Nan Yang Balwyn North — Restaurant in Melbourne

Thank you so much to the owner and the chef of the Nan Yang express. Why? Bring us the authentic Malaysian food and obviously the taste of the country! I came to know this restaurant when my mum dragged me to try it out! I drove past this restaurant numbers of times. Just by the Chinese name 南洋茶室, I thought it is another Hong Kong cafe. But I’m glad mum dragged me here! Out of my surprise, the taste is so authentic and the price is reasonable. Well, I have never been to Malaysia but this eating experience would definitely make me to put Malaysia on my country must go before I’m getting old! The owner and staff are friendly and fast serving for the food. If you come for a meal, don’t expect 7 stars serve. You need to get what you need at the self serve table. That’s what I like. You want to eat here, serve yourself! Bring kids to dine in here can learn not everything is being served or done for them. Anyway, I’m so happy to know this restaurant is not only open for lunch but dinner as well. I came back for round 2 today for lunch! Don’t stop me, I’m coming back for more! PS. One suggestion : $5.20 for a small size hot drink not so worth it but if the hot drink is served in a medium size cup.then it is worth the $$....

Awful experience due to one girl that does not know customer service. Close to home and being a Malaysian from Penang, always wanted to support kaki lang but terrible the way the girl at the counter treated me. Ordered lunch of 2 dishes- Char Kway Teow and Char Kueh Kak. Was told 10 minutes. I had a meeting to go to. Half an hour later, asked where is my food to be have a dismissive response of ' you should have told me if you were in a rush' and no explanation. On further frustration, so tell me when as it has been half an hour and you told me 10- she responds by arguing that it could not have been half an hour and checking order slip and keeping quiet and walking away. I contemplated heavily before writing this review because the guy from the kitchen that finally came out with the food did the right thing by saying sorry for the wait and here's your order. My peeve is not about the food but simply the bad attitude of the service staff that left a very sour taste. Not going there again. Don't like to be disrespected of my time and the money...

'Eating-in' is fine. Takeaway appears to be a money grabbing opportunity for the employees. When you dine in, the soya sauce with red chilli is in a super large soup bowl and you can take/eat it as much as you want. Lately, I started to do takeaway (because it get busy nowadays), this sauce remains free. As the months goes by, for some reason the employees start to charge $1 for it, and also would not allow me to put a spoonful of it into my takeaway (6 feet away from where I just picked them up). I don't know what my 10 friends think but the food I get at this place now left a 'bad taste' in my mouth.

27 Mar 2025: They did it again. Ordered 3 Hainanese Chicken Rice and only gave one 1 tiny tub (yeap, not the big one) of soya sauce with red chilli to share between 3 chilli lovers. When I asked for 2 more, they stated they would charge as it's 'POLICY'. Funny, I can't find a note about it anywhere. Maybe next time I will order 3 separate orders... if I can be bothered and fancy being treated like a dumb customer who...