| A restaurant in a mall wouldn’t be my first choice for a meal out, but recently, many friends have marvelled about the Malaysian cuisine served at Tropika on Centre Street N.E. On a sunny Monday night after work, two girlfriends and I decided to venture into the popular spot to see what the fuss was about.
The best thing about Tropika is its drink list. It goes hand in hand with the Tiki-room décor of wicker, rock and bamboo. Concocting a wide range of festive alcoholic and non-alcoholic bevvies with quirky names like Suffering Bastard and Doctor Funk, we were impressed by their fruitylicious offerings. As my girlfriend enjoyed a sip from the appropriately named Tropicolada, she amusingly stated her drink was like "suntan lotion in a glass." Delicious.
The downside of Tropika was the service. When we asked our server, Kimmy, how she was doing, she responded with a listless "OK" and walked away. It took her 20 minutes to take our drink order and her attitude was not as welcoming as one would hope.
We first ordered a variety of appetizers. An interesting dish was the stir-fried radish cake ($3.95.) I didn’t care for it but my friend did, and once again she churned out a funny descriptor – "it’s kind of like gelatinous hickory sticks."
We all loved the roti canal (Malay bread, $3.50) served with a curry sauce. The crepe-like bread was sumptuous and melt-in-your-mouth soft. We were less impressed by the popular satay skewers ($1.60 each, minimum order of 6) and tahu goreng (deep fried tofu $5.95). Both dishes were served with a mild, bland peanut sauce that bored us. The Indonesian spring rolls ($2.95 each) thankfully were good – chock full of jicama, Chinese mushrooms and shredded pork. They were spicy, crunchy and tasty.
Halfway through our meal, Kimmy mysteriously wasn’t serving us anymore. The fellow who seated us took over, and thankfully the service moderately improved. For a main dish, we ordered one of the chef’s specials – stir-fried scallops, prawns, onions and pineapple served in half of a hollowed pineapple ($13.95). The dish was only OK, heavy on the onions, but low on the best part of the dish – the scallops.
Next up to bat was the Tropika home-style chicken ($11.95.) Excited to try the venue’s house dish, we hoped for the best. Tropika promised "chicken marinated in home-style spices with a sweetness not found in ordinary fried chicken." We all took a bite and thought it tasted like plain old chicken. Moving on to the sayur kari ($10.95), a dish made with cauliflower, mushroom and asparagus and touted as "a vegetarian’s delight," we casually shrugged our shoulders as if to collectively say, "It’s nothing special." Consensus at the table was strong. One highlight of the meal was the yellow ginger rice ($1.50), spiced with turmeric, coconut milk and pandan leaves. It was savoury and appetizingly fragrant. There you have it – we liked the drinks and the rice.
Tropika was probably not the best place to try a nation’s cuisine for the first time. Perhaps we visited on a bad night. No matter, the only reason I would return would be for the girly drinks. Mini-umbrella anyone?
Tropika is located at #171 1518 Centre Street N.E.; phone, 230-3330. |
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