For our Melaka 2012 trip, I organized the accommodation and itinerary while Ling handled the transportation and makan places. Like our experience in Japan, we found both good and bad eating (or just plain sloppy) eating places in Melaka, and these are supposedly decent dining places in countries where cuisine is otherwise deemed as a highlight for any visitor to the country.
Aside from our daily breakfasts at The Majestic which came as part of our stay package, we dined for the most part like the locals did; literally street side stalls with cars wheezing past less than a meter away, food courts, and coffee shops. Ling had done quite a bit of homework and Googling about finding out the good eating places and fitting them into our general itinerary and areas to visit each day.
Lu Yeh Yen
This was a Chinese restaurant just 5 minutes walk from The Majestic, with opening hours between 1800 to 0200 hrs. The restaurant is pretty easy to find as it’s located beside a small Chinese temple; in fact it seemed that you could dine on the temple grounds itself too. We went by the restaurant on the first evening, and though it was just us and a couple of other patrons (interestingly all Caucasian), our food took a while to arrive – nearly 30 minutes. We had the sweet/sour pork ribs, salted vegetable soup with toufu, fried rice, and mixed vegetables. The bill totaled MY$34 (S$13.50). Each dish – we asked for smallest portions – was between MY$6 to MY$9.
There was sufficient food to go round for all of us, and taste-wise was alright and about equivalent to the neighborhood zi-cha eateries back at home. Not much care was given to each dish’s presentation though, The wait staff were responsive and helpful though not what I’d call warm or friendly.
Nadeje Cake House
This came by way of Doreen’s recommendation; that its Mille Crepes was something we absolutely had to try for tummy pleasure. This little eatery is tucked away at one of a series of parallel side roads about 7 minutes walk from Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. We found the café without much difficulty, thanks in good part to iPad maps and also the café’s striking black-colored exterior facade.
We initially thought that we’d just stop for cakes, supposing that this place wasn’t going to offer anything else. When we saw that the place also had an menu comprising western main courses, we decided to have lunch here too. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The café wasn’t crowded during the near lunch hour we visited. Wait service was attentive and took the initiative to get appropriate cutlery for our young daughter.
Cake slices were around MY$9, with main courses MY$10 onwards. We tried the Tiramisu and Original Mille Crepe, both of which were suitably creamy and marvelous. Beverages were a pretty exotic Pineapple Yakult mix and Ice Chocolate Latte, both which were ordinary. The main courses though were disappointing: we found the cream Carbonara and Mushroom Cream Soup plain and diluted respectively. Bill was MY$51.50 ($20.50) The little cup containing the sweetener for the Latte had a prominent ant swimming at the top, which the wait staff replaced apologetically after I pointed it out. Interestingly, the Tripadvisor reviews for this place is mixed, with some noting problematic wait service standards. We didn’t face any such difficulty, though that might had been also because the hour we went was off-peak.
On the overall, recommended for the yummy cakes but not for the rest of the menu.
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