I love Malaysian food. This stems back to a wonderful trip to Malaysia in 1997 – it was my first overseas trip with my (now) husband and we went for a friend’s wedding.

We were lucky enough to stay with the bride’s Chinese Malaysian family in Ipoh, about two hours’ drive north of Kuala Lumpur. We couldn’t have asked for anything better as a way to introduce us to this beautiful country.

We learnt very quickly that when you get up in the morning, you start thinking about each meal of the day – what to have, where to have it, and that planning extends right through to a late supper. There are restaurants everywhere, and each of them is known for specialty dishes.

We’ve been back to Malasysia a number of times but I’m still always looking for a good place in our home town to eat Malaysian food.

PappaRich is a commercial Malaysian restaurant chain. Established in 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, it’s grown to 70 outlets in Malaysia and internationally. PappaRich restaurants have been established in Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Western Australia for some time, and now we finally have one in my home state of South Australia.

PappaRich Ambassador and MasterChef Australia runner-up Poh Ling Yeow hosted a lunch to officially open the restaurant in Gouger Street, Adelaide. Poh was the perfect host. When I arrived for lunch there was already a line up – for people to have their photo taken with Poh!

I’m sure this place will be popular as it was full and already I hear people are lining up to get in. Inside there’s an open kitchen on the left with another kitchen at the back, and lots of tables with some bench seating along the main wall on the right. There is excellent lighting inside and light décor.

Poh picked out her favourite dishes for us to try; there was so much food. It was a great opportunity to try many dishes across the extensive menu, which numbers more than 160 items including drinks and desserts!

This venue is unlicensed, but there is a whole range of tasty, non-alcoholic drinks to try. First up I ordered an iced coffee (hoping for the Malaysian iced coffee experience I remembered – it wasn’t really the same), then coconut paradise, which was just beautiful. Ice cold, creamy coconut milk, with ice and coconut flesh. So moreish!

Our first dish was the Roti Canai with curry chicken. Warm, soft, buttery roti (bread) with chicken in a spicy sauce.

Next, a favourite – satay. We tried chicken and beef, both marinated with fresh lemongrass and tumeric. Served with cucumber, red onion and peanut sauce.

We also tried the Roti Telur Bawang Beef Rendang. The buttery roti’s filling was egg and onion, which was a subtle flavour and went well with the spicy beef rendang.

The vegetarian Fu Chook rolls looked interesting and I was looking forward to trying them. Wrapped in bean curd, the filling was soft but dense. This is part of their Dim Sum section of the menu.

I was looking forward to trying the special Nasi Lemak and I found it quite satisfying. The curry chicken and sambal prawns were soft and spicy and were complimented by the coconut rice, boiled egg and cool cucumber. The peanuts and fried anchovies added some nice crunch and saltiness.

The char kuay teow is a favourite of mine and I try this dish wherever it’s on offer. I love the flat noodles with slices of tofu, juicy plump prawns and crunchy bean sprouts, with a touch of cooked egg through the dish. I could have eaten the whole plate myself.

The Biryani rice with red chicken and eggplant was a pleasant dish but my least favourite of the entire lunch. The chicken wasn’t as soft as the other dishes, although I did enjoy the eggplant, and the pappadam on the top.

The Pappa Prawn Mee had a flavoursome (but not too fishy) seafood broth, noodles, prawns, hard boiled egg and bean sprouts. A quite filling dish.

The fried rice noodles were pleasant with a thick noodle, and similar ingredients to the kuay teow but personally I prefer the flat noodles.

The crispy egg noodles – lots of noodles (a bit too much for my liking) with a small amount of chicken and prawn on the top.

There were a few dishes I didn’t get to try, and there was so much that I couldn’t fit in dessert, but I’m already looking forward to trying more of PappaRich’s extensive menu.

We’re currently planning a family holiday to Malaysia later this year – until then, I’ll be taking the family to PappaRich to get our fill of tasty Malaysian cuisine!

** I was an invited guest.