Istana Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

I've come here several times over the years. Food is usually good quality although I would recommend sticking with the Malaysian dishes over the Chinese. We used to love it but sadly the value for money has really gone downhill 😥

Went there for dinner tonight and wanted to get nasi lemak but enough for three people to share. Asked the waitress if we could ditch the rice and get more of everything else (chicken curry, nuts, anchovies, cucumber etc) and get a large rice on the side instead. Tried explaining three times but she couldn't understand as her English wasn't good so the boss came over. He effectively said no and that we would have to get the menu version as is with the rice and ask if we wanted more of anything as we were eating it which was very frustrating. Not having a sharing sized portion version on the menu or allowing people to customise it is poor customer service, if you need to charge more fine but let the customers have what they want.

When it did come out the amount of chicken curry was miniscule, for the standard menu price I'd expect twice or even three times as much. Chicken is not expensive. Same thing with the beef rendang we had the previous time we came. The amount you get for the price is crazy when the dish actually calls for using cheaper cuts of meat.

Paid $140 for three people which is a lot when you aren't ordering any seafood or drinks.

Sad as we used to love this place so hopefully that side of things improves over time, as is can't see...

Overpriced & Overrated.

We ordered Singapore Noodles, Plain Rice, Spicy Trout Cutlet, Fried Tofu with Pork and Vegetables, Mongolian Lamb, Balachan Kan-koong, blachan eggplant, 6 sticks of Chicken Satay, 2 portions of curry puff & Chinese Tea. We were served with 8 tiny pieces of curry puff filled with boiled potato ($20). Satay had 3 tiny pieces of chicken and we were charged $32. Fried Tofu with Pork did not have any Pork at all. It had 6 pieces of fried tofu (calculated at 1 piece per person?) and Chinese vegetables in a thin sauce. Kan Koong had more stalks than leaves. The eggplant was fried and was extremely oily. The Trout cost me $32- the menu says $25- As for Rice, we were given a small plate of rice which was not enough for the six of us – ($3.60 per head). The service was extremely poor – for 6 people we were given 4 plates and no cutlery. Requests for extra plates was not answered. We ended up taking extra plates and cutlery from other tables. The bill came to a whopping $250-. When asked why we were told that that the bill and pay! They charged an extra...

Took my parents here after hearing from a friend that this place serves old-school Chinese-Malay dishes. I was a bit nervous at first because I read some reviews saying people were charged for tea without being told, so I made sure to decline the tea when we arrived.

We ordered the kangkung belacan, hawker style pipis, ikan bawang, and black pepper beef.

The kangkung belacan was a hit, my husband loved it! You could really taste the fried shallots and ebi (dried shrimp), super flavourful.

I personally loved the ikan bawang. The fish was generous in portion and well-cooked. My husband usually doesn’t like fish, but he actually enjoyed this one.

The pipis reminded me of a childhood dish, so nostalgic and comforting.

The only downside was the black pepper beef, which was too salty for my taste.

Portions were generous, but the place is a bit pricey. Four dishes and Hainan rice for four people...