| rev:text
| - This review focuses on Malay dishes.
When a restaurant serves cuisines from two different cultures that historically don't influence each other, I'm skeptical. e.g. Thai and Japanese. This is different from, say, Vietnamese and French, Vietnamese and Chinese, or Cambodian and Thai, which either colonization or large scale population migration occurred.
So Pacific East-Coventry gave that first impression. However, this is the only place to get Malay dishes in CLE, so if you were desperate for Hainanese Chicken ????, you would have give it a try. As we did 7 years ago.
Of course we made sure to investigate by grilling the owner a bit. She said they have two separate kitchens and chefs, one for each cuisine.
I especially like the staff here. They have a special earnest, down-to-earth-ness. Uber low turn-over rate.
--- here are Must Trys. You won't find these dishes anywhere else in CLE ---
Noodle Soup:
- Prawn Mee ???: My fave. Loads of flavors
- Laksa ???????: Loads of flavors. Taste different from Prawn Mee.
- Bak Kut Teh ???: rare to find. Technically there is no noodle in here, but it does have spare ribs in flavorful broth.
---
Rice:
- Hainanese Chicken ????: The chicken fat in the coconut rice is the bomb. (Occasionally the kitchen messed it up when it wasn't mixed well. In that case, just tell them). When the dish is served, your initial impression might be..whoa...just plain, bone-in chicken? But it's seasoned well, my friend.
- Nasi Goreng ????: Malaysian fried rice in garlicky, shalot-y chili sauce.
* I don't bother with their Rendang here. Initially I did, but overtime I lost interest. Too salty.
---
Fried noodles:
- Mee Goreng ????
- Chow Kueh Teow ?????
- Mee Siam ?????
- Singapore Style Stir Fried Hokkin Seafood Noodles ?????????
---
Vegetable:
- Sauteed water Spinach ?????? in shrimp paste. Makes a plain vegetable so tasty. Seasoned well. I like it.
- Rojak ????: plain veggie and fruit with spicy shrimp paste peanut sauce. This may be an acquired taste because it's pretty plain by itself. Good for those on a health kick though.
----------------
Last words:
- Herbal Spare Ribs Noodles ??????: They're out every time I remember to inquire it. So I have never tasted it!
- I asked my colleague from our Singapore location, who were visiting CLE for a business trip, tried this restaurant. He had Bak Kut Teh ???, commented the flavor is close, but he could still taste the package (as opposed to brewing the broth from scratch ingredients). This is in line with Yelper Daniel A.'s comment, that you can cook these at home buying packaged seasoning from Asian grocery. However my point is, for someone who doesn't grow up eating these dishes, can you tell the difference? Can you confidently duplicate the flavor profile at home? I know I couldn't. And I know I walked away satisfied from PE-coventry. That's why I keep coming back.
- Sometimes they tend to be heavy-handed: too salty, too much sauce, too sweet, etc. When ordering, make sure to ask to tone it down a notch (less Americanized).
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