Petaling Street, Sydney

During the Christmas break, a friend mentioned a new Malaysian restaurant had recently opened in Sydney's Chinatown called "Petaling Street". The real Petaling Street is located in KL, Malaysia which is Chinatown in KL. In KL's Petaling St, you will find plenty of fake handbags, knick knacks, restaurants, clothes, massage parlours, food stalls serving local food like char koay teow, grilled fish (ikan panggang), satay, curry noodles, wan tan mee etc.

During my last trip to Melbourne back in July, I did walk past the Petaling St branch on Swanston St in the city but didn't have time to try. This time, I met my girlfriend, Cindy for lunch. We had the Hainan Chicken Rice (which came highly recommended), Combination Hor Fun (Wet Koay Teow), Lobak and Grass Jelly drinks.

**Apologies for the photo quality. I was at work and didn't bring my camera with me. Had to rely on my iPhone**

The restaurant is not large, but long and narrow. As the restaurant is still new, the waiters seem to be inexperienced. The guy that took our order seem to be have difficulty understanding us (must be our Malaysian accent), we concluded he may not be Malaysian since he did not appear to be familiar with the dishes. He also couldn't count because we ordered two Grass Jelly drinks, but he gave us one. There was some confusion when we asked for another glass, but he got it right eventually (Sorry C, I had to blog about this).

The food was served quickly probably because the restaurant was not busy since it was close to 2pm when we had lunch.

The Hainan Chicken Rice was served with rice and a bowl of soup. The chicken was already deboned and had a smooth texture, important for Hainan style chicken. At first I found the chicken a little sweet but couldn't put my finger to the source. In the end, we figured they must have added some sweet soy to the soy seasoning (not common in other Hainan Chicken dishes I have eaten). The ginger and garlic sauce was tasty and the chill sauce very garlicky but no heat which was disappointing. The soup was also lukewarm, but we left it at that. I overheard the guy at the next table asking the waiter to warm up his soup.

We also shared a Combination Hor Fun, a reasonable serve for the price. Whilst we enjoyed the dish, it lacked the 'wok hei' that adds flavour to the koay teow. The rice noodles could have been caramelised a little bit more. The dish was served without any green chillies, so we asked for it but was told they didn't have any, we then asked for red chillies. And what do you know, the waiter brings a small side of green chillies. See what I mean about inexperienced wait staff.

The Lobak was crispy but the pork filling lacked taste, probably not enough seasoning. The accompanying sauce was also not the usual sweetish sauce (served in Malaysia). I think it was served with the same garlic/ginger and chilli sauce as the chicken rice.

The icy cold Grass Jelly drink was refreshing on a hot summer's day in Sydney.

Overall, the food was average to me. I think the tastes of all the food will be enhanced with an additional pinch of salt. It seemed to lack that 'ooomph'.

The strategic location of the restaurant on George St in Chinatown means it will be convenient for the Asian students studying at UTS.

Even though the dishes we ordered this time did not hit the mark,  C and I decided we would return to try the other dishes on offer since the menu is quite extensive compared to other Malaysian restaurants in Sydney.

Petaling Street
760 George St
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9281 6508