I ate at Malay Satay for the first time maybe, oh, five years ago. My pal B. and I were on this adventure eating kick and maybe once a month we’d go eat in an ethnic dive restaurant. Malay Satay totally blew us away. Then, when I worked at the start-up, one of the devs — a guy who was originally from Singapore — suggested we all go to lunch there one day and again, we were amazed by the food. I took my brother and Chinese sister-in-law there once and they couldn’t stop feasting.
Malay Satay been so successful that they went on to open another restaurant on the East side, though the Seattle Malay Satay closed down for a bit, I can’t remember exactly when. I guess they decided they needed to spruce it up a bit because after all, it was kind of a greasy dive. Okay, it was pretty bad in there. But whatever.
Malay Satay is all cleaned up and the food is as excellent as it’s always been. I’m trying to remember what we ordered, but I can never get past the Mango (Tofu) (Shrimp) (Chicken). See, they take a mango, cut it in half. They marinate both the mango and the filling of your choice in sweet chili sauce, stir fry the lot, and serve it up to you in the shell of the mango. This stuff makes me crazy. Crazy, I tellya.
There are a number of noodle dishes on the menu too. Most noodle dishes contain a little bit of everything — one had potato in it, which was delightful and surprising. The sauces are thick and a little like BBQ sauce. The food isn’t particularly spicy, but often comes with a side dish of chili dipping sauce in case you want extra fire. The Buddhist Delight was the only thing that was less than outstanding — a vegetable stir fry with glass noodles– but in spite of its shortcomings, the veggies were fresh and cooked just right and there were big slices of fresh ginger mixed in.
There’s no point in wasting any more words about Malay Satay except to say this: Go. Go early, because there’s going to be a line. Oh, and there’s this: 18 dollars a head, plus beer, for more than we could eat.
Malay Satay is at 212 12th Ave South – that’s at 12th and Jackson. Now go.