Satay Club in Tenleytown, DC

I met a young Malaysian woman a few months ago whose family owns this place. It seems completely off the radar. I think that’s because it offers sushi, thai, chinese, etc and isn’t taken seriously by people who take food seriously.

There are photos lining the entry with the owner and various folks from the Malaysian Embassy, and I saw a couple of those familiar faces having lunch there the day I showed up . I took the advice of this young woman and ordered the Kampung Fried Rice (sometimes called village fried rice) .

The execution was excellent and addictive. It had a nice background spice to it and was served in a bowl with a bit of sambal which was zesty yet a touch sweet as well. I asked for more sambal. The interesting feature of this dish is small slivers of dried anchovy. Almost like bits of of jerky. Nice flavor even if the texture is unusual for an otherwise fluffy rice dish. But that is kampung fired rice.

I am encouraged to try more of the Malay dishes.

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A group of seven of us decided to try out Satay Club for a full meal. I hadn’t heard much about this place except that this area of DC is known for restaurants being timid with spicing and flavor.

To that extent, I ordered three dishes in advance, trying to go for the best variety of dishes we could get. We wound up with a very complete and satisfying meal that had great variety.

I special ordered:

Ikan Bakar, a whole fish covered with a paste and wrapped in banana leaf.
Kangkung Belacan, water spinach stir fried with belacan, a spicy condiment with fermented shrimp.
Omelet with shrimp

We stared off with two appetizers:

Roti Canai
Ginger Salad

And then we ordered three main dishes from the regular menu:

Char Kway Teow, Wide rice noodles
Beef Rendang
Nasi Goreng, a fried rice dish.

The ikan bakar and the kangkung belacan were the stars of the show, so special ordering is a good idea here.

Nothing to complain about with the char kway teow or the beef rendang which was a flavorful version.

The downers were the ginger salad which was too sweet and the nasi goreng which I had hoped was rice mixed with a sauce, but here came out rather plain.

I will come back to special order a Hainanese Chicken which the restaurant suggested. It’s a whole chicken and can be ordered steamed or roasted. It’s quite pricey, but judging from the quality of the special items we did get, it might be worth it.

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Good writeup, and I agree on the highights (and would add the shrimp omelet to the list).

My take is a little different on the “downers.” The only dish that I thought was even just “above average” was the char kway teow, which was real good but not memorable. Maybe I’m a pushover, but everything else I thought was excellent (I did liven up the nasi goreng by pouring some leftover roti canai dipping sauce over it).

Some photos:

Omelet with shrimp:

Ikan bakar:

Beef rendang -

Kangkung belacan (cropped closely because it started on the other end of the table)

Thank you very much for organizing this excellent lunch at a restaurant I’d never heard of. If you need company when you go back for the Hainanese chicken, I’d love to be there.

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I must have been too busy eating to notice you took pictures… thanks for that!

I was very pleased with the shrimp omelet as the kind of dish that rounds out a meal, but restaurants don’t put it on the menu. It was was a little runny on the inside and that made it click.

Among other things I learned from the erudite Charlie, who I hadn’t seen in years, was that Roti Canai is from Chennai, India, and that it’s pronounced as such.

For the Hainanese Chicken, the big question is roasted or steamed. In this case steamed is a misnomer, it’s actually poached. From what I’ve seen on Malaysian food sites, support is split right down the middle, though the default street food version is steamed.

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I went back with a friend to see if we can discover any gold on the regular menu, and we hit a vein.

Both dishes were impressive, starting with the curry laksa featuring two kinds of noodles (rice and egg). The rice noodles had a firm texture which I quite liked. The rich stock was amply spicy and had a nice background of fermentation going on. This was completely satisfying.

Next up was the nasi lemak, which uses rice topped with an egg as a central component surrounded by fried chicken, shrimp, chicken skewers, crisps, fresh cucumber, peanuts and (upon request) slivers of dried anchovy.

I loved everything about the array of flavors. The fried chicken was really well made. And the sauces showed off some really nice subtle flair.

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My latest visit was a turnabout from the previous success.

First off, I went with my family of four and special ordered the Hainanese chicken and rice. It was good. I only have one experience with this dish, which was found on the regular menu at Michael’s Noodles in Rockville. There it was served ‘steamed’ , which I am told is a misnomer. It is actually poached. Here, I ordered it roasted.

The breast meat comes out moist, the skin nice and crisp, and there is no oiliness form the thigh or leg. The rice, served separately, is fluffy, dry and mildly garlicky. Two sauces are served with it: a faintly sweet chili sauce and a ginger sauce.

I consider it a success, yet not all that impressive. I’ve had more delicious roast chicken.

The two dishes we ordered from the regular menu were not good. We got a gado gado salad which had a sweet sauce of crushed peanuts which was offensive in its blandness. The other ingredients, mostly bean sprouts, did not register.

The coconut lemongrass soup was an amateurish version. It was ok. I suppose you can’t go too far wrong with this.

The menu has its highlights and pitfalls. The short version: from the regular menu go for the nasi lemak, curry laksa, beef rendang, and the char kway teow.

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