Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam

Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam

293-295 Racecourse Road,

Kensington/Flemington

ph: 9376 0228

I used to live a mere stones throw from Racecourse Road and have been eating there regularly for the last 10 years.   It's the kind of place that is always changing and yet always the same.
 Places like Vy Vy, Chop Chop and Laksa King seem to have been around forever and they will always provide you with some great, reasonably priced food.

In the last year, however, it seems like the Malaysian food places are starting to dominate in Flemington.  That's fine with me.  Malaysian food is probably my favourite cuisine.  Oh who am I kidding.... it totally is!  Love it. Can't get enough!  But here is my disclaimer - I'm an Australian-Italian, I don't really know much about the intricacies of Malaysian food... and there seems to be a lot.... So I just know that I LOVE the flavours and that given the chance, I would choose it over any other cuisine.  So if you are an expert, please excuse my lack of knowledge and please feel free to fill me in :)

  So with the new re-vamped Laksa King opening up on Pin Oak Cres, and then Chef Lagenda opening up next to Laksa King,  I was kinda surprised to find that yet another Malaysian place was opening up less than a block away.


One of my dear friends was flying into Melbourne on Monday night and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out this new Malaysian restaurant.

Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam opened up in a space that was formerly Fringe Bar.  Fringe was a weird little bar that existed for way longer than it should have.  It was also a place that, back in the olden days before kids, we went to a few times to take advantage of their very cheap parma and beer nights.

In preparing for our meal at Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam, I found a few reviews on some other food blogs and I have to say that their reviews made the food and drinks look so good that we were both excited to get to dinner.

The  place seemed bigger than I remember Fringe ever being.  It has a very open, happy and inviting look about the place.  The exposed steel beams, the bright red walls and original wooden floors make it look neat and contemporary while still feeling like a place you could bring the whole family and not feel like it was going to upset anyone. The staff were attentive and friendly we were seated at a table near the central bar and looking out into the street. 

As my friend and I had decided we were going to starve ourselves all day and then order big, we were both super keen to get ordering and eating.

Our first decision was what drink to order.   They have a massive drinks menu and we were keen to try the milky teas, the milo drinks and the Ribena Lychee drink.

We both decided we would start with a Milo drink.

I had the Milo Godzilla (a cold Milo drink with ice-cream and stacks of Milo) and my friend had the Milo Dinosaur (cold milo with a metric shitload of Milo in it).
All their drinks are served in jars.  They are big and chunky and somehow drinking out of a jar just makes it all taste even better.  I so want giant jars to drink out of at home now! 

GODZILLLLLLAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

 Once we had ordered our drinks, we got busy with the food menu.

The menu is set out quite cleverly.  You have the 'small eat' section with the entree style dishes, then the main dishes are available as either 'individual' sized dishes (usually with rice included) or you have larger portions for 'sharing' without rice.


From the 'small eat' section of the menu we ordered the Char Grilled Satay (in both the chicken and lamb), Chicken Lobak, Roti Beef Rendang and Achar (a side dish of mixed, spiced, pickled veges).

Now for anyone that knows me, you will know about my deep LOVE LOVE LOVE of satay and more specifically the peanut sauce.  Satay sauce is always different everywhere you go... sometimes it's awesome, sometimes it sucks and when it's good, I can eat it by the bucket!
When it came out it looked like the kind that I don't like.  It looked too smooth and too much like the stuff you find in a bottle at the supermarket.  But it wasn't too bad. It was definitely a smoother style peanut sauce, but the flavour was good.  Not the best I've had, but certainly not the worst.  A big win was that the dish also came with some decent red onion and cucumber. Honestly, I think the onion and cucumber is as important as the actual meat, so when you find fresh happy, vege and not sad,  stodgey crud that is always a good thing.  I'd be happy with just the onion and cucumber with the satay sauce.

Chicken and Lamb Satay

The Chicken Lobak was also really tasty.  Considering it is  a deep fried dish, it was not oily at all.

Chicken Lobak

 The Achar was really good.  The vege were spicy, refreshing and crispy.  There was also a good mix of vege. 

Achar

 The Roti was tasty.... but when it came out I thought it looked kinda pov.  I was expecting at least a few pieces of roti or at least one really big piece and not just one piece that looked like it was a slightly failed attempt.  But presentation aside, it did taste good.  The Rendang was also tasty.  The beef was super tender and though I am used to having the kind of rendang that is a bit more saucy/wet, this drier style was really good and we certainly didn't leave any behind. 

Roti with Beef Rendang

Sotong Sumbat - squid stuffed with spices

For mains, we had big eyes and tried quite a few things.  A mixed Vege Char Kway Teow, Hainanese Chicken with rice,  Salt and Pepper Chicken Spare Ribs with coconut rice, Salt & Pepper whole prawns and Squid stuffed with spices.

 The squid stuffed with spices was...umm.... interesting.  I think I was expecting something quite different and that's why this dish kinda threw me a bit.
Having said that, if I didn't have pre-conceptions, I probably would have enjoyed the dish more.

I'm not exactly sure what the squid was stuffed with, but it tasted like a spiced lentil/dahl kinda of thing.  It was actually really tasty.
The squid was tender and well cooked too.

Salt & Pepper Whole Prawns

The Salt & Pepper prawns was probably the dish I enjoyed least and probably wouldn't bother with again.  It tasted fine.  I mean it was the same flavours as the salt and pepper chicken ribs, but I just couldn't be bothered with the whole prawn shell thing.   I know you're just supposed to eat it, but it just wasn't 'soft shell' enough for my taste.  Also, the poo line was still the prawns and that just turned me off.  If you ever feel like prawns in the shell,  go to Blue Sky cafe in Chinatown and have their Hong Kong style prawns instead.

Char Kway Teow - mixed vege (one of my favourite dishes)

The Char Kway Teow was my favourite dish.  I have a thing for green beans at the moment and this dish had lots of really fresh, crispy green beans in it and as far as non meat CKT's go, this was a really good one.   We were kinda full after ordering so many dishes, so I took the bulk of the dish home and had it for breakfast the next day.  Even a day old and cold from the fridge it was still really delicious.

Salt & Pepper Chicken Spare Ribs with Coconut Rice

The Chicken Spare Ribs were pretty good.  Nice flavour mix in the batter and the fried garlic/onion/chilli it was served on were good too.  The spare ribs were also well sized.
We eat at laksa King pretty much very week and we always get their Chicken Rib Rice, so  I couldn't help but compare the two.  Though the Chicken ribs at Chillipadi etc were good, I think I prefer the Laksa King ribs.


The Hainanese Chicken was REALLY good!!  I thought it was some of the best I've ever had.  Tender, well cooked and just super delish.

Hainanese Chicken with Rice

Three layer tea - palm sugar, condensed milk and milky tea!  FTW!

 When we first ordered drinks, we probably should have started with something less filling than those giant Milo drinks.
We should have started with the drinks we finished with.

I just couldn't leave without trying the Ribena Lychee drink and my dinner mate had the 3 layered tea (Teh C Peng).

The 3 layered tea was actually really amazing.  I've never tried it before, and I think i will have to get my own next time.
The three layers consist of palm sugar on the bottom, then condensed milk and then the tea layer on top.

My advice is to save the Milo drinks for dessert and start with a tea or a fruity drink.  The Milo was awesome, way too filling to have at the start of the meal.

Ribena Lychee drink

 The Ribena Lychee drink was Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo   good!!!!

I do like Ribena anyway, but the addition of lychees is GENIUS!

It's possible that I'm now going to have to buy some of those way cool Fowlers  jam jars so I can make my own Ribena lychee drink on a regular basis.

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I so loved this Ribena Lychee drink that I went and bought some Ribena and lychees on the way home :)

I really enjoyed our meal at Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam.  I will definitley be going again and would happily recommend it.

I still really want to try their Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Nasi Goreng and some of the Roti with sweet toppings so I don't think it will be long before I venture back.