The Mouth: The Malaya at Darling Harbour delivers on heat despite corporate crowd

Maybe it was the pinot grigio and conversation talking, but this corporate crowd-pleaser delivered the heat, defying The Mouth’s (very low) expectations.

This column is a big fan of spicy food.

Not to the point where we go blustering into Indian restaurants demanding the hottest vindaloo they’ve got and wind up three days later in the hospital, but we definitely don’t mind a bit of heat.

Certainly where some cuisines are concerned, the degree of spice is a measure of authenticity: We once did ourselves serious damage at a Thai restaurant when we insisted on ordering some dish that the waiter kept madly describing as, simply, “not for you!”

But, also, spice feels good, once one presses through the initial pain.

There was once a Cambodian storefront in Newtown, back when it was proper grubby and not grubby-chic, that served a larb that required six ice-cold VBs to get through.

EAT STREET + King Street Wharf - The Malaya - menu selection, Picture: Jackielyn Powell

With the endorphins this kicked up, it was the closest this column will ever get to a runner’s high.

So when we found ourselves on a recent evening at a big Malaysian restaurant that caters to the corporate crowd, we did not have much expectation in this department.

Particularly when it used to live in a somewhat grungier and real deal incarnation on George Street, behind Central, and when we saw the table set with “banquet menus”.

(Honestly, is there a more depressing combination of words this side of “New Australian drama”?)

If you haven’t already guessed we were at The Malaya down on Darling Harbour, the worst of all of Sydney’s water features, which set our expectations even lower.

Nor did the sight of somewhat … shall we say … non-Malaysian dishes like san choy bow and Szechuan eggplant have us expecting much beyond, “Oh, it’s fine”.

The Malaya’s original owners Wong Tai See and wife Mee Fong Wong outside the original restaurant in 1984.

Lance (left) and Duan Wong, modern owners of The Malaya, celebrating its 50th birthday in 2013.

And yet.

When the food hit the table, it was actually good.

Spicy, even.

Some little prawns came out, all puffy in light batter – whomever was on the fry station knew what they were doing.

Those san choy bow? Kinda meh, to be honest.

But some authentically banging lemak chicken skewers? Now we’re talking: Actual heat, chilli, pepper, with sharpish-sweet notes from coconuts and lime leaves rounding it out.

Other dishes worked too – kapitan chicken, beef rendang – even if not exactly what you’d get on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Maybe it was the pinot grigio and conversation talking, but this was actually good – beyond the level of “decent corporate group table feed”.

And it may also just be that Barangaroo is forcing everyone in that part of town to keep lifting.

Originally published as The Mouth: The Malaya at Darling Harbour delivers on heat despite corporate crowd