tea saucer. The rice was over cooked and had no taste of chicken. The chicken was overcooked and parts of the meat had fat and grey veins all through it. The chicken was also only served with a chilli paste, no kecap manis.

Other Malaysian restaurants have a much superior Chicken Rice, flavoursome, fluffy rice and the chicken is perfectly cooked, boneless with no ugly tendons.
The chicken meat used for the Satay seemed to be softened (?) there was no texture. The satay also lacked spice, it was made entirely of peanut sauce.
The Rojak was alright. Not the worst but not as good as the Rojak available at some other places in Sydney.

The Sambal Eggplant was odd. Not what I expected. I did not enjoy it. The sambal used in the dish was not very tasty, considering the name of the restaurant.

The service was hit and miss. It irritates me when waiters do not tell you what the dish is when it arrives, not because I don't know what it is, but it seems a bit weird when they simply drop the dish on the edge of the table and quickly walk away.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this place, nor would I return. I don't understand why it is so popular. Just head over to the next suburb and you can hit up somewhere else in Parramatta where the chicken rice is sublime.

Nov 03, 2012 

5.5 Average

Food  6      Ambience  5      Service  6      Value  5     

A nice little coffee shop style restaurant. We had Sar Ho Fun, Nasi Goreng Sambal which was very spicy and Char Kway Teow. I drove for 40 minutes to try their food and I wouldn't go back again not because the food is bad but there is no Wow factor to it. There are other places closer to have the same flavour.

Jun 08, 2012 

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

Really enjoyed our satay, char kwai teow was offered in mild, med or hot, and as first time visitors we chose mild, really tasty and spicy enough at mild.

The kapitan chicken was a bit different to other places, and could have had a bit more kick to it, but we sill found it enjoyable. Our GPS got lost finding this place as I believe it's now Macqurie Park not Nth Ryde.

Will come again to try some other tasty looking items on the menu.

May 18, 2012 

7.8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

Just realized how good Sambal is as I have not been there for over 3 years, so this week I went there twice! Try the chicken rice it is sublime! I'm a big eater so the only negative is its serving size.

Apr 28, 2012 

6 Average

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  5      Value  6     

We ordered Chicken Laksa, Braised Rice Noodle in egg sauce 'Wat Tan Hor' (or they called it Sar Hor Fun), Rojak and Fried Kway Teow. The stand out dish was definitely the Fried Kway Teow. Kway Teow was nicely charred by frying on 'wok' - and has the 'wok' smell which is imperative for a good fried kway teow. Fair amount of ingredients e.g. prawns and fish cake. It's lacking the other core ingredients that I'm looking for in perfect fried kway teow which are the chinese sausage (lap cheong) and the pork fat. Although lacking of those key ingredients, it was one of the best fried kway teow that I've had.

The Sar Hor Fun was lacking in rice noodles, making the dish really small. The sambal that came with it was really nice and went well with the dish. Chicken Laksa was not great! Diluted and way too much coconut milk. There isn't much taste to the soup and it didn't blown my tastebud away. They charged an additional $2 for the Laksa as we asked for mixed noodles (rice noodles and yellow thick noodle) - that's day light robbery when we saw that there were only a few strands of yellow noodles in the bowl.

Service was next to none. You can't order if you approach the counter! The guy at the counter will tell you that's table service. But you don't get serviced at the table for a long time as no waitstaff will come to take your order. I asked for some ice with jelly drink twice but it never came.

I got some takeaways desserts, tapioca kuih and seri muka (steamed glutinous rice forming the bottom half and a green custard layer made with pandan juice) and kuih talam (pandan and cococut custard layers). The desserts were good, especially the tapioca kuih! The others need more 'real pandan juice'.

Feb 10, 2012 

3 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  3      Service  3      Value  3     

Disappointing. Lately I have been exploring more of the Malaysian and Indonesian food outlets in Sydney (after several trips overseas to the regions). This place was recommended by a work colleague so I had high hopes for what was on offer I must admit. I even invited some friends along so we could sample more of the items on the menu.

Initial disappointment came when we ordered what appeared to be a restaurant prepared grass jelly drink, however it was just a can of sugary something imported from Taiwan, presented to the table as a can and a glass.

The Food we ordered:
-Some pickled vegetable entree (v.forgettable)
-Nasi Lemak (with the Beef Rendang)
-Chicken Curry (the actual name escapes me)
-Char Quay Teo
We had Es Kacang for dessert.

Flavours across all the food were a bit flat, something was missing, except the Char Kway Teo which was possibly one of the yummiest I have ever had. We asked for this dish to be spicy hot and it was quite mild. But flavours wise it was the saviour.

I felt the side offerings on the Nasi Lemk were mean, but at the same time the beef rendang on this dish was very generous (although a bit flavourless). Currys were a bit cold/ slightly warm, not reassuringly hot.

Having being spoilt by the very tasty food at Mamak (Chatswood/City) we were a bit disappointed especially as we made a special journey to this place as we heard it was better. It is way out of our normal food corridor.

The ambience was ordinary as well and we had to ask to change tables when we first arrived as the toilet (which is adjacent to the restaurant area) was very smelly.

We were initally told there was two sittings and we were in the first sitting which means we needed to be finished by 7:30, there was mild pressure to clear our plates before we had finished eating (!) but eventually they gave up clearing, and then getting their attention for the bill was difficult. We overstayed our timing to 7:50 in the end without hassle, the restaurant didn't seem overly busy anyway.

We agreed we wouldn't go there again mostly because the food wasn't really tasty and I'm sure our guests would agree, so for us it is one strike and they're out. There are just too many other places that are better.

Dec 08, 2011 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  10     

Taken for what it is, this is just a nice, cheap and cheerful suburban restaurant with really tasty food. The service can be a little slow and it tends to be noisy but once you look past that, it's a great place to have a meal. Highly recommend the salt and pepper squid, sar hor fun and the chicken satay skewers.

Nov 30, 2011 

3.5 Below Average

Food  4      Ambience  3     

Very noisy. Staff clean cutlery and plates near the eating area creating a huge noise. Wasn't pleasant. Service was ok though.

Nov 26, 2011 

5.5 Average

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  5      Value  5     

We come here for lunch quite a bit mainly because there isn't really many choice around if you want a sit down lunch. Food is ok, service is not consistent. You can skip this place if you don't work in the area.

Oct 25, 2011 

5 Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  5      Value  5     

Service was slow. Disappointed with some of the foods we had (what kind of rojak was that?).

Oct 25, 2011