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Remember the days when your mum used to give you a few dollars for your school lunch and you’d easily buy a meat pie, flavoured milk and 2 cents worth of lollies? Maybe even an iced doughnut? Happy days. That was the 70′s for you. These days a few dollars will get you a sushi roll, a kiddies Mc Crap Meal or half a sandwich.
Once a week, of late, it seems I’ve been spending my lunch money (about $10 these days) at a local underground noshery beneath our graceful Queen Victoria Building. The cafeteria-like dining room is tucked away near the northern elevators where you can feel and hear the rumble of the subway trains rattling past as you slurp on a steaming bowl of laksa noodles.
The food choices are simple. The laksa options are displayed on a menu above the open-plan kitchen or if you prefer not to wait you can choose from the glass cabinet that houses a decent variety of pre-cooked dishes from rendang to sambal squid. It’s easy - 1 choice with rice $7.5, or 2 choices with rice $8.5. Grab a beer or wine if you desire, yes they’re licenced, take a seat and you’re happy.
All your favourite laksa varieties are available here – vegetarian, chicken, seafood, prawn – and they’re really quite delicious. Creamy, generously-sized, packed with noodles and perfect level of spice.
The curry chicken is very good here as well. Tender pieces of boneless chicken in a rich (occasionally overly-salted) sauce with a healthy layer of oil. Perfect with one of the roti’s to sop up the spicy juices.
The sambal eggplant is another one of my favourites and a nice accompaniment to the smoky and creamy rendang chicken.
One of my all-time favourite Malaysian dishes is the good old nasi lemak. Traditionally eaten for breakfast, it’s a single portion of rice with a dollop of curry sauce, spicy ikan bilis (dried anchovy sambal), boiled egg, roasted peanuts and cucumber all wrapped in banana leaf. Here I’ve had it with one of their jumbo-sized, ordinary-tasting curry puffs.
If you’re in the neighbourhood, give it a go. Just avoid it at the weekday lunch-time peak 12-1.30pm. It gets pretty manic down there with us impatient city-workers elbowing oneanother to get a table.
Shop 17, LG2, QVB
455 George Street
Sydney 2000
9283 4777
Lunch 7 days
Tagged as:
CBD,
Laksa,
Malaysian
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Do they offer great big bibs? I have ruined many a business shirt by being over-enthusiastic with inhaling my laksa.
Have never seen bibs on offer here. Slurping needs to be reduced to slow and steady
Oohhh, nice and cheap too. I had laksa yesterday at Malay-Chinese and it was great, except the massive queues. But the QVB is obviously the same. Nice review and photos!
i think it’s easier to find a seat at Laksa House than Malay-Chinese although i prefer the laksa at Malay-Chinese. Wasn’t impressed with Laksa House Har Mee and Chicken Rice though — my fault for not ordering the laksa from a place called laksa house i guess hehe
do they do malaysian desserts?
I must give this place a try – usually, I visit Jimmy’s Recipe which is upstairs, and also very good.
Susan, not sure if they do desserts, have never seen them on offer. Will check it out next time I’m there
Thank goodness. I was having a panic attack that I was going to Sydney for the weekend and this eatery wasn’t there anymore. THEIR LAKSA ROCKS!!! It’s the first thing I’ll do when I get off the plane……nom,nom,nom….
Krishna recently posted..Are these mistakes costing you money and clients
Hi Krishna, you need to try the laksa at Malay-Chinese Takeaway. I think it just may be better. Check my review
http://heneedsfood.com/2010/02/malay-chinese-takeaway-cbd/
Cockroach in Food… don’t eat at this place! We went there last week and found a large cockroach in our dish.. not before our toddler had already had a few mouthfuls of the food.. gross! We were horrified and sent the food back.. unbelievably, the staff argued about refunding the money for our food! Also found this Food Standard infringement notice for this place, issued by City of Sydney Council in Jan 2010.. http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices/default.aspx?template=detail&itemId=7250509577