Ultimate Date Night, Broadway Shopping Centre
Surprising destination for a date
Located at 1 Bay Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
Marketed as the Ultimate Date Night, my friend and I were invited to Level 2 of the Broadway Shopping Centre to see how a seemingly family friendly shopping mall could bring class to a date night. Skeptical at first, my friend and I headed up the escalators to head to our first stop at Mamaks Village.
Mamaks Village is one of the latest additions to the newly minted Broadway Shopping Centre food court. It was only a couple of years ago where the food court was littered with no-name kiosks serving stock standard food court fare. Now in 2019, the shopping centre has really stepped up its game and elevated the offerings of food courts both in their quality of food and interior décor.
Mamaks Village is similar in name to the Mamaks Village at UNSW (a place I am all too familiar with), although I’m not 100% sure if they are owned by the same chain. Regardless, the food is equally supreme with the best that Malaysia cuisine has to offer. My dining companion and I decided to share four dishes between the two of us and it was certainly enough to keep our bellies full. We started off with the Penang Char Koay Teow with the chicken. The chicken, as it turns out, was presented on the side rather than tossed through the rice noodles. The noodles had a distinct wok taste that balanced nicely with the kick from the fresh chillis. We paired the stir fried noodles with a nice side of Satay Chicken Skewers. The skewers came with a generous serving of peanut satay sauce. Patrons need to grab a spoon in order to scoop and douse the skewers with this decadently rich sauce. A messy affair but worth every finger-licking bite!
Along with the chicken dishes, we chose dishes where beef was the core ingredient. First, my friend and I opted for the crowd favourite Nasi Lemak. For the uninitiated, the nasi lemak comprises of coconut infused rice, beef curry, boiled egg, anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and sambal sauce. The rice was rich with coconut essence and the side of beef curry was marinated with delicious spices. I liked that the chefs didn’t skimp on the sauce when they served the side of curry on the plate. The rice helped to soak up the sauce well and the anchovies gave the dish that nice extra crunch. The Roti with Egg came with two curried sauces, one of which was a beef curry stock. What made the beef curry sauce stand out were the flecks of beef scattered throughout the sauce, that elevated the overall textural dimension of the roti dish.
After our meal at Mamaks Village, we headed straight to the neighbouring cinema to catch Captain Marvel (Mar-vell?) at Hoyts Lux. We felt like absolute royalty entering the cinema as we were treated to a complimentary soft drink and popcorn and waitstaff came at our every beck and call. Along with these great freebies and tip top customer service, we spoiled ourselves with some cheeky Ben + Jerry’s and a big ol’ glass of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The movie was marvelous (no pun intended), made better by the fact that we got to sit in deliriously comfortable reclining chairs.
Overall
It’s hard to believe that a luxurious date night was localised entirely on Level 2 of the Broadway Shopping Centre. The precinct itself is huge with 150 stores and 20 restaurants, including Hoyts Lux. We were treated to all but a small sample of the mall, as there’s plenty of other restaurants to enjoy including Burger Project, Bondi Pizza, Zeus Street Greek, Schnitz and Guzman Y Gomez. After that pleasant night, the once skeptic is now convinced that Broadway Shopping Centre really is an ideal destination for a date.
Overall rating: MindBlown
Service: 4/5
Gourmet Gumbo and her friend were invited by the Broadway Shopping Centre.
