PappaRich Doncaster

PappaRich is a Malaysian restaurant chain which serves hawker food but in a nicer and presumably cleaner environment.  I've never been to any of the restaurants in Malaysia but I will assume that obtaining dishes prepared by a long-running hawker stall owner will still be much better than that prepared by a student who is in the PappaRich kitchen for their part time job.  

I had eaten at Madam Kwan's in Malaysia a few years ago and while there was nothing bad, the prices did reflect the more hygenic setting.  Not that I'm whinging!  As someone travelling on a strong currency, it was still stupidly cheap and if I just have to pay extra for air conditioning, it's win-win.  I figure PappaRich is similar to Madam Kwan's.  Anyway, the PappaRich franchise has been brought to Australia and they'd recently opened their second store in Doncaster.  Yippee!  Convenient!  I couldn't wait to try it out.  

Ok, I'm not deluded.  I set my expectations quite low.  I mean, this is a chain.  I couldn't expect the food to be fantastic.  If it was good, at least I would be pleasantly surprised.  It was dreary Anzac Day and to make the most of a day off, Kahuna, Njla, Kt, Mr. M and I all met there for lunch.

The restaurant had it's grand opening only a few days prior so I was hoping for an empty restaurant.  We even planned to arrive at 12pm for an 'early lunch' just so we could beat the lunch time crowd.  Lo and behold, the carpark was packed and a queue was out the door.  It seemed that word spread around to the Donnie Asians.  We managed to score a table after one hour.  ONE HOUR.  I don't mind waiting for food if there is a no reservations policy and if the pictures in the menu were anything to go by, we were in for a good time.

We ordered individual dishes and shared a roti served with three different curries.  Supposedly the satay there is good but they had run out.  At 1pm?  No more satay?  Really?  The roti wasn't bad.  I could eat another plate of that. 

Anyway I didn't take many photos.  Kt had the assam laksa, Mr. M a seafood laksa and Njla... I think she had a laksa too. 

Kahuna's Mi Goreng.

I think he said it good.  He didn't stand up and start cheering though.  But even if Kahuna's is really excited, one would never know it.  

I decided that the hallmark of a good Malaysian restaurant is how good their char kway teow is.  So that's what I ordered and this is what I got.  

What... the..... fark!?

I actually said to the waiter 'This is char kway teow?' to which he gave me a confirmation nod.  It looks like a pad thai.  They used the wrong rice noodle FFS and they either skimped on the dark soy sauce or just used a normal soy.  

Anyway, it tasted like a char kway teow but it was like eating a banana which tasted like strawberries.  It needs to look like char kway teow dammit!  Flavour-wise, it was ok but nothing fantastic and definitely not worth a one hour wait.  Food-court quality at best.  We were better off driving to Malaymas!  

I think this will be a place where I go if I didn't have to wait and needed a quick fix.  Also, I won't be ordering the char kway teow again until they learn how to make it!