Kafe Bulldog has been featured in various food reviews and more recently, on local television as part of the Little Nyonya series. But the reason why we specially made the trip there was because it came highly recommended by my good friend of more than 20 years, Paul Lim.
The name certainly doesn't sound anything like a place that serves Peranakan cuisine. The owner explained that they decided to continue using Kafe Bulldog since it was already well known by that name, even though it had actually been renamed. But do not let the name deceive you for you will be in for a very pleasant surprise.
On entering, you will be impressed (as we were) with the way the owners decorated the place. There is a
koi pond right beneath the air well, paraphenalia from days gone by adorn the walls, and interesting keepsakes are artistically placed all around the dining room. Some of the interesting items include an old-fashioned gas oven (just like the one my dad used for baking his famous butter cakes), manual typewriter with ribbon cartridge and a Singer sewing machine.
Even if you do not have time for a meal at Kafe Bulldog, it is worthwhile dropping in just for a drink. They have a good selection of fresh fruit juice at half the price of what you would normally pay in Singapore.
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| Choose from their long list of different fruit juices |
The best thing about Kafe Bulldog, of course, is its food. What you get here is food prepared the same way
mama or
neo did.
Of the dishes we had, two stood out and left an impression on me. The otak-otak is prepared using fish meat that is freshly scrapped, without adding too much flour, thus giving it the right texture. You actually get to savour the fish and its sweetness and not just the taste of flour and
rempah. The
rempah used in the dish also has the right mix of herbs and spices.
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| Nyonya otak otak |
The other dish that is outstanding is its
nyonya pohpiah, for which it is famous. Unlike some Peranakan food outlets which, for convenience, uses the Hokkien-style
pohpiah skin made of flour, Kafe Bulldog remains true to Nyonya tradition by using egg skin. To me, this is a plus point. More importantly, they took the effort to stew the turnips until soft in a light brown gravy. Also they kept the turnips moist instead of squeezing it completely dry; this way you get to taste the juicy goodness of the
bangkuang.
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| Nyonya style poh piah |
Another dish that deserves mention is the
sambal udang petai. The prawns are fresh and the chef was careful not to overcook it. We were also quite pleased that they put in the extra effort to devein the prawns. I did not detect the use of sugar in the sambal which to me, is another plus point.
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| Sambal udang petai |
The other dishes we order were
Ayam Pongteh,
Chap Chye, Ikan Bakar and Oyster Omelete
. All of these were of acceptable standard. The
chap chye was tasty but not done to my liking. I prefer it to be stewed until the cabbage is mushy and all of its ingredients have fully absorbed the flavour of the taucheo. As for
pongteh, I much prefer
babi to
ayam. However, the
pongteh gravy was good.
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| Oyster omelete |
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| Chap chye |
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| Ikan bakar |
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| Ayam pongteh |
For dessert, we had ice kachang and chendol. We were happy with both. In fact we prefer the chendol here to the famous Chendol 88 at Jonker Street. The santan is more fragrant and the gula melaka is less thick.
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| Ice kachang |
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| Chendol |
Kafe Bulldog (Restaurant Flavours Nyonya & Asian Cuisine)
145 Jalan Bendahara (opposite Bayview Hotel)
Melaka
Ambiance: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Food: 6.75/10
Pricing: $
Recommended Dishes: Otak-otak, Nyonya Pohpiah, Sambal Udang Petai, Chendol
