PappaRich is a Malaysia-cuisine based chain of restaurants. It posed a conundrum to me. My friend frequently went to one of the restaurants in Melbourne without hesitation. A family member of mine said it was not authentic and overpriced for what it was, but not terrible. Urbanspoon ratings for Melbourne and Sydney vary between 50-65%. Yet the recently opened Canberra one is rated 85% and has very frequent queues. I suppose you can explain the frequent queues being that there isn't anything like that around Civic (that I know of) and probably nothing that good. You could also say the higher rating is because locals here probably don't know any better, although I do find Dickson Noodle House to be good and better than some of the Chinatown standards (eg. China Bar). It won't reach the cheap prices of other cities' Asia restaurants, but it's certainly cheaper than those around Canberra.
PappaRich in Canberra is full of all sorts. Young, older, Asian, white, Indian... everybody comes and by 12pm on a Sunday there is a small mob outside waiting to get in. On a 40deg day, the place inside the Canberra Centre is remarkably well cooled. Not your typical Malaysia hot humid experience whilst eating chilli food.
The picture menu is very reminiscent of Chinese restaurants in Australia and some in Asia too, with big enticing pictures for the assumption that a lot of their clientele won't know what many of the dishes actually are or look like. They actually do have a nice range of drinks, mains and desserts and seem to cover all three bases quite well.
The ordering system requires you to write the menu item on a piece of paper and press a buzzer for a waiter to collect. The staff are friendly and happily answer questions about the dishes. Some people don't like the ordering system. Go somewhere else then.
- Matcha Rocks (green tea soya, red bean, green tea icecream) - lovely cold slush of lightly flavoured green tea milk and icecream. Kudos for not adding ridiculous amounts of sugar;
- Iced Red Bean - another simple drink presumably combining red bean icecream, red beans and milk;
- Roti Chanai with Tandoori Chicken - roti is a freshly cooked piece with a very mildly crisp outside and a thicker doughy inside. It's very good and I preferred it to the very thin flaky ones other places have. Tandoori was an odd combination (not my choice) but it was reasonable. The sambal sauce it came with was a little spicy. Next time curry beef will be the go for this;
- Pappa Special Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken & Sambal Prawns - it came out ridiculously fast, after about 3 mins. Like all nasi lemaks the ingredients are probably in trays ready to serve. I don't mind - it's how it is usually done. Coconut rice was good, chicken curry tender and tasty, sambal prawns a bit average and soft, sambal sauce good, salty ikan bilis great, roast peanuts topped it off. I'd prefer extra sauce and ikan bilis, but I won't complain. It was a good version.
There's a lot to pick from on the menu that I'd be willing to try to see how well they do. Assam laksa, curry laksa, har mee, wat dan hor, char kuey teow and of course ice kacang. I'll go back.
