Matadoe Cafe & Restaurant

Having been to Matadoe at least a dozen times, I headed there today for lunch with 5 others fully expecting to enjoy my food as I had my heart set on the signature Matadoe spicy fried rice. Service was competent enough by a waiter who seemed to be new. We ordered 2 sets of the abovementioned dish, American Fried Rice, Wet Fried Kway Teow with beef, Lasagna and Baked Macaroni.

Lunch took more than half an hour to arrive, which was rather long but it wasn’t too big a deal as we were all enjoying our conversation with each other. The Matadoe Fried Rice was the first to arrive and was looking good! But as soon as the waiter put the plate down in front of me, I had a whiff of ‘bangas’/’basi’ rice. I thought I was mistaken and bent down closer to smell the rice – I wasn’t wrong. Wanting to give the benefit of the doubt to the chef, I gingerly ate a bit of it. There was something that wasn’t quite right. The taste of the rice was pretty much ‘off’ and the dish just wasn’t palatable at all. I’ve had this dish quite a number of times previously and have always enjoyed its tangy and spicy taste from the lime and chillies. The other person in my group who ordered the same dish was having a problem eating it as well. So we called the waiter and I explained the problem.

He brought my plate into the kitchen and upon coming out conveyed the message from the chef that the rice was freshly cooked and that the taste could have come from the combination of lime and santan. I didn’t really agree with this. If it wasn’t the rice that was at fault, then it must have been something else that was used. But the waiter very graciously offered us the option of ordering an alternative dish, so we chose the Light ‘Nudel’ Soup and the Matadoe Noodles with Curry Gravy.

In the meantime, the Wet Fried Kway Teow ordered turned out to be Wet Fried Noodles and the chef had used soya sauce in the cooking process resulting in a dark brown gravy and noodles. So off it went back into the kitchen to be replaced by Kway Teow as originally ordered and strict instructions not to use soya sauce. The American Fried Rice and Lasagna turned out fine, which was a relief. The Baked Macaroni on the other hand, although visually looked really nice and was well presented with a sprinkling of herbs and sprig of parsley, was a disappointment tastewise. There was just too much flour used for the white sauce making it way too stodgy plus it was pretty tasteless as well. More than half was left uneaten.

Fast forward to another half an hour later, our new orders arrived. The ‘Nudel’ Soup I ordered smelled great in contrast to my first dish and I started tucking in. A mixture of meehoon and Angel Hair Pasta was used, with 2 small chicken balls, a bit of green veggies and a few chunks of chopped boiled chicken breast thrown in; and some fried shallots as garnish. It would have been a lovely light dish if not for the super salty soup/broth. I was really put off by now but just couldn’t bring myself to complain again for fear of the chef storming out of the kitchen to throttle me, so I just made myself eat as much as I could of the meehoon and pasta. The Wet Fried Kway Teow was okay but the beef slices were as tough as leather – totally unchewable. The noodles with curry gravy wasn’t too bad BUT the fish cake slices were not fresh and had a strange sour taste to it.

By this time we had already been there for around 1½ hours and really couldn’t wait to leave our nightmare lunch. It really just wasn’t our day today. The bill came to $40ish dollars, which was money NOT well spent.

Verdict: Please spend as much effort on maintaining the quality of your food as on what you have already done on the restaurant. The décor is impressive and has character, which sets it apart from other local set-ups.

Disclaimer: The opinions I’ve expressed are my own based on what I experienced at your restaurant. Take any criticisms as constructive and I mean no malice. Don’t sue me.