Melbourne Eats: Lim's Nyonya Hut, Glen Waverly

Disclaimer: Opinions are based on the dishes we had and does not reflect our view on its entire menu.

Lim's Nyonya Hut

240 Blackburn Road

Glen Waverly

VIC 3150

Websites: Facebook | Urbanspoon

It was one of those exhausted weekend nights where we craved for something Malaysian. A quick browse through Google for the nearest best char kuey teow, and upon checking its reviews on Urbanspoon, we made our way there.

Our first visit was at 8pm on a Sunday night (27th October 2013). We ordered their popular dishes, the char kuey teow and assam laksa.

Char Kuey Teow (AUD$9.80 or AUD$10.80, I don't remember).

It looked authentic enough, with evidence of some 'wok hei' (essence of high heat  cooking from the wok). There were three prawns and slivers of Chinese sausage in this dish.

It was decent enough for us to give it a 7.5/10. :)

The Assam Laksa (AUD$9.80 or AUD$10.80, I don't remember) is a Penang's local dish, a sour fish-based soup with thick rice noodles. The sour taste was there, and there was plenty of fish meat, although the broth was a wee bit on the sweet side.

Halfway through the dish, I was tired of the taste. Luckily I was sharing half of it with the hubby. I personally think the serving was too huge for one person and would be best shared.

Coffee pudding (AUD$4.50).

We shared a dessert, which was delightful. A bit like caramel pudding, but with a hint of sweet coffee. It also seemed like a local favourite among the patrons as we saw some of them ordering the same thing.

Sold at AUD$1.00 for 3 pieces.

The lady who served us that night offered us a free plate of onde-onde, a traditional Malay kuih. It is shredded gula melaka (palm sugar) wrapped with glutinous rice flour, coated with dessicated coconut.

It was lovely!

The burst of sweetness in the mouth was like a tiny piece of heaven.

On 21st December 2013 (Saturday), we popped by for dinner again. I had cravings for char kuey teow, you see. We were going to go some place else but decided to return here for another try.

It was bad.

The dish had clearly been pre-cooked before and cooked again before serving to us. It was served to us within 10 minutes of our arrival and order placed. Pretty efficient, you'd think.

The noodles tasted a bit flour-y in texture, perhaps a bit undercooked before it was fried in the wok. The 'wok hei' was there, no doubt about it, but the taste of the noodles was not very pleasant. It was more spicy than the one we had previously, which I'm not sure was to hide the pre-cooked taste.

Char Kuey Teow is a dish that has to be carefully fried/cooked on the spot before it is served. If you've been to famous stalls in Penang, you'll understand this. The wait for your small plate of char kuey teow can take up to an hour!

One of Lim's Nyonya Hut's weekend special is the Hainanese Chicken Rice. The hubby had no idea what to order so he reluctantly order this dish.

We are not snobs, please understand this, but once the food was served before us, we knew it was not going to be great.

The rice lacked aroma of being cooked in sufficient chicken stock. It tasted like plain white rice with a faint hint of chicken stock. Really faint. The chicken was, for lack of better words, meh. There is nothing Hainanese not aromatic about this dish. The accompanying bowl of soup didn't help, either.

I tried cooking this dish once, a few weeks ago and it was a LOT of work to get everything right. The rice has to be flavourful of ginger and chicken stock. The chicken has to be cooked just right.

The hubby ordered a cup of hot teh tarik (AUD$2.50) and he said it was OK. Not fantastic, but just OK. It was sweet (not overly sweet) but the tea should have been a bit stronger. Hubby says it was not tarik enough, hence a 6/10.

Lim's Nyonya Hut is popular for its nyonya kuih, based on its rave reviews from regular customers. So, despite being utterly disappointed by our meal and we won't be returning in the future, we decided to give their kuih a chance.

Clockwise from top left:
ang ku bean, seri muka, indo lapis and onde-onde.
(AUD$1.00 each.)

Except for the onde-onde which was still yummy as we first tasted it, everything was not great. The ang ku with mung bean filling was bland, not sweet enough. I love ang ku, so you can imagine my disappointment. The glutinous rice section of the seri muka was dry and not moist enough. I'm not sure if it was due to being kept in the fridge for too long or it was not cooked well.

The indonesian lapis (not the layer cake), was alright but not great. I can't say for sure, because it's the first time I had this. The brown layers were chocolate flavoured.

I really wanted to be wowed by the kuih so I could buy them to share with friends but I have to say only the onde-onde (and coffee pudding) deserves a recommendation.