Pappa Rich Sydney

Once upon a time, I introduced some good Malaysian eats in Sydney to you guys. It feels like a super long time ago that I have no idea what I covered the last time I discussed the topic. If I'm not mistaken, I was speaking volume of George Street's Petaling Street, which is a cheaper version in comparison to Mamak and the other one that I would like to share with you guys today.

While people would line up for a table at Mamak, depending on what time of the day you go to Pappa Rich for your meal, chances are you may be lining up to. In saying this, I was once at Pappa Rich in Broadway just around noon. There was a line at the front since it was lunch time, but that was fair enough. I felt that the tea here does a better job in dealing with waiting customers that Mamak. There was a guy that went along the line taking the number of people for the table and communicating with the team inside to find a table.

After a short wait, we were all seated. The restaurant is not huge but it's certainly a lot more spacious than both Petaling Street and Mamak in Chinatown. At the table, you'll be given the menu as well as a little docket. The docket as you could see below is for you to make orders. That way, you can take your time to look through the menu items and make decisions at your own pace. Once you've decided what you'd like to try for your Malaysian adventure, you can then write down the item number with the desired quantity, as well as any remarks, for example, if you have any allergies, or if you can't eat too spicy, or anything it may be. With this, you can just hand the docket to the team member without any complications or waste of time.

Speaking of ordering, let's see what options Pappa Rich offers to us foodies. The menu can be categorised into a few main categories:

- Roti : For those not familiar with Malaysian or Thai cuisines, rotis can be described as a cousin of India's naan bread. The difference between the two is that roti is more thin and more crispy when fried, but again this depends on the variation of the roti, as in what you will be having your roti with. If you are to have a roti with a curry, then the texture would be different to the roti that you would have as a dessert with ice cream. Anyhow, they have a strong menu just for their home made rotis, with curries, sambal, sauces as well as for sweeter dishes.

- Noodles : How can an Asian restaurant not have noodles? Some of the noodle dishes offered here at Pappa Rich are laksa noodle soups, fried noodles, as well as an ultimate classic of char koay teow. Since you're here for the delicious Malaysian food, I would probably stay away from noodles simply because they really fill you up, and you won't be able to enjoy what these Malaysian places are famous for, also known as, the reason people actually line up at the front!

- Rice : My personal preference over noodles dishes for this specific type of cuisine. My absolute favourite out of all Malaysian food is the well-known nasi lemak which is aromatic, coconut-infused rice, served with either your choice of curry or a fried chicken. On the side, you will get roasted peanuts, sambal sauce, little fried fish (I forgot the actual name) and a few slices of cucumber. While you need to make a call for either curry or fried chicken, I just get both. Oh, and you also get half a boiled egg too! So these three are the main areas of food you could expect and should try here at Pappa Rich. Otherwise, they will also have other items on the menu such as vegetarian dishes, chicken chop with rice, as well as satays and desserts.

Without further delay, let's talk about we got for the meal. It is no surprise that I got the classic nasi lemak with chicken curry. Nasi lemak is one of the most complete one-dish-wonder out there since it has everything from rice, to crispy little fried fish, to a spicy sambal sauce, to crispy and fun-to-eat peanuts, to of course the rich and absolutely delicious chicken curry. Although the rice really just looks like another bowl of rice, it is actually far more than you would expect. As I mentioned, the rice has a beautiful perfume from coconut, which is also evident in the taste. There is just nothing else like it and it just makes for the most perfect rice to be consumed with the mild curry. The boiled egg is just kind of there to cut in between the curry and the rice and other ingredients, hence only half is given, although I wouldn't mind having the other half as well. The sambal sauce could be dangerous; it is hot and is only to be used with care! Try a little bit first to gain some confidence before you play around with it! The curry was rich and delicious, just not other way to compliment it. And just at the top of the photo, we also ordered some fried chicken to go with our nasi lemak. I told you that it's tough to pick either the curry or the chicken, so why not get both! It was obviously a bit more expensive, but in this situation, you either go hard or go home.

The fried chicken, which was unfortunately not photoed, was also very good. It was very crispy as it should be, and the inside was nice and moist. I have no idea what they use to marinate or season the chicken, but this is definitely something that I would like to know! The chicken on its own is a joy to eat, and would accompany other rice dishes if you're not getting nasi lemak. The best part is probably that the chicken is fried to order, so you won't be receiving chicken that was fried an hour ago.

For dessert, well, we didn't really need a dessert after such a complete meal. But if you're keen for something sweet to wrap up your Malaysian experience, either get a roti dish or a sweet drink. Since Malaysian has a strong influence from China, you will find a few items on the dessert menu that are similar to what you could find in Chinese places. In addition, some of the drinks like iced milo or a simple teh tarik are more than sufficient as dessert or the last sweet kick.

After your meal, I would suggest that you take a walk in one of two directions. If you would like to cover a bit more distances, you could take a lot towards Newtown, which is just pass the park somewhat opposite the restaurant, in the same direction as University of Sydney's campuses. Newtown is a fantastic neighbourhood with many cafes, restaurants and great places to see. You will clearly see the differences between Newtown and the center of Sydney, although the two are just 10 minutes away via bus. If you'd like to discover more things to do or places to eat here in Newtown, I would suggest checking out Brewton Newtown, Mary's and Black Star Pastry. For more information on these, check out the links just down below, or visit my previous on these three places, in which were also a long time ago. Just in a nutshell, you will be literally have a hard time choosing a place to eat in this area, since there are so many choices and all for a really good value.

Otherwise, make your way back towards the city just in the direction that you came from. You will see opposite the University of Technology Sydney a really, super, cool building that looks like something from the 22nd century. This building is the a residential complex, but has many shops and restaurants on its lower levels. There are also many things to Central Park from shopping to eating, with shops and eateries such as Adidas, Foot Locker, Glue Store, Hype, SuperDry, Anita Gelato and Ice Cream, Chat Time, Din Tai Fung, Ippudo, Guzman y Gomez, Sumo Salad and Max Brenner Chocolate. This is a place where a lot of the students from UTS just across the road would hang out, so it's guaranteed to have a lot of things. In other news, university students like us work and study very hard, so it's important that we have these delicious, good for value eateries just opposite our campus (not that I went to University of Technology Sydney).

Just one last note before we wrap up this post is, there is a difference between Pappa Rich as we're just seen, and Pappa Roti. The latter name is super similar so don't get the two mixed up as they offer two completely different things. Pappa Roti is like a pastry shop that makes bread and other sorts of cakes and stuff. I've never been in there but I used to walk pass it every single day from work and school. If you're interested in finding out about what they have exactly, I've linked their Facebook page just at the bottom as well.

Even if you're not in the Sydney area, you'll be happy to hear that Pappa Rich has its locations elsewhere in Australia as well! For more information as to where the closest Pappa Rich restaurant near you is, check out their website just down below. Keep yourself posted on their site to see where the next Pappa Rich will open because it could just minutes from you.

PappaRich Broadway - Ratings

Shop 5, 185 Broadway, Ultimo,
2007 NSW
+61 (02) 9281 3228

Accessibility - 7/10

Price - 8/10

Selection - 9/10

Staff Friendliness - 8.5/10

Cleanliness - 9/10

Overall - 8.5/10

Pappa Rich :

http://www.papparich.net.au/main-menu/

Brewtown Newtown :

http://www.brewtownnewtown.com/

Black Star Pastry :

http://blackstarpastry.com.au/

Central Park Sydney :

http://www.centralparksydney.com/

Pappa Roti :

https://www.facebook.com/PappaRotiAus

If you like the content of this post, or just want to check out some pictures that I take on my adventure, feel free to like and/or follow me on instagram at oat93, cheers!