Uncle Lai's Malaysian Cuisine ( 賴記 ) — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Some people say Uncle Lai's CKT (char kuey teow) is the best in town... it should at least be very good given it's Uncle Lai's signature dish, using a recipe passed down through the generations of the Lai family. It features smokey wok-fried flat rice noodles, Chinese sausage, prawn, chicken slices, fishcake, egg, chives, beansprouts, and topped off with pork crackling bits.

It's priced at $12.90 for the standard version (with chicken), or you can pay $2/3 extra for the beef/seafood versions. There's also a variation called Aunty Lai's CKT, which is a big plate (good for 2 people) of Uncle Lai's CKT with added seafood for $28. This is what we went with.

As all wok items are individually fried there can often be a wait - we were told 30 minutes upon arrival, and this was pretty spot on. The dish certainly smelt enticing when it hit the table, with the unmistakable aroma of the smokey wok hei. The noodles portion was good though I thought there'd be more than just 2 prawns and 2 mussels for the main seafood elements.

We also has a teh tarik, $7.50. Honestly thought it'd come in a stein at that price but no, just a regular single-use coffee cup.

Overall it was a satisfying feed in flavour and I'd say it's worth trying if you haven't been before, or revisiting if (like me) it's been a few years since the last visit. Note that it's a pretty small shop with limited seating, so reservations are highly...

Hit n miss.

Arriving promptly on time to collect my families dinner, I was greeted with the news, my order will be approximately another 15mins. Which then turned into a total of 25 minutes.

But, was given a complimentary lemonade for the delay. Not really an adequate compensation. (Nothing would of been less insulting) So there I stood, waiting.

A customer who arrived after I did, also left with their order before I had received mine, which then elevated my annoyance. While waiting, I took in my surroundings of Uncle Lai's, there on the wall, was some history about the man himself Uncle Lai. Towards the end of the story written there, was an acknowledgement of potential wait times and that it was worth the wait.

Was it worth the wait? Yes, at first. As I ate a portion of my first dish, I agreed that it was definitely worth the wait. I was hungry and it was delicious. Then, wondering why my children weren't expressing the same enthusiasm as myself, I tried their dish.

The sauce was burnt. It became obvious with how much darker and over saturated it was. I couldn't make them finish their food, as I couldn't continue eating it myself.

Would I order from there again? If I ever happen to, it definitely won't be on Saturday for a 6pm pick up.

Would I recommend them? If you don't mind waiting and watching orders come and go...

Visited this place through a friend's recommendation. Ordered 3 dishes and 1 drink. 1. Char kueh teow 2. KL hokkien mee 3. Salted fish and chicken fried rice 4. Teh Tarik. There were some hits and miss with the food. Hit: Char Kueh Teow had the aroma what I am familiar with at home. My friend added more pork lard and with each bite has that crunch. It was just right and not super oily. So so: Didn't quite enjoy the salted fish and chicken fried rice. I'm not use to the flavours of salted fish and found it kind of a strange combination. The dish was a tad too salty for me Miss: KL Hokkien Mee was definitely not the dish for me. Not use to so much dark sweet soya sauce in my noodles. Bit too oily for my liking. The Teh Tarik was ok. Didn't have a strong tea aroma and was tad too sweet for me. The foam head over the tea was nostalgic for me. Mrs Lai was very chatty and love creating banter. Thank you for the warm welcome. I found the price of 50 cents per takeaway container was too expensive. The overall price per dish was tad too high for my liking to the portion of food served. Worth the try if you are looking for Malaysian food in the Greenslopes area. Follow me on Instagram and Tiktok for more food adventures:...