Mamak

A very popular place. Roti is the best!! A great place to eat.
The food was absolutely delicious. Definitely be back!

The force was with us as we rolled straight into Mamak and a table without the usual obligatory queueing. As ever roti telur was first cab off the rank with Nasi Lemak and chicken satay rounding out a whole lot Malaysian deliciousness. I have been coming here for years and am impressed by how they have managed to keep their essence — cheap delicious food — while expanding to cater to the ever growing crowds. A Sydney classic.

This place is good. A popular place because of the rave reviews. and everyone wants to go to this place to try their Roti. Roti alone is interesting and is worth the visiting. The venue itself is pretty small.

Open late on weekends. When you eat here, be sure to keep the receipt because it has a pretty good discount (15% or so) for its sister restaurant, hawker.
Delicious roti and the chicken satay is always my favorite. Tasty, smoky marinated skewers dripping with flavor and comes with a juicy peanut sauce. This is a place I like to bring my friends from the states.

This is simple Malay fare, done well. It’s not overly expensive, and it’s better quality than the PappaRich franchise in my experience. Food is very quickly delivered as they turnover quickly to get through the lineup outside. We’ve been here twice now for lunch and both times I’ve been impressed by the friendly delivery and efficiency of the place. Highly recommended. As long as you don’t mind a queue.

The small restaurant is buzzing, cramped and with a long cue, but once you settle down, order food and let your tastebuds be the judge, you know why is this Malaysian restaurant is so in demand yet so unassuming once you enter it.
The roti (sweet flaky bread) is to die for and Chicken Satay was just on point. Ayem Goreng, the Malaysian fried chicken, had huge servings and were sure to fill you to brim.
Because of such rush, especially at dinner service, it was no surprise that the staff was quick on its feet with prompt service and delicious food.
A must go to if you like Malaysian food.

I’ve tried roti and it was quite good. However we first got a wrong order and after taking one bite realized it was with meat (ordered egg+onion) so we said we wanted something else. Not only we had to wait again but we were told that we would have to pay for wrong order too!
After arguing we managed to convince them that we should not pay but I still don’t think we should be held responsible for someone mixing up tables :/​
TL;DR;
food is 3.5÷5, service is ⁰⁄₅

Outstanding food! Went twice in during my weekend in Sydney! This restaurant serves outstanding malaysian food. I tried a lot of dishes, and all of them were really good. In particular, I really enjoyed the chicken curry, the nasi goreng and a veggie plate with spinach and green stuff (I forgot the name…). The roti is also really good! Quick service, reasonable prices, awesome food… A must in Sydney!

The food here was absolutely delicious! My friend and I went after being recommended by a local, and it was amazing!
We waited about 10 – 15 minutes to get a seat, which wasn’t too bad. Considering the way the line looked outside, I expected at least a half hour wait. But while you’re waiting, you can watch them make their famed roti, so at least there’s entertainment!
Really quick tip on the food: THIS STUFF IS SPICY. Or maybe I’m just an uncultured American. But my friend and I ordered a lamb curry and the cuttlefish. We thought the curry was relatively spicy, but that was NOTHING compared to the cuttlefish. We spent most of our meal downing waters.
But other than that, the food was really good! I would definitely come back again for it.

No wait for 2 on a Friday before 6pm! I was afraid of a long wait but there was still plenty of seating. It sure began to fill-​up as we left.
I rave about the spicy lamb curry because of the lovely curry flavor and most importantly, the lamb was super tender! I loved this dish! The mee goreng was also well done but I wasn’t as impressed with the roti which lacked texture for me.
Service was friendly and food came out fast.

Mamak was my first roti experience but oh my gosh was it good. Despite ordering way too much food we finished it all off, which is testament to the top quality food that this place is so reputed for!
With a vibrant, buzzing atmosphere and pleasant, diligent staff, the experience was seamless as one might expect from a place with such amazing customer turnover.
Will definitely be going back, get in early to avoid the queue.

We go to Mamak regularly and most of the time, they have great service and great food. Children love the food too, come in on an early side (they open at 5:30 for dinner) for no line.

Probably the most popular restaurant in Chinatown, with queues around the corner pretty much every day! There’s no doubt they have great food especially their roti (both savoury and sweet) and the chicken skewers. Plus their sweet tea is a delight to complement.

So if you’ve never had Malaysian food before, this place is good! Their roti alone makes this place so popular, and is worth visiting. You can choose roti as an appetizer or as a dessert or both. Roti is type of flatbread which is of Indian influence that is tossed and spun around, and you can see them make it in front of their restaurant. This place always has a wait. Luckily we came before the dinner rush so even with a table of 8 we were accommodated within 15 minutes. The restaurant itself is small but you still have room to move within your table. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere with wooden tables and chairs/​benches.
For our party we may have gone a little overboard with ordering, but we just wanted to get a taste of the different kinds of food they offer. Dishes are served family style and very generous with their portions. You MUST order some kind of roti. We ordered four types of roti, the roti canai, roti telur, roti planta, and the dessert roti tisu. Besides the dessert roti, each of the roti plate came with curry sauce on the side, but in my opinion, they’re already addicting on their own. We devoured these within seconds of it literally being placed on the table.
[roti canai] is the plain original roti which is crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside
[roti telur] is a roti with an egg inside = GENIUS
[roti planta] is buttery type of roti
[roti tisu] = save for last is the dessert roti which is extra crispy and tall with ice cream
We didn’t stop there, we continued to order other dishes like the chicken & beef satay, kari ayam, kari kambing, ayam goreng, and mee goreng.
[chicken & beef satay] comes in ½ dozen or dozen portions, so we got a half dozen of each chicken & beef — they’re very flavorful
[kari ayam] is a strong flavored curry chicken which was popular with the group but I think I liked the lamb one better
[kari kambing] is a spicy lamb curry which I enjoyed since it had a kick in the flavor and I liked how tender the meat was
[ayam goreng] are Malaysian fried chicken and these portions are HUGE and tasty
[mee goreng ] was their type Malaysian noodles with seafood and vegetable in it — not too many of the group enjoyed so I had more to myself since that was my carb
Rice bowls are served individually with a price. I also ordered the Malaysian sweet tea teh tarik, I LOVED it! I’ve seen movies where they make the teh tarik and people raving about it, and it’s as good as people say.
The people that worked there were pretty much on a mission to get your order and churn away, but we didn’t feel rushed or anything. They’re nice and they didn’t seem to break or make the whole dining experience.
Overall, great place to eat, I’d come again in a heartbeat!

Amazing food at a great deal, which is why the lines at lunch are always so long. It’s just, the long lines can be off putting, and it means the restaurant experience itself is noisy and crowded. But if you’re looking for food over conversation, this place can’t be beat. Check out their food stall during various Sydney festivals – their grilled meats on a stick are delicious!

In case you couldn’t work it out from all the other reviews — YES the roti here are life-​changing.
Not only are the roti worth a visit on their own (especially the butter roti!), but the rest of the food on the menu is fully-​legit Malaysian. The curries are tasty and not too spicy (i.e. more flavour than spice). The nasi goreng and satay chicken skewers are really good too.
To be honest I haven’t tried much else on the menu, the roti are that good…
There’s almost always a massive queue out the front of this place, but don’t let that put you off! The line moves quickly, and they squeeze quite a few people in the space they have inside.
You wouldn’t come here if you wanted something that WASN’T Malaysian, or you wanted somewhere quite. It’s ideal for a really good feed in the city if you’ve got a little time to spare (and you’re not in a large group of people — good luck getting a big table here) that’s a bit different from the other offerings in Haymarket and China Town.

Amazing malaysian! Always a line outside so expect a wait.
My friend and I were visiting, we’re in line with an expected wait time of 30 minutes… but then the hostess saw we were only a group of 2 people so we got in immediately! :-)

After 4 months of staring at the queue outside of Mamak, hearing from the raving fans, and wondering what it’s all about, I finally decided to give it a try. Showing up a bit after the lunch rush on a rainy Tuesday meant that the queue was only about 10 people long. Luckily it moved quickly, and we were inside within minutes of arriving.
The roti with its 3 accompanying sides was absolutely the highlight of the meal, though I’ll restrain myself from waxing poetic about it, as there are a dozen other reviews that describe it much more eloquently than I could. The curry chicken and the fried chicken were also both perfect, perhaps the best Malaysian food I’ve ever had, and the portions were generous. $ 30 for lunch this good for two people, including roti, is a great deal! There are far worse options for far more money around!
My only complaint is that they required everyone to leave their umbrellas by the entrance, and ours was taken. The woman at the counter randomly selected a different umbrella to give us in lieu. I can’t blame them for the actions of their customers, but I feel like if you’re going to force people to abandon their belongings, you take a bit of accountability for whatever happens next. And certainly don’t try to make up for it by giving us someone else’s stuff!
5 stars for food; 3.5 stars for service; 0 stars for the umbrella situation!

Omg their roti is to die for!!! I had the roti canai and it was the fluffiest roti ever. It came with two curry dips and spicy sambal sauce (really good spice kick to it!).
For a main dish I had the Rojak, a Malaysian-​style salad which was crunchy, super flavourful, had boiled eggs and tofu with some fresh sliced yambean. It was probably the most flavourful salad I’ve ever had! Drooling thinking about it, I’ll 100% come back and try the other dishes.
You have to come during a non peak hour. Since they seem to get pretty busy really fast!

My boyfriend and I noticed a long line outside of this establishment on a Thursday night and knew we had to try this place before we left Sydney. We re-​visited Friday afternoon for lunch right before the lunch rush came through. I ordered the Kari Ayam (chicken curry), a unique blend of ground spices and potatoes. He ordered Mee Goreng (not to be mistaken for your 50 cent ramen packages), a noodle dish with eggs, prawns, fish cake slices and fresh bean sprouts. Both were loaded with exotic, tasty flavors. We also ordered the cham, half tea, half coffee. YUM.
It’s best to come to this location during lunch, in my opinion. Not only is the crowd smaller, but the prices are cheaper. Better bang for your buck.

For a place with such hype and rave reviews, this place was a shock. For me, it did not live up to the hype.
I absolutely love Malaysia food and have tried my fair share of Indian Malay food throughout Malaysia. A lot of the food in Malaysia is average unless you know specifically where to go. And for me, much of the Mamak food was slightly above this average Malay standard. Good, but not amazing.
The roti canai was good. The roti itself was crispy and as good as a good roti in Malaysia. The gravy for me was a little unbalanced — too heavy on the sour.
I also tried nasi lemak with an addition of sambal prawns & chicken curry. The nasi lemak was uninspiring as was the chicken curry. The prawns has a good level of sourness and were enjoyable.
The roti banana with ice cream was strange. At first I liked it, then I just couldn’t get my head around the sugar in the roti batter. It was too much for me and they should have left the sugar out of the batter as the ice cream and bananas were sweet enough.
All in all an enjoyable meal, but I just don’t need to go back. And for me, I cannot understand what the hype is about. Expectations not met.

The best roti I have tasted outside of Malaysia! The service is quick and all the dishes on the menu are tasty. The roti pisang (banana) is a very yummy dessert and lime juice is very refreshing.
Service is very fast, great if you are going to a show at the entertainment centre.

Best Malaysian food I’ve ever had!
Being so close to Asia, Australia has such great asian food. It pretty much beats the US asian food any day of the week.
I was completely in love with the mee goreng, the roti, and the lamb curry. Noodles were cooked perfectly and the roti was flaky with rich dipping sauces. My husband said that the curry tasted like the one his grandma makes. That is a huge compliment coming from him!
The line was out the door when we went and it was really busy. Make sure you flag down a server when you are ready or you will be waiting for a while.
I really wish I could find a place like this where I live.

If you love roti, you have to come to this place. My Malaysian co-​worker took me here last time I was in town and I remembered I enjoyed the roti a lot.
I was on my way home from the Elite event and smelled roti and curry in the hallway. My neighbor either cooked some up and didn’t bother to share or they order Mamak to go.
Since I still got 20 mins before they officially close, I made a dash for it. (I am not risking rolling in bed tonight not able to sleep because of some silly $ 5.50 roti! Especially I was just telling fellow elites how good the food was at Hawker.)
Ordered the original roti and a vegetarian curry to go. I am home now, ate the roti like a tropical storm, finishing up my review, all in less than 1 hour. That’s a perfect sample of HK efficiency y’all!

Came here after Easter Service. Queue was pretty long and I probably waited for 20 – 25 minutes before given a single seat.
While queueing, I’ve been looking over the window at how they make the murtabaks and I decided to go for a chicken murtabak (pancake with egg, chicken, onions). For the drink, I had limau ais (ice lime juice with syrup). Was a refreshing drink and a small cup wouldn’t suffice.
Decided to order as soon as I was ushered a seat and the drink came within 5 minutes. It was great but there were many ice cubes on it that watered down the taste. The food didn’t come after 20 – 25 minutes of wait and I decided to approach one of the waitress that took down my order and it finally came after 30 minutes of wait.
I noticed other customers going for the curries, desserts bowls, satays and chicken. Might give it a try next time round. The murtabak came with chickpeas and curry on the side with a teaspoon scoop of belacan (chilli). Definitely tasty combination. But the wait was a little overrated.
Overall, I’m glad that I tried here as so many people had recommended this place on Unilocal and passing by here a few times made me want to join the queue. Will try other dishes the next time round.

Do you want to avoid the line at Mamak?
Well, you can’t. (sorry if that got your hopes up)
It’s Unilocal’s #1 spot in Australia, it’s a small place, and they have good food. So you’ll have to be willing to wait at least half an hour at any given point of the day. But it’ll be worth it.
Three friends and I went at around 9 and there was still a line out the door. A great way to kill time is by watching the chefs make all the rotis though the window. Before you know it, your table will be ready as you wipe the drool from your chin.
To start, we ordered two rotis — the original, roti canai ($ 5.50), and the roti telur bawang ($ 7), which has eggs and onions. Both (or probably all) off the rotis come with two dipping sauces. Stick to the original roti. It’s nice and fluffy. The latter was more like a pancake and the egg was a little overcooked.
Since we were starving, we also decided to try the beef satay ($ 9 for six or $ 16 for a dozen), which are beef skewers. These were SUPER dry. I had to drench it in the peanut sauce just to make it palatable. Don’t get me wrong — the flavor was good, but I just wish they took it off the grill earlier. Maybe the chicken ones are better? But my guess is that those would be really dry too.
Good thing my entrée came out soon after. It helped my taste buds get over the beef satay I just had. I went with the mee goreng ($ 12), which are spicy wok-​tossed hokkien noodles with eggs, prawns, fish cake slices and fresh bean sprouts. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the dish wasn’t too spicy. It wasn’t spicy at all (to me). I added some of the slightly spicy peanut sauce from the skewers and it made the noodles even better.
Finally, the dessert! Everyone seemed to be ordering the ais kacang ($ 6), so we decided to jump onto bandwagon and do that too. It is a mix of red beans, corn, grass jelly, rose-​syrup and sweetened milk on a mountain of shaved ice. I liked the shaved ice. It sounds like it would be really sweet, but it isn’t. It was also pretty refreshing.
In most of my experiences, restaurants like these with a (semi-​long) wait and lots of great reviews tend to be over-​hyped. Mamak is definitely not that. If I ever come back to Sydney, hopefully this place will still be kickin’ it and I’ll be able to try some of their other dishes.

OK — review number 100…
The queue? 2 people, but it’s only 11.25
The food? Don’t know, I’m still in the queue. But has been fantastic every other time I’ve been.

I have a Friday to myself without any obligations except some TGIF cocktails with the husband. It is around 11:30am and I’m feeling quite peckish so I decide that today will be the day I explore the Ramen culture in Sydney. If I were to guess I’d say there were around 100 spots in the NSW area.
I log on to Unilocal and see what pops up as the most reviewed Ramen shop in the city. 49 reviews is number one for Gumshara, and holy crap that’s a lot.
Gumshara is situated in a food court right next to China Town, this makes me happy as some of my favorite food items come from unconventional locations ie: hotdogs from Target. I’ve read that it’s pretty difficult to find and I learn this once I get around the area. I find two food courts on the same street (Dixon) but not the right one. As I walk by the Holiday Inn, I think «concierge!» and go in to ask for directions. Scott is the main man and draws my intended walk on a map and finally I make it inside to the food court, find Gumshara, wait in the lunch queue, get up to the counter to order and realize that in my excitement I have forgotten to get out cash. BAH! and leave totally deflated.
Massive Failure Until I remember that the very popular Malaysian Restaurant Mamak is just around the corner, and alas there is no line. I’ve wanted to try Laksa since coming here, but unfortunately this restaurant does not serve it. No biggie. I settle on the Kari Sayur ($ 10.50 with rice) which is a vegetarian curry cooked with lentils, fresh tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and eggplant and a choose roti as an appetizer, a Malaysian speciality. I’m feeling a little thirsty so I also order their special tah takik tea.
I’m not familiar with Malaysian food at all. In fact, I don’t really know much about the country except it is one of the countries closest to Australia. By the way, just pull up a map of Asia when you have some time, it is mind blowing how much of this earth you’ll never get to see. Malaysia itself is extremely multi-​ethnic and really the only way I can describe the food without coming off ignorant is a mix between Chinese and Indian cuisine.
My teh tarik drink arrives first and it is a classic sweetened tea with a frothy topping. They’re not kidding when they say sweet, I’m literally drinking ‘bottom of the cereal bowl hot milk with a slight tea flavor’. I do see some other caffeine options such as Malaysian white coffee and ‘Cham’, which is interestingly half tea, half coffee.
First the roti arrives and it is served with two dipping sauces, a vegetarian dal and a spicy fish curry sauce, both are delicious and the texture of the roti is something i’ve never had before. Its flaky on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Perhaps you can liken it to if naan and puff pastry had a baby. Of course I get to eat it with my hands so I eat it all.
I’m not entirely impressed with this veggie dish, I wish the base was made out of the fish curry that was served with my roti but it does have really large chunks of the vegetables I mentioned before.
The restaurant is really busy and really loud as I finish up and there’s a long line out the door. The service is friendly, prompt and on point. If you decide to pay with a card you have to rack up $ 20 worth of food, which is easy to do. I’m stuffed so I put the rest in a take-​away container for tomorrows lunch and take this picture of the roti boys as I head out the door.

Ahhh, I just queued again! I thought that getting there early on a Monday night — there wouldn’t be too many people outside. WRONG! Never mind, the line moved quite quickly once the doors opened. Over the years I have sampled nearly all of the menu.
What I love about this restaurant is that the food is consistent in flavour and quality time after time.
My favourites dishes are:
ENTREE: Chicken/​beef satay $ 9 for ½ dozen or $ 16 for dozen
ROTI: Roti canai $ 5.5 /​Roti bawang $ 6.5 /​Roti telur bawang $ 7
MAINS: Kari Kambing $ 16 /​Kari Ayam $ 16 /​Mee goreng $ 12 Rojak $ 14
Ayam Berempah $ 16
DESSERT: Roti kaya $ 8
Whatever you choose, you will get the best taste of Malaysian Street Hawker style cooking. I am always satisfied and can’t resist queuing when I crave that taste!
TIP: It is always good to go to ‘Mamak Supper’ on Friday or Saturday night when the place is open to 2am! Fantastic dining for a night owl like me.

No lunchtime queue on a Saturday? Ludicrous. So went in for a quick lunch.
AYAM GORENG $ 14 (4 pieces) Malaysian-​style fried chicken
This fried chicken is pretty good, needed some protein as the roti are vegan friendly. The flavouring is quite subtle and no flavour imposses itself over the chicken taste. One of the reasons is the thin and light batter, it does bring some chilli heat but even less potent than KFC Wicked Wings. The huge size of the chicken makes the middle of the chicken quite bland. However, the chicken is perfectly cooked to a tender and succulent texture but is just lacking some flavour.
ROTI CANAI $ 5.50 — Original roti
Soft and fluffy matched with a generic curry sauce, the value is undeniable. The dish has to be eaten fast, as it hardens within less than 5 minutes. Good of them to serve the sambal separate for those of us less spicy-​tolerant, the curries are mild in terms of spiciness and taste also. Is this the best roti I’ve had? No.
Conclusion
Above average in many ways but apart from the value, there is not any single dish or feature that will give me a craving. Service is hectic and a little under-​staffed.
@thesydneynoob

Das Beste Roti außerhalb Malaysia. Mindestens eine halbe Stunde schlangestehen. Aber es lohnt sich. Unbedingt Ayam Goreng probieren. Super zart.