Restoran Mohamed Raffee Nasi Kandar — Restaurant in George Town

TL;DR, rather disappointing plate of Nasi Kandar with watery gravy and soggy exterior and tough fried chicken.

The place always piqued my interest whenever I'm in the area, you see long lines of people queuing up for food, thinking it should be good. It was quite disappointing in fact.

It was barely 10 am, piles of food and choices are already arranged by the counter. Makes you wonder if those were prepared fresh on that day or rather just reheating the ones that were from the day before or longer.

Ordered up a plate of rice with fried chicken and some stir fried cabbage. Drenched with a mix of gravies. The gravy was rather watery, with a slightly more spicy note, without much aromatics. Fried chicken was large, cut into pieces before serving. The batter was rather thick giving it a soggy skin. Completely dried out fried chicken, having a tough aftertaste. Hardly 'freshly' fried. The coconut sambal chutney was great to cut through the oiliness of the entire dish. Beverage was alright, too sweet to taste even after asking for a reduced sugar / sweetness option.

Environment was just warm and stuffy on a hot day, hardly any ventilation with the need of wall mounted fans to keep it circulating. Definitely uneasy and uncomfortable to dine in. There a cramped up basin you to wash your hands all the way in the back of the shop. While serviettes / tissues are all the way in the front of the shop by the counter if you want to dry your hands. Utensils are on side of the shop, where most patrons use their bare hands for consuming.

Ordering and service is fast. A receipt will be given upon ordering, payment is made after eating at the counter. Payment options are limited to cash...

Nasi Kandar, ubiquitous with Penang, can be found on almost any street in Penang. Most of them are pretty good, as there seems to some kind of "generic" taste to the curries served. So why are some more popular than others?

Mohamed Raffee, or locally known as Raffee, has been in the same spot for about two decades now. During its early days, it was simply a mamak restaurant, selling the usual fare found in most mamak shops. However, since the addition of Nasi Kandar about 10+ years ago, lines began to form outside the restaurant for the food.

With social media exposing it even further, the restaurant now boasts of queues that can see almost 20 to 30 persons in line waiting to order their meal.

Parking is difficult during mornings and afternoons as the vicinity has other coffee shops and some even park here to walk to Pulau Tikus Market. But, don't give up, as there's normally quite a quick turnaround of cars.

The food is really tasty, intense curries flavour a bed of rice, and the meats are cooked perfectly. The fried chicken is also very good (best to come around 11am as the first few batches of fried chicken comes out and is often replenished with fresh batches). The beef is not too tough, and the lamb is tender and juicy.

Prices are very reasonable, and a hearty meal with meat, vegetables and some egg can be had for under RM10. All you need is to pair your meal with a great teh tarik, and...

This famous nasi kandar place is well known among locals and visitors alike from other states. As I visited to have a taste of their food and to see if it remained consistent, I was greeted by the usual queue of people. Once I got to my turn, I ordered the ayam goreng, telur dadar, daging, kambing and kubis. It was also only right that I requested the staff to flood my plate with their mix of curries. Here was what I thought of the food, I felt that the aroma of the curries were well balanced and did not overwhelm with its spices. In other words, the nasi kandar here may appeal to those wanting to try for the first time. I particularly enjoyed the appetising tang in the curries and it was a very well rounded taste as far as nasi kandar goes. The other highlight here was the ayam goreng. Sadly it was no longer crispy when I got mine but I liked how it was of sizeable portion and the meat was fleshy and moist. The daging and kambing both were good additions to your rice but I preferred the kambing texture over the daging. The eatery wasn't anything fancy so don't be expecting much in the looks department. There were tables set up outside of the shop for dine ins with an open air setting so you do not need to leave the place smelling like a pack of nasi kandar take away afterwards. I was again impressed with the overall food taste here and would revisit when I...