Pappa Rich Malaysian Delights

Pappa Rich Malaysian food is a fusion between Chinese and Indian with flings to Japan and Singapore. There's been quite a bit of hype about this restaurant which has just opened in Chatswood, with mixed reviews. However every night there's a queue, so it can't be that bad...right?

Which leads me to the first thing. The queue. If there is a queue the food better be worth it. Couldn't we just wait inside? Apparently not. Oh, and by the way there's a $200 reservation fee to reserve seats. We didn't have to wait long but the coordination of the line was messy.

Being a large restaurant it was clear that they had the bums on seats mentality. In the line they give you menus and to order you write your numbers on a sheet of paper which you give to a waiter. This was quite efficient but will take a bit of getting used to. I'd rather have the personal "hi, may I take your order" service but that's just me.

The service is great, efficient and they know their stuff. The food, however, is mixed. The chicken laksa was Okay, with a strong fishy after taste, prawn mee was reasonable and the chicken rice was just...if you can't do a chicken rice well, you can't do ANYTHING well. The general consensus was average fast food with nothing special. They have a huge menu though, so maybe quantity over quality?

What you should go for are the drinks - a far cry from traditional Malay dining. They were cool and refreshing, not to mention kid friendly - a definite buy. But when in doubt, buy the roti. Rich and buttery in texture this was by far the high light of the meal.

I guess every new restaurant has teething problems, but poor execution should not be one of them. The service was lovely, atmosphere homely and they had a kids play area as well. They just seemed to skip the authenticity, the consumer and most importantly the food itself. I would not recommend going anytime soon, but when the hype dies down, in a month or two, I'll be willing to try PappaRich once more.