Malaya Corner 旺角 Sunnybank — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Malay Corner at Sunnybank market square - its about as good as it gets for Malaysian style food in Brizvagas. I have ordered the following dishes numerous times over 5 years and they have been very consistent. All are generous in size and very reasonably priced. My favourites in descending order are:

Laksa - the main menu one (not chicken version in the afternoon tea set). A generous range of stuff in this (other Malay restaurants in Aust take note!) with two noodles (rice vermicelli and egg noodle), long beans, spongy tofu, fish cake, squid, eggplant, bean sprouts, fried onions, and two large prawns. The laksa curry also has flavour, a good balance of coconut milk to spice ratio (I’m not talking chilli here) but perhaps a tad too much msg or salt but its ok. It is not very spicy catering for the local market. I guess you can ask for extra chilli.

Hainan Chicken Rice - one of my favourites as a light contrast to a Laksa or Roti n curry. Nicely cooked chicken (cooked, still juicy but not bleeding!), flavoursome rice ( occasionally a tad dry) and a nice spicy sauce n ginger combo. The standard cucumber is also provided. It comes with soup but generally don’t eat it as the MSG quotient is likely high.

Roti Canai - (flat bread and curry) I prefer the chicken version but the beef is also ok. The flat bread is normally crispy but also can be a bit oily; tastes good to me!

Penang Char Keow Teow - mixed feelings taste good but they use a lot of fried pork fat with it so can be a bit rich. they could reduce the pork fat by 50% and be closer to the ideal. Overall the taste is fine and generous size.

Singapore fried Vermicelli Noodle - is a bit lighter and comes with a slice of lemon to add some tang (needs it). i guess you can ask for the latter on any dish. again reasonably generous sizing.

Hainan Chicken Rice - one of my favourites as a light contrast to a Laksa or Roti n curry. Nicely cooked chicken, flavoursome rice, occasionally a tad dry and nice spicy sauce n ginger combo. It comes with soup but generally don’t eat it as the MSG quotient is likely high.

Nasi Lemak - is great if you get board easily as it comes with the usual selection of malay treats. Think of it as a taste plate. coconut rice (soso) and curry chicken (with potato), beef rendang, fried anchovies n peanuts, a hard boiled egg and some pickles.

Beef Rendang was good but nothing to rave about. Ordered maybe twice.

Overall:

I keep coming back coz i can get my laksa fix that is near enough to the real deal. I don’t consider the dishes spicy. I’m ‘aussie’, but then again I have eaten a lot in SE Asia so I’m accustomed to their chill levels. You can always add but you can’t delete chill and the flavours come through with less heat. The MSG or salt can be a bit much at times as you can come away a bit trusty afterwards. They could cut that by 50% and end up in a much better place. But hey it is what it is. Also in the late afternoons they have reduced price ‘afternoon tea’ sets. These come in smaller (entree) dish sizes with an included drink such as milk tea. The milk tea itself is quite nice and vey HK style (as per the owners!). I do recommend the this place, with the caveat of which dishes to order, to my friends visiting Brizzie if they have a m’sian craven.

P.s to those who winge about the service - hey its an asian shop - they think about food first and worry about ‘service’ second. The decor here is a casual cafe style and is not a fine dining restaurant! As they say in asia - avoid the ‘pretty’ restaurants because the food is usually second rate. If you can find it within your mind to adjust your expectation in alignment with this then you will enjoy the experience...

Please don't take this review as a reason not to at least try this place, they have a huge menu and are popular.

We have always seen this place and it's always busy, we decided to try something new and looked like they had a free table for a change. When we came in, we asked for a menu, the Young man gave us the paper take away ones. At the time I had a low blood sugar, so my partner went up and brought me a can of coke, that was $4.80 this can wasn't special in any way, just a regular can of coke for almost double even a servo price. We ordered vegetable spring rolls to start, they brought them out and they were very nice, had to ask for extra sweet and sour sauce as they only give you about a tablespoon serving in a plastic single use lid, and its not enough for 4 large spring rolls. We then ordered the beef brisket noodle soup to share, when the young man took our order I asked if I could keep looking at the dine in menu as I wanted to see what I'd get next time. Literally 1 minute later, my partner and I were still looking at the menu talking about what looked good etc when an older lady came and interrupted our conversation about the menu and asked if she could take the dine in menu (she had 5 already in her hands from other tables) I said "sorry, we are just looking, I'll bring it over when we're done" she stood there with her hand out and of course that was awkward. The table was very sticky and when you put your arms on it you stuck to the table. And unfortunately that meant the paper menu had also stuck to the table. The meal came out really fast, I'll be honest and say as a base this soup was nice, the beef was very well marinated and tender and tasty but the broth itself was lacking. I asked for a piece of lemon and some soy sauce and chilli, the young man brought it over promptly, along with a bowl each to share (this young man deserved a 5 star rating). Once we added the 3 other ingredients the flavour enhanced and it was so nice. The low star rating is for the service from the lady, and the soups lack of original flavour and for me they really only deserved a middle of the...

I have been coming to malaya corner for about 20 years now. My last couple of visits has told me it wasn't worth coming anymore.

I have to admit their food is consistently pretty good most of the time. Their customer service from experience has been about 50% hit and miss. I used to overlook some of the terrible (bordering rude) customer service because the food was pretty good. But their food preparation and time management is absolutely appalling. If you have the patience of a saint, then you'd probably be happy to wait.

At least 5 of my last visits, I waited on average 40+minutes for my food. This would be ok if it wasn't for the fact that on all occasions, I was the first or second person to order (in the restaurant) when the restaurant opened for the day and yet, customers coming in way later were being served their food first. So their process isn't based on first order first served. To be honest, I don't know how they manage their orders, it seems very chaotic.

Today was the last time I will ever visit. Close to 50 minutes wait, still no food. Most people that have ordered (or come in) after us have received their food. I saw another customer walk out due to the wait. I saw multiple customers asking about their orders. We also inquired about our order and were advised because there was a large booking today, it's taking a bit longer and ours is about 5minutes away. If they knew they had a large booking today, surely they would have either prepared for this with more staff or at least advise patrons that there would be a wait upon ordering, so that the patrons can decide whether they want to wait or not. After 50 minutes, we just decided to walk out. Easily one of the worst food/time management experiences I've consistently received at any restaurant.

It was a incredible waste of everyone's time. These guys really need to pick up their game and manage their...