Malay Satay Hut — Restaurant in Redmond

Was the worst experience last night. The food was tepid and undercooked we had a visitor, an uninvited guest, looked like a Disney Celebrity

Ordered roti canai, murtabak, chicken curry, pepper pork chops, a noodle dish a vegetable fried rice with eggs. The lady who took our order was very nice and friendly. She along with the veggie noodles and rice are why this is two stars. The canai was very little for the roti dish but was the normal size for murtabak. It was tepid. The chicken curry, which I had ordered, I was told was there old chicken rendang. It was also tepid and the spices were undercooked. Rendang has a rich, dark brown color. This was light brown. The chicken was tender though so that was I guess okay. We were having a great conversation, when suddenly, I could swear I saw Remy, from Ratatouille casually descend from the roof like structure over the bar, walk right over the wine rack nonchalantly. I was so I’m start struck that I jumped up out of my chair. Unfortunately that startled the little celebrity and he scurried away. When I raided this with the bar tender, she said it probably just came in when they opened the back door. This explanation was seconded by our waitress. It was late, the kitchen was closing so of course they had to open the back door to clean up. Seeing Remy was too exciting for me and I just couldn’t eat any more. We asked for the check, paid our bill and left, wondering if we actually saw Remy, or if that was just an illusion. Levity aside, that was by far the worst dining experience I’ve had in the Seattle area. Needless to say (I actually don’t know why this phrase is ever used) we won’t be going back to Malay Satay Hut. I feel really bad about this since (a) I love the food from that region of the world and have traveled there often. I don’t know of another place like this in this area. But most importantly, I really dislike the idea of potentially a resturant or small business losing customers during covid given how difficult things are for them already. At the same time I do not want to get sick from eating at a place where a rat carrying germs and potentially adding their self created, organic ingredients to the chefs dishes . I like my food human made. Sorry, I’m a bit of a stickler for that...

Food prepared by a kitchen who do not take pride in their work. Had a terrible meal there before, figured maybe my order was too exotic to make good. So I gave them a 2nd chance and go with something safe, like a fried rice. There are 6 different fried rice dishes, so I picked Malaysian Fried Rice, to match the restaurant name. What came out was a still a steaming pile of disappointment.

By appearance, the dish came out reddish, and soggy. It looks like it could have been a can of watered down Campbell tomato soup dumped over some warm rice.

By flavor, the dish was bland, with a heavy dose of ketchup. There is no main point or theme, to give focus for your tongue to enjoy. Just a blend of bland mesh with a lingering ketchupy flavor in your mouth. The chicken was pre-boiled and flavorless, added during cooking. This method is meant to deliver a fast dish while guaranteeing tender texture. In this particular case, the chicken was not able to absorb enough flavor from the dish to even hide the stink of blood. All the chicken must be removed.

By texture, the dish was a The rice, was fried when still warm, with too much moisture. It resulted in a mushy pasty bite without any excitement or redeeming quality. It desperately needed some fresh greens to give it some texture, maybe some broccolli could have greatly helped both the texture and the appearnce problem.

This meal reminded me of the previous failure here. I do not remember what exactly I ordered. It was something strange by my standards, what I ended up getting tasted like a wok washing soup. It was primarily sour taste, with the bitterness of burnt proteins. It had chunks of charred thredded meat, that may explained the burnt flavor. Again, the overall dish was bland, except for the sour and bitterness, without anything that could hold the flavors together.

This restaurant may have had a great kitchen. What it has now, tasted like a tired kitchen staff too lazy to even taste their own concoctions.

AVOID...

If you are following my reviews closely, you may already know that when I travel I don’t intend to try Indian food. However, I get recommended with Indian & Indian like food constantly by colleagues & friends. On my recent visit to Portland meeting long time friends, I was recommended to try the Indian like Roti Canai from this Malaysia place called Malay Satay Hut in Redmond. I love Malaysia (remains my favourite country, besides India) & Malaysian Food, always tried relocating there for making a living.

While I am working & living out in downtown Seattle, did not pay much attention, to visit Redmond. That being said, I grabbed an opportunity to visit this place, when I had a couple of hour meeting at Bellevue & requested a colleague to drop me off Redmond.

This place is decked up nicely, gives you a vibe of a typical Malaysian restoran. I quickly ordered their famous Ice Coffee & Roti Canai, as a heavy snack for the evening.

What a wonderful wonderful iced coffee it was, perfect & strong, just the way I like it. Not too strong, neither too sweet, it’s a perfect blend. I was a little disappointed when the menu did not offer Ice Milo, my favourite. But that disappointment was washed away with this, pure, ice, coffee.

The Roti was nice & flaky, perfect with the potato & peas curry that was served alongside. Between the curry & the Roti is could not pick a winner, but if I really have to be mean & nasty I had to pick the curry. Down south, in India there is a mean curry they make to serve alongside the Roti Parota, this curry came almost 97% close to that. Lucious & Lovely, throughly enjoyed it. The nice lady offer up some extra sauce for free (usually it’s a $1.5 extra), when I ran out of curry, soon.

Did order a Nasi Goreng, Malaysian Fried Rice with Chicken & Shrimps, as an order out for dinner later today. Will update on how...