Kafe Bawang Merah, Subang

(Halal)

Having to go for an evening meeting at Sheraton Subang one day, Glorious Jade and I decided to go a bit earlier to beat the traffic jam. With an extra two hours to spare we decided to look for a place nearby for tea and headed to Kafe Bawang Merah (Red Onion Cafe) as we had heard of them serving up some tasty Indo/Malay cuisine.

Entering the place, it was already pretty filled up (saw a number of familiar faces; all with the same idea of having tea here before the meeting!) and it's quite a small setup. It's a dimly lit cosy albeit a busy place. Kafe Bawang Merah doesn't have any ala carte dishes but actually serves food ala canteen style. It's self-service, queue and point at the pre-cooked dishes on display.

I forgot what Laksa this was that Glorious Jade ordered but I had a taste of the gravy and it was lovely. It came served with boiled egg and beef slices. The beef slices seemed a bit overcooked to me. Mmm....anyone knows what sort of Laksa this is??? Well, forget about proper food presentation here but it's the taste that matters here. Fuss free and tasty food at reasonable prices is what this place is all about and the crowd here is the testimony to that.

I had my Meehoon Mee Soto Ayam, a usual Malay favourite dish of mine. Beansprouts, little begedil (fried potato cutlets) and shredded chicken meat added delight to it. The soup was very flavourful and eaten with the wonderful dark sauce with minced chilli padi (bird's eye chilli), it was one tasty bowl of noodles I truly enjoyed tucking into.

The dark sauce minced chilli mix that provided the "icing to the cake"!


I know this looks really oily but to be fair...this was actually the last bit left at the counter and since I love beef, I decided to take a chance and took the last order off them which was displayed in this plate itself (since there's so little left of it, it must be good, right?). I think this dish was Daging Masak Kunyit - beef that was cooked with onions and turmeric powder. Well, my verdict of this? It was really good stuff! The meat was tender and was marinated so well that the flavour was sealed in throughout each chunk of meat. Now, I only have to make sure that I drop by this place earlier if I don't want the pick up the last plate of meat that's soaking in oil!

Just when we thought we were done with our meal, something caught my eye. During tea time, Kafe Bawang Merah also serves an assortment of kuih. We wanted something savoury and ended up getting some of these...

These Yam Cake were topped with generous bits of fried shallots, spring onions, cut chillies and minced dried prawns. They were so tasty, we actually ate them without adding any sauce at all.

Nowadays, I look forward to meetings held in Sheraton Subang as it gives me a chance to drop by Kafe Bawang Merah again for their no frills self-service food. However, when the crowd builds up, things can get a bit chaotic at the counter as the line gets "lost in transaction" and instead of "first come, first served", it becomes "whoever come, first served". However, one is well rewarded for their patience once you take a bite of their food :o).

Check out Epicurious Girl's love for this place HERE.


Kafe Bawang Merah
12A Jalan SS12/1B (opposite Sheraton Subang)
47500 Subang Jaya
Opens Daily (except Sundays) 9am-10pm
Tel : 03-5621 6100

Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead.
~Mac McCleary