Mai Jia — Restaurant in Melbourne

It was a busy as would be expected on a Saturday night but we were seated immediately with the reservation. The place was buzzing and had a lively atmosphere. Even thought the place is compact and the tables are quite close to each other, it doesn’t feel crowded. They have a very extensive menu with a lot of Laksa options. And also a lot of vegetarian options. We took a long time to actually choose what we wanted because we were so spoilt for choice! We started off with the edamame and the sambal chicken puffs. Edamame had a nice kick of spice and the puffs were piping hot with a super flaky crust. Loved it. For mains we ordered the Beef Char Kway Teow and the Nasi Lemak - one with fried chicken and one with beef rendang. The chicken was well seasoned and with a crisp skin. The beef rendang was the real star. Melt in the mouth and so flavourful. And it was a very generous serving. The Char kway teow was a bit disappointing. It looked and smelt good but lacked flavour and the beef was under seasoned. But still tasty and I did finish the serving. All in all the food was really good. Would definitely...

Throwback to the time where my friends and I had lunch together at Mai Jia in South Yarra.

It was a cosy restaurant situated in a busy street, serving many options of asian dishes (malaysian, chinese etc). We went there during lunch time but it was quiet. We ordered chicken satay and mushroom skewers and fried tofu for the table. My friends ordered fried soft shell crab and veggies, my bf ordered the seafood laksa and I ordered hainanese chicken rice.

All dishes were so delicious, great portion for the price too ‼️ I was surprised that the place was quiet during lunch time when the dishes were THAT good! I can honestly see this place becoming my go-to asian restaurant for lunch in South Yarra.

Funny story, I’ve already styled my hainanese chicken rice for me to take a picture of it. After I finished eating, I checked my camera and there were no photos of that dish at all! I guess I was hungry and the food...

The laksa here was the bomb. Everything we ordered was so flavourful. Great portion sizes.

Cheap cocktails - but beware, if it’s a busy day, you may get your food before you get your cocktails.

Service was painfully slowwwww 🐌 - it was a moderately busy day (the restaurant seemed to be at 50% capacity). Perhaps they were understaffed. In any case, it was a long wait for food and even longer for drinks. Plus when I did get my cocktail - it was the wrong one - I was so fed up waiting though - I just took it. The wait staff were apologetic and did offer to change it for me, but I didn’t want to wait another 1/2 hr for a drink. (They didn’t offer to compensate for the inconvenience)

I’d definitely go here again, since the food was great. But I’ll have to be prepared to wait for a while for my food. 😂

(It would be a 5 star rating if not for super slow and...