#1 Nadeje
Wait a minute, isn't Melaka a heritage cuisine paradise? How does a bakery cafe come in top among the rest of the eateries? Hmmm...I also can't explain it but this was based on my personal assessment and also the overall reactions from my fellow traveling buddies. This place indeed made the best impression among the rest, it is a Must Try!
 |
| This place is famous for its queues, they have separate queues for Dine in & Takeaway |
There are several outlets in Melaka and we picked the Mahkota Parade outlet as its location fits in our Day 2 sightseeing itinerary. We arrived just slightly before 12 noon on a Sat and there isn't any queue outside the shop. We were quickly ushered in to a cozy corner where we settled down and check out their menus. We placed order for drinks and also 4 slices of Mille Crepe cakes for sharing.
I had the Cranberry Yakult drink which has a nice mix of fruity sweetness and a hint of sourness from the yogurt drink, quite nice.
 |
| My Cranberry Yakult drink in the middle |
 |
| Double Chocolate (Alcoholic) |
 |
| Banana Chocolate |
 |
| Lemon Cheese (Alcoholic) |
 |
| Original Flavor |
The cakes were heavenly! They were soft, smooth, rich and creamy all at the same time. The thin layers of crepe & cream were easy to cut through using a fork (unlike some lousy ones I had in SG), extremely well made. Despite being full of cream, the cakes were light and airy, and weren't cloying at all. My personal fave was the Double Chocolate, with dark chocolate cream and crunchy chocolate chips within the layers, it was a double thumbs up from me!
We wiped out the 4 slices in less than 5mins. So we ordered another two more slices, Double Chocolate and Strawberry Chocolate. The Strawberry Chocolate was not as yummy as Double Chocolate though.
All flavors (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) are priced at RM11.90 per slice (~SGD4.40). If you're around the vicinity and have a sweet tooth, do give this place a try! More photos here.
 |
| Strawberry Chocolate (Alcoholic) |
Nadeje Mahkota Parade
G-23B, EG 4 & EG 5, Ground Floor, Mahkota Parade, 75000 Melaka.
Tel : 06-2843469
Operation Hours:
Daily : 11:00am - 10:00pm
http://www.nadeje.com.my/Cake.aspx
#2 Capitol Satay Celup
The 2nd must try makan place for our Melaka trip is Capitol Satay Celup, this place is well known for its notoriously long queues. They have adjusted their opening hours from 5pm to as early as 4pm for dinner time, so the early birds could start eating immediately instead of hanging around at the door at 4pm.
We got there at around 4.20pm, the shop was already opened with 3 tables occupied (total 8-9 tables), and we got seated immediately upon arrival.
We knew from various food reviews that they do recycle their satay broth for subsequent patrons, so being the first batch to eat here is very important. A brand new pot of satay broth was served to us once we're seated. Then they took our orders for drinks before we start checking out the skewers spread.
The spread was indeed extensive, all standard skewer items are priced at RM1.10 each (inclusive of GST, yes Msia started charging GST since April 2015). Premium items (RM2.20/ RM4.00/ RM10.00) are served upon request. More photos here.
Our pickings for the first round. The staffs came and replenished the broth ingredients frequently, keeping the flavor and texture consistent throughout the makan session.
I like the thick, spicy and flavorful satay broth loaded with lotsa crushed peanuts! The skewer items were fresh and of reasonably good quality too. When we're near to finishing the standard items, we decided to order some premium items to try. Some items in the price list weren't available on the day itself so we picked 3 from what's available.
 |
| Abalone slices & Cuttlefish tentacles RM2.20 |
 |
| Giant prawns RM10.00 each |
 |
| Fresh and meaty! |
This was my first time trying Satay Celup (Satay style steamboat), it is a rare find in SG (a.k.a. Satay lok lok in SG). I personally liked the idea of dipping raw and cooked food in delicious satay sauce, its quite different from the regular soup based steamboat I usually have. The satay sauce here was superb, so were the myriad choices of skewer items. However, after I've finally tried this long queue place, I would say it is not worth queuing more than 20mins in the tropical heat of Melaka. I highly recommend coming in early instead, and be the first batch to savour the yummy food here.
 |
| Queue at 5.25pm, already spanning 4 blocks away from the shop. |
Capitol Satay Celup
41 Lorong Bukit Cina
75100 Melaka, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Daily from 4pm till late
#3 Jonker 88
The 3rd recommended makan place that we visited to have a taste of local Malaccan food is Jonker 88. Right smack in the middle of Jonker street 雞場街, this popular tourist eatery is quite worth checking out for its rustic and nostalgic interiors, and also its food.
This place runs like a self-service food court where patrons have to find their own tables, and then queue up at the stalls to buy their food. No serving staffs here, although they do charge GST in the price of their food.
There are mainly 3 kinds of food sold here, Noodles & Rice, Rojak & Ngoh Hiang and Desserts. Being our first time here, we ordered the most popular items from all 3 categories for sharing.
For Noodles, we had the famous Laksa in 3 different flavors. The Baba Laksa RM6.00+ is similar to SG Laksa with a fragrant coconut milk broth, the Nyonya Asam Laksa RM7.00+ is similar to the sourish Penang Laksa with assam broth, and finally the Baba Laksa Kahwin Nyonya Asam Laksa RM7.00+ which has a mixed broth from both Baba and Nyonya Laksa.
 |
| Baba Laksa |
 |
| Nyonya Asam Laksa |
 |
| Baba Laksa |
All 3 Laksa were served with same ingredients (Prawn, taupok, beancurd skin, egg etc.), the Baba laksa comes with thin beehoon, whereas the other two had thick beehoon (translucent type used in Penang laksa).
My personal fave is the Baba Laksa, the spicy coconut broth was very good. Some of my friends preferred the slightly sourish mixed broth laksa, but we all agreed that the Nyonya laksa was not as nice as the original Penang laksa.
 |
| Baba salad |
 |
| Baba goreng goreng |
Also for sharing are the Baba Salad RM10.00+ and Baba Goreng Goreng (price depends on ingredients chosen). The Baba salad was a peranakan style Rojak with mixed fruits, while the Baba goreng goreng was their version of SG Ngoh Hiang. Both were good but not great, I would eat the ngoh hiang again though.
 |
| Baba cendol |
 |
| Baba durian cendol |
Last but not least, each of us ordered a bowl of Cendol for dessert. Two main types that's popular here are the signature Baba Cendol w/ gula melaka RM4.00+ and the Baba Durian Cendol RM5.00+. The cendol here were quite disappointing, we all agreed the SG version is much nicer than this. Maybe we'll try the Ice Kacang next time. See more dishes here.
Jonker 88
88 Jalan Hang Jebat
Operating Hours:
12:00PM - 6:00PM (Weekdays)
12:00PM - 8:00PM (Weekends)
#4 Jonker Street Night Market
The entire Jonker street comes alive every weekend evening from 6pm onward (till late). The street will be closed to traffic, and after sundown it will be lined with all kinds of stalls selling food, clothing, souvenirs, household stuffs, game stalls and many more. Visiting once is not enough to take it all in, try to go there over two nights if getting there is convenient for you!
 |
| Potted ice cream...quite nice. |
 |
| Carrot cake is NOT nice! |
 |
| Karaoke stage with locals singing on it |
 |
| Nonya & Hakka food, the Soon kueh is very good! |
 |
| Coconut Jelly Yummy! |
Around the entrance of Jonker street, infront of San Shu Gong, we saw buskers and brightly lit Trishaws competing for business. This is indeed a very happening place to be at during the weekends! More photos here.
Jonker Street Night Market
Jalan Hang Jebat
75200 Melaka, Malaysia
Hours: Fri, Sat & Sun 1800h – 0000h
#5 Peranakan food @Far East Cafe
This place was an accidental find, our original plan was to dine at the hugely popular Nancy's Kitchen with long queues, but due to unforeseen circumstances we ended up here for a late dinner.
We wanted to find an aircon place to cool down after sweating it out at the pasar malam. The indoor aircon here was really powerful, and the menu had items we wanna eat, so we went ahead to place order for dinner. We selected 5 dishes to go with rice, keeping our fingers crossed and hope the food will be good.
 |
| Smallish portions, except for the whole fish. |
 |
| Stir-fry mixed veggies RM10.00++ |
 |
| Long bean omelette RM7.00++ |
 |
| Babi Pongteh RM13.00++ |
 |
| Nyonya Spring rolls (ngoh hiang) RM10.00++ |
 |
| Assam fish RM16.00++, very cheap! |
We were pleasantly surprised that the food was home cooked style and was rather delicious. Serving portion was on the small side but prices weren't too steep so we're fine with what was served. I especially enjoyed eating the Babi Pongteh, the nyonya braised pork belly was tender and well infused with flavor. The other crowd favorite was the Assam fish. Albeit lacking in wow factor, it was still quite a satisfying dinner overall, and we wouldn't mind coming back again to try more dishes. More photos here.
Far East Cafe
19 Jalan Hang Lekir
75200 Melaka, Malaysia
Tel: +60 12-696 6277
#6 Tua Kor Wantan Mee 大姑雲吞麵
This tiny shop is located just along the same street with our hotel. We walked past this shop several times, and were always curious about the food there. It was mainly patronized by locals, so maybe its time to try something truly local, at a place where the locals had their lunch.
As usual the tiny shop looks pretty empty, we had the luxury of choosing where we wanna sit. The shop owners took our orders for noodles and drinks. Then 大姑 will personally prepare the wanton noodle herself.
Hubby had the Large Wanton noodle (with shredded chicken) RM5.00, while I had the Small noodle (reduced portion) RM4.00. There is also a Medium noodle RM4.50, which is their standard size portion.
 |
| Large noodle with extra chicken meat |
 |
| Small noodle in a much smaller plate & only 2 wantons |
The noodles were very delicious! It has a long lost old school taste (古早味) that is springy, eggy and smooth, reminds me of the wanton noodles in SG back in the 70s-80s. The handmade wantons were pretty good too. We were glad that we found this hidden gem just before we left Melaka for home. Do check them out if you're in the Jonker area. More dishes here.
Tua Kor Wantan Mee 大姑雲吞麵
40 Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock
75200 Melaka, Malaysia
Daily 8am-3pm (Closed on Wednesdays)
#7 Low Yong Moh Restaurant 荣茂茶室
On the last day of our short getaway, we visited this old school tea house for Breakfast. We skipped the yummy hotel breakfast and went on a short walk to the Chinatown area of Melaka to try the Dim Sum at Low Yong Moh Restaurant. Heeding the advice of reviewers, we got there before 9am to avoid peak hour queues. The tea house was about 75% full when we arrived at 8.45am.
We were quickly ushered to our table and served Chinese tea. We placed order for Century egg porridge 皮蛋粥, Lotus leaf rice 荷葉飯 & Bao 包. The rest of the Dim Sum were presented by servers in separate batches for us to pick and choose. Arrays of pipping hot steamed and fried items were presented to us on large trays. The servers came regularly with myriad of interesting looking dim sum to feast the eyes.
 |
| Self service for topping up hot water |
 |
| Century egg porridge is good, the rest are so so. |
 |
| So so |
 |
| Not bad |
 |
| Not nice |
 |
| Not bad |
When we were almost done with the first round, another wave of servers came and we picked out a few more items, and also ordered Lo Mai Gai 糯米雞 and Salted Egg custard buns 流沙包 not seen on the trays. Basically items served in metal dishes came on trays, while items not seen on trays were served upon request, and they came on plastic plates. More dishes here.
 |
| Tasteless |
 |
| Not bad |
 |
| Not bad |
 |
| Delicious! |
 |
| Good! |
After wolfing down over 20+ Dim Sum dishes, we were filled to the brim! We decided its time to leave and asked for the bill. This meal only cost us RM77.50 (SGD28.70) including GST. The items we ordered were priced from RM2.40 to RM3.20 each, dirt cheap! However, cheap food usually means they don't taste fantastic, please don't come here with expectation to taste restaurant standard Dim Sum. That being said, I highly recommend the Lo Mai Gai, Salted Egg custard buns and Century egg porridge, they are really cheap and good.
 |
| Queue at 9.10am |
The queue started forming just before 9am, and subsided after 9.30am. Some of the popular items might be sold out after 9.30am. Please plan your visit wisely.
Low Yong Moh Restaurant 荣茂茶室
32, Jalan Tukang Emas
Daily 5.30am – 1pm
nice blog.. thanks
ReplyDeleteBurma Travel