The Slog Reviews - Veni Vidi Vici: Ole Sayang Restaurant at Melaka

The Melaka trip with my department over the weekend was definitely one of the most enjoyable trips ever. We had planned to get a driver and MPV for the 6 of us but at the last min, 2 of us couldn't make it so I offered to drive 4 of us up. My boss took at leap of faith (in me, my driving skills and the humble vios) and by 9am, filled up with good beehoon from a coffeeshop in SG, we took the first link into JB.

I'd never driven to Melaka through the first link before and relied heavily on my GPS to get us on the highway. Traffic was really heavy (no surprise given tt it is the school hols) and we reached Melaka by 12.30pm after clearing the Msia customs at 10.30pm. With my boss in the front seat, I did not dare to exceed 140-150km/hr at any time. There was quite a queue getting into Melaka after the toll area and it was 1.30pm by the time we got to the first restaurant on the list (This was meant to be an indulgent trip filled with nothing but the best hotel and great food) - Ole Sayang.

Now, Ole Sayang was ranked No 7 on TripAdvisor's list of restaurants in Melaka and I was worried about choosing this as our first stop in Melaka because it serves Nyonya food and my boss had, the night before, expressed her desire for laksa and chendol. So it was with great apprehension that I parked my car at the first available slot opposite the restaurant (which is on the left of the road). My heart pounded even faster when we drew close because the door of the restaurant was firmly shut (see pic below) and I almost freaked that the place was closed despite my research.

But thankfully, no, the doors yielded to my desperate grasp and we entered, without reservations, into the blessed airconditioned interior. The pic below shows how the restaurant looks like and the place is rather big with more tables behind the wall on the right - during our meal, about 2 tour buses worth of tourists flocked into the place. We sat at the table near the door which was too big for 4 of us but they wouldn't let us have the smaller table which they said was reserved.
They also took some time to get us the menu and impatient me got up to get the menus myself. That got one of the more senior servers, a Chinese aunty bustling over to our table to take our order quickly. :D
I don't know if the keropok (crackers) below were complimentary because I don't have a copy of the bill. However, they were placed on the table by the servers and hungry us fell upon them so the pic below shows just the few that were left before I remembered to take a picture. Now, these crackers are so light that the wind from the fan on the wall could actually blow them off the plate - and, the table behind us filled with fellow Singaporeans ordered 2 big packets of the crackers to take home!
The picture below shows all the food that 4 of us had for our first meal in Melaka at Ole Sayang - a picture perfect start to our Melaka food trail. For an instant, we thought we had gone overboard ordering because we were so hungry by the time we arrived at the restaurant (almost 2pm when the food came) but from the very last pic of this entry, we were wrong - we ate everything and it was SO GOOD. We were also very pleased that the food did not take too long (max 15mins) to arrive and that all the dishes came together instead of being served slowly one by one. The restaurant forgot to serve us rice though and I had to go ask for the basket.
Anyway, the dishes. The dish below was the first one put on the table (After the crackers). The Slog Reviews: 10/10. We had read that the sambal ikan bilis was a "must-order" and my boss with her more refined taste-buds proclaimed that this dish was good enough to eat alone with plain white rice. Because I was snapping photos, I didn't taste it till later but when I did - it was like - O.M.Goodness. Heavenly! Now, don't let anyone stop you from trying this dish if you are at the restaurant - perfectly spicy and smooth belachan paste on top of lightly crunchy ikanbilis.

My 2 other colleagues wanted an egg dish and I'm not sure what they ordered - I only took the pic. And worse, I can't even comment on this dish because I didn't have a chance to try it at all. I should have, on retrospect, it wasn't like they devoured it at one go but the egg disappeared so fast and I was busy swooning over the other dishes. Therefore, I suppose the egg must be excellent too.

My boss wanted some beef so we had black pepper beef. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. This dish was rather oily and the meat was tough and far from tender. However, the reason for the high score is that the spice which the beef is cooked in, something light yet distinctive and unfortunately, not available in Singapore to the best of my knowledge.

We also got the ayam rendang which was a recommended dish by some bloggers. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. The gravy had us all drooling and swooning! While the meat was nothing very remarkable, the gravy of which there was plenty, was mouth-wateringly delicious. It wasn't spicy enough to prevent those who aren't into spicy food from eating it - I think it was because of the amoutn of coconut/coconut milk that went into this dish. Order if not for anything, the gravy - now I could eat that alone with plain rice for a meal! :D

And the Udang Masak Nenas - this was a recommended dish and my boss was hesitant about ordering this dish because we already had 2 meat dishes but after she had taken a spoonful of the gravy, she was nodding away in gastronomical pleasure. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Must Order! Again, the prawns are not extremely big or sweet or very very fresh...or even cooked very well but the gravy, it was absolutely heavenly. Rich, absolutely rich enough to render send my tastebuds straight to heaven.

I'm not sure why we ordered this dish - I think my boss mentioned she wanted something instead of sambal kangkong and chap chye is a nyonya dish. Probably the server had recommended the same. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Very good chap chye with the veg cooked to soft perfection. Gravy wasn't too sweet or salty. However, not a must-order but beats the usual sambal kangkong dishes which are a dime a dozen.

To my surprise, we had sambal kangkong served to us too. Which made me wonder if I had heard wrongly and my boss wanted sambal kangkong. The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. Lots of stems, not too spicy or oily, definitely a different style of cooking this dish as compared to other restaurants in JB that I've been to. Ate every last bit of the dish.

And who says 4 of us couldn't finish everything - the pic below says it all - all the empty dishes (notice how the gravy has been scrapped up too) are testimony to the wonderful start of our food trip. I didn't take the photos of the chendol dessert my boss and another colleague ordered but my boss proclaimed the chendol smashing too, even better than the chendol at Jonker88 so maybe that might be worth a try too.