Stumbled onto Reunion Bake Brew Bite on the web while searching for new places to go to, and I was there in a heart beat!
Reason being they offer a small selection of Malaysian food.
Their menu is eclectic — there are Malaysian dishes such as nasi lamak, beef rending, laksa and Heinan chicken; then there are BBQ smoke meats.
On the side, there are waffles with different topping, sandwiches, bake items in the case, and a huge line-up of coffee drinks.
To my surprise, lots of ingredients in the store are organic, including the chicken and the milk.
I had to have the nasi lamak with chicken.
The rice was good — soft, flavorful with spicy peanuts, crisp shrimp chips and little dried fish, and a side of hard-boiled egg.
Chicken was very tender, albeit too salty.
Laksa was a little disappointing, coconuty spicy soup with nice mix of 2 kinds of noodles (rice and egg), topped with boiled egg, egg tofu and seafood.
Now, to be fair, this laksa was about the same as what I can get in the Seattle area such as Malay Satay Hut or Teapot vegetarian.
I was just having such a high hope that it would be like the laksa I had in Malaysia, and this wasn’t it.
It was not bad, perhaps my expectation was unreal here.
There was a pot of self-serve plain chicken soup that came with any lunch set, and that was good.
Nice, subtle, soothing flavors of just chicken and ginger, it was awesome!
Even though there were many other dishes I wanted try, I was saving space for waffle with kaya.
Kaya is the quintessential Malaysian spread made of coconut and pandang plant: sweet, coconuty and with a brilliant green color that cannot be missed.
The kaya was good; the waffle was ok and not very fluffy.
Lastly, down to the coffee offering.
I had the wonderful RS&T espresso ice cubes which was totally superb, and the theatrics of it was very fun.
Four to five cubes of espresso ice cubes in a cup, and warm steamed milk was poured into the cup, slowly melting the espresso ice cubes.
The coffee flavor was roasty but not overpowering, allowing the floral and fruity characters to come out.
I was amazed even with the amount of milk, the coffee characters were still very bold.
The warm milk imparted sweetness and creaminess, it was a wonderful drink to savor.
My friend had the nitro latte, and it was definitely an interesting experience!
Cold latte with great espresso flavor and small fizzy bubbles on the palate, the drinks present itself as acidic.
Reunion also offers many single origin coffees in their “slow bar” where the coffee is hand-brewed; and I have not even tried the Malaysian hand-pulled teh Tarik (milk tea) or kopi Tarik (coffee with milk) yet.
Food is good not wow, but then there is no wow Malaysian food around either; drinks alone are worth the trip.