We’ve heard the raves from all around about Alice’s for a long time, so when we were out at Pennant Hills recently, it didn’t make any convincing to get us all there for lunch.
Food
One of our party was a regular, so he knew exactly what to order. Slokky had the chai tow kuih ($9.80) – homemade radish cake fried with chai poh, egg, sprouts and chives. Well, what appeared on the plate was just like hawker style food really. A mess of blackened and browned noodle like substance, lumped together by egg was presented. Good thing that it tasted a lot better than it looked. You can really taste the wok-fried taste but I found the flavours a bit too strong for my liking. He washed all this down with a very expensive ich tarik ($4). According to the Malaysian expert, this wasn’t made the correct way as the condensed milk did not take up half the glass. I found it pretty ordinary myself, the brew wasn’t even frothed up by being poured at a dazzling height.
As usual, I used the har mee ($9.80) – noodles in lightly spiced prawns soup with prawns, pork, kang kong and egg as my benchmark on how good the food is, and fortunately, Alice does not disappoint in this regard. A bowl of orange mixed Hokkien and rice noodles, with some floating prawns and pork, garnished with fried shallots & spicy sambal. The soup had a nice seafood flavour, and it was definitely hot enough. The egg and sambal were excellent. The only complaint would be the tiny amount of prawns and the quality of the prawns.
And around the table? People seem to enjoy the meal, except some couldn’t take the heat (which I took as a sign of a good Malay restaurant).
Rating - 7
Atmosphere
Casual affair, where you take a table number, place your order and eat. There were quite a few families and friends here from all nationalities, all enjoying their food. Quite a few of them looked very comfortable and were probably regulars.
Besides the vibrant front counter stacked with all manners of kuih (Malaysian cakes and desserts), and the letter from Maeve O'Mara from the Food Lovers' Guide to Australia, the rest of the room is pretty bare, with a side cabinet holding the utensils and menus the only thing disturbing the constants.
Rating - 1.5
Service
The waiters had excellent English and explained how the whole thing worked, from the seating to the ordering, that would be very useful for all first time visitors. They were able to advise on a few things on the menu too. All in all, a very smooth experience.
Rating - 4
C-factor
It’s a little bit more expensive than your takeaway, and certainly much more expensive than eating on the streets in Malaysia, but in Sydney, it’s priced correctly.
Rating - 1
Brownie Points - 13.5
Info
Shop 3&4, Cnr Bellevue St and Pennant Hills Rd
Thornleigh
NSW 2120
Phone (02) 9484 8288
Website
No comments:
Post a Comment