Avg price: $10
For Japanese-inspired nasi lemak
The rundown
Taking over healthy food cafe Thrive Kitchen in NeWest, Nasi Coco serves up Japanese-inspired nasi lemak — think traditional nasi lemak, paired with not so traditional freshly fried tempura.
The vibe
Taking over the space of now defunct Thrive Kitchen in sleepy NeWest mall, Nasi Coco maintains its predecessor’s minimalistic aesthetics — think light wood tables, small booth seats and warm lighting. Being a neighbourhood mall, the vibe is casual and laid back, as seen from the families lunching there in singlets and flip flops.
What’s good
The signature in the coconut-centric menu here is the Nasi Coco Supreme ($9.90), which sees coconut rice topped with the full works — a big assortment of tempura ranging from seasonable vegetables to luncheon meat and chicken fillet, alongside more traditional trimmings of sambal, peanuts and ikan bilis. You also have a choice of sous vide egg, or the highly recommended tempura lava egg, which we ordered and liked for its soft, slightly oozy centre. The tempura items are faultless — freshly fried till crisp golden, and drizzled with the house TEN sauce (essentially a sweet-ish brown sauce) — and went surprisingly well with the coconut rice. That said, the dish is more nasi lemak than tendon, thanks to the killer sambal that stole the show and rendered the accompanying bowl of tempura dipping sauce pretty much useless.
Another main to try is the Pasuta Lemak ($9.90), which the menu describes to be a local take on carbonara pasta. Slicked through with coconut cream (in place of cream) and topped with fried luncheon meat pieces, this is extremely tasty albeit very, very rich. Our advice is to stir in the sambal served on the side to cut through all that richness, and to perhaps share this with a friend. You might also consider ordering the Tempura Chicken Wings (from $4 for two pieces) to share. While there’s nothing tempura about it, the wings were fried perfectly — crisp brown on the outside and luscious within — and were lovely dipped into the accompanying sambal mayo.
Love Nasi Coco? The Coconut Club’s take on nasi lemak might be up your alley too. See what the Burpple community has to say about it here.
