Amah by Ho Jiak — Restaurant in Sydney

A mixed bag of food quality, all at a high price. Some dishes were good, while some needed improvement. Regardless, the price of most dishes seemed a little high for what they were.

We started off with the Hokkaido Scallops which were $9 each. I found these to be fine. The scallops were cooked ok and the rest of ingredients were fine, but hard to justify the price. 3.5-4/5.

We also ordered the belachan kangkung. The vegetables had nice wok hei and spice to it, but was a little too salty in my opinion. Additionally, the price seemed quite steep at $28 for vegetables. 3.5-4/5.

Another dish was the dry wanton mee, which was decent. The noodles had a great chewy texture and had a nice sweet and savoury flavour to them. The wantons were also good, as the prawns inside them were springy, and the pork inside was tender. The char siu could have been better though. Some pieces were a little chewy and dry, and there wasn’t much of it. Additionally, I wished there were more pieces of jalapeños to come with the dish. The jalapeños seemed like it was there just for decoration, instead of being an actual topping, like what it was supposed to be. At $29, the value was somewhat more justified. 4-4.5/5.

The hainan chicken rice was also decent. The chicken was tender and fairly moist, while the rice was fragrant. The price was $25. 4-4.5/5.

We also got the char koay teow at $25. I found this dish to be quite disappointing. To me, it felt like it was made without much care. The wok hei was lacking slightly and missing in some bites. The portion size was also quite small and there weren’t too many toppings in it. This was further disappointing as the dish was a far cry from the one I had from Ho Jiak in Haymarket. 3/5.

Additionally, the service could have been better. We had to wait at the front for a while for a server to come direct us to a seat, despite tables being available. Additionally, we had to wait a while to order food with a server, despite putting our hand up. They were occupied doing other things, which in my opinion were of not great priority.

Additionally, though not pictured, I would not recommend the late night specials. I came here before earlier and was left disappointed with it. The value of most the dishes in my opinion, weren’t that great. The char koay teow, nasi goreng and the popcorn chicken were worth the price, but all other dishes were not. A dish I did not enjoy was the mee goreng, which did not use the wider egg noodles I expected, and did not taste great anyway. I found great disrespect with the chef’s special which was a small portion of rice noodles and fish cakes in a very bland broth. This ‘chef’s special,’ felt more like a money grab than anything else.

Overall, mixed food quality at...

Update August 2024: Had another amazing experience at Amah by Ho Jiak.

Service was excellent as experienced before. We had unfortunately forgotten to book a table on a weekend night but they made a table available for us only after a short wait at the bar area. Table service was also very friendly, attentive and efficient throughout.

The food menu is continually updated with new options and the hainanese chicken claypot rice was a favourite of ours this time around. The flavours of all the dishes we had were keenly Malaysia, a combination of sweet, spicy and savoury all in the one hit but Ho Jiak always brings a bit of difference and modern twist to it.

We were completely satisfied at the end of the night and would again recommend this place for others to try.

August 2023: We had an awesome lunch experience at Amah by Ho Jiak. Food, service and atmosphere were all first class.

Highlights:

The service is very attentive and polite. We had a couple of friendly exchanges with one of the executive staff members which is a nice touch. You know it's great service when they have thought of everything before you even ask!

The food is excellently executed with strong fantastic flavours you'd expect from Malaysian style cuisine. The attention to detail on presentation was greatly appreciated. The currently available beef ribs with nasi goreng is a must try (need to pre-book this though).

The Chatswood restaurant is a much more relaxed and spacious environment to the original Ho Jiak at Haymarket. The big Tiger Beer hand painted billboard above the semi open kitchen is a great addition (and they let us know how much it cost too!!). We noticed they have private dining rooms for events if you need it.

I already love going to the Ho Jiak venues at Townhall and Haymarket. But Amah thoroughly impresses and I will be back for sure.

P.S They run lunch specials during weekdays and Tiger Tuesdays too. If you're interested, look them up!

Thank you to the team at Amah for making our lunch such an enjoyable...

Extremely Disappointing First Visit

Was really hopeful about trying this place for the first time, but unfortunately, it was a huge letdown. We went for Monday lunch—only about 6–8 tables were occupied—but service was painfully slow. We had to keep asking for attention, and when drinks finally arrived, they were slammed onto the table with one spilling everywhere. The waiter walked off without a word, and we had to use our own napkins to clean it up.

Food timing was all over the place. One main (the Rendang curry with roti and rice) came out with the entrees (chilli crab har gow and prawn toast), and the second main (a 3-choice bento box) arrived at least 10 minutes later—by which point the curry was cold.

Quality-wise, the Rendang and prawn toast were decent. Everything else ranged from forgettable to outright bad. The chilli crab har gow was bland, had no trace of chilli crab flavour, and included a huge piece of shell I bit into. The bento box was the worst offender. I paid extra for noodles and added a roti side—but the whole thing felt like a reheated mess.

The beef black bean sauce was basically a watery onion soup with three tiny, overcooked pieces of meat. The prawn curry tasted like diluted laksa broth with a couple of frozen-style prawns. The fried chicken was clearly not fresh—soggy and sad. The noodles tasted like instant packet noodles with sauce sachets. And to top it off, the roti never came until we followed up.

Looking into the kitchen, it became obvious everything was being ladled out of food warmers—explaining the overcooked textures and diluted flavors.

For a bill of over $100 for two people, this felt like a very expensive trip to a bad food court. They even charged an extra $9 for roti that should’ve been included with the Rendang dish, based on the menu wording.

Would not recommend, especially if it's your first time. There are much better places around at this price point. Try the Korean bbq around the corner for an absolutely...