PENANG CUISINE - EPPING, SYDNEY

Penang Cuisine
32/74-76 Rawson St
Epping, Sydney

On a cold night when you just want to stay at home, chill out (but not chill) and relax, you can do a lot worse than having a nice meal of take away Malaysian.

We decided to do just that and finally try the popular Penang Cuisine in Epping.

It's a small place that has gained a reputation for good food at good prices - so if it lived up to its reputation it would certainly ticked some important boxes for us straight away.

The menu is Malaysian but they also have some Cantonese dishes as well.

So what to start with?

Easy - we grabbed a serving of curry puffs - perfect for the cold night.

They were made from braised onions, meat and potatoes belnded with curry and all encases in a crisp pastry.

We also had some old favourites - satay chicken skewers and lohbak (or Malaysian sausage rolls as we call them).


These were both great with the skewers being really tender with a great satay sauce and the lobak having great flavours.

Finally, our fourth starter (yes we were being a bit piggy) was the spicy fried chicken wings. We loved these. The skin was beautifully crisp, the flavours great and the chicken underneath nice and tender. It was a good serving too - and they all disappeared very fast!

Then it was time for main courses. We chose a lovely prawn curry that had a heap of prawns and potato all swimming in a great creamy coconut curry. We loved it.

A serve of mee goreng was aother nice addition. This traditional favourite consisted of stir fried yellow noodlesmixed with seafood, chicken, beancurd, egg and vegetables all in a tangy sauce. It's a combination dish that makes a great side or whole meal.

We decided to add a dish that certainly wasn't traditional Malaysian - honey chicken.

This turned out to be popular too as it was a big serving and the meat was extremely tender.

Curries need rice and we decided on a serving of nasi goreng - a traditional Malaysian fried rice that had prawns, chicken, ham, egg and sambal. It's a great combination fried rice that goes well with everything.

 Finally we had something a bit meatier - some beef rendang. We almost always choose this dish - it's a favourite and a great way to compare restaurant styles. The meat chunks in this were extremely tender and the curry was rich and full of flavour. We'd certainly order this again from here!

We also had plenty of roti - but then again we always do!

The verdict - Penang Cuisine lived up to it's reputation for good food in good sized servings and at very decent prices. It's hard to fault a place that has all this.

Sir and Mlady's visit to Penang Cuisine was supported by the Malaysian Kitchen Programme.

PABLO & RUSTY'S ESPRESSO BAR - EPPING, SYDNEY

Pablo & Rusty's Espresso Bar
42 Langston Place
Epping, Sydney

Pablo and Rusty's are a group of shops scattered across Sydney. They have expanded their empire quite a bit over the years so a visit to see what the fuss was all about was long overdue.

Its an interesting place that clearly focuses heavily on their coffee.  They have several large share tables inside with a few smaller tables along the wall and in the room at the back. You order at the counter for both eat in and take away. There's a menu on a board beside the counter with a range of food options - plenty of eggs, ham, avocado, tomato and sour dough things.

Service is fast and friendly.

A bacon and egg roll is an old favourite. I hadn't had one for quite a while (Mlady please note that!) so it was almost a craving that needed satisfying. You know what its like! It was described on the menu as bacon and free range egg roll with Pablo and Rusty's tomato relish. What arrived was certainly really nice. The roll was slightly crisp on the outside and the bacon and egg combo was tasty. The relish was different to tomato sauce - as expected - being slightly sweeter but very tasty too. At $7.50 for either eat in or take away it's not overpriced either.

The coffee here is really good. It was better than I expected even though the group has been growing well. My coffee had very full flavours and aroma - possibly a bit intense if you like your coffee weak but lovely if you like it medium to strong. It certainly hit the spot and I enjoyed it a lot. A regular cup costs $3.50 which is well priced too.

Pablo and Rusty's is a good place to grab some interesting food and a good coffee.

RANG MAHAL INDIAN RESTAURANT - EPPING/SYDNEY

Rang Mahal Indian Restaurant
Shop 39/78-81 Beecroft Rd
Epping NSW 2121
Phone: 02 9869 8026
http://www.rangmahal.net/

This is a very pleasant little restaurant in the heart of Epping. The decor is sophisticated and the food is very tasty. If your in the area give it a go - you wont be disappointed.





We started with papadams which came promptly accompanied by extremely nice minted yoghurt - we devoured the lot! and secretly wished for more of the minted yoghurt.

We then moved on to a mixed entree for two people - shown on the menu as a Rang Mahal Platter. This was basically a meal in itself containing two each of chicken tikka, reshami kebab, vegetable pakora and samosa. The chicken was so tender and juicy it melted in the mouth. The reshami kebabs were tangy and had a kick to it. The pakoras and the samosas were tasty too, but the highlight was the chicken tikka - amazing.



The first main course was Prawn Nariyal Malabari - described in the menu as coconut prawn curry tempered with curry leaves. Its a mild dish which was all we were looking for this night. There were plenty of plump juicy prawns in it (around 7 or 8 I think) and they were cooked perfectly. The sauce was delicious too - we finished the lot (and it was a struggle cause we were so full).

Main number two was Peanut Beef descibed on the menu as beef curry with peanut sauce. We have to confess to not having tried this before but it was great. It was a bit like an Indian version of massaman beef - as the meat was in decent chunks and just dissolved when eaten. The peanut curry was thick and tasty and there was plenty of it.

Both the curries were served in dishes over a stand with a warming tealight. This looked great and worked well.

A double serve of plain rice followed.

And of course the required naan breads - two of them each cut into four pieces.

Rang Mahal was surprisingly good. We loved our meal and will be back again.