Restoran Sri Melur Maju, USJ17, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
No 2 Jalan USJ 17/2,
47630 Subang Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan

Opening Hours:
Though mamaks are usually 24 hours, this one is said to be opened:
Daily, 7am - 1am

Time Visited:
Around 4:30pm, Saturday evening.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
2 pieces of Roti Canai (also called Roti Kosong) and Teh O' Ais (Ice tea with sugar but without condensed milk)

Awaken by the rude ringing sounds of my phone from my blissful afternoon nap which stretched till 4pm due to the lovely cool weather and that's when I decided to head out for a meal.

Restoran Sri Melur Maju has been voted by the Star People's Food Awards as the winner for the best roti canai but if anything Village Park has taught me, voting for the best doesn't always necessarily equate as really the best. Sometimes when such awards has been passed out, I wonder how on earth does anybody find that as the best when it's really not? Especially when an establishment has been popularized by the media, some outlets may used to be the best but when given the unprecedented crowd, they falter under the demand.

All the more so when I saw that it's the Star People's Food Awards because prizes are given out for voters as well. Nevertheless, despite my skepticism, I decided to give it a try anyway.

I've read a lot of bad reviews on the USJ17 outlets but mostly were griped regarding their poor service which made some people turned on the food as well. After all, when the experience of a bad service makes a customer turned sour, the food will usually taste bad too. Hence the emphasis of an overall experience particularly on ambiance and service at fine dining establishments. But there are some who admitted that their roti canai is good despite bad service.

And so there I was wandering off to this place which was an unfamiliar territory at that time of visit. Although the awards went to the branch at SS19, I went to this USJ17 branch instead where they deemed bad service by many members of the public. It wasn't very hard to find the place using my GPS. It was merely a u-turn from the main USJ road then a turn in to SS12 which leads to a row of shops on the left hand side hidden in the enclave of housing areas with the big signboard of Restoran Sri Melur Maju can easily be seen from that road.

When I arrived at around 4:30pm, there were a lot of people there to have a spot of tea and their snacks at that mamak stall. That's why I decided to settle inside the restaurant instead of the more cooler closer to outdoor area. Once I decided on my seat, the staff immediately stopped by at my place and I ordered the 2 pieces of roti kosong with teh o' ais.

The waiting period was moderate and when it came, it was served on those Indian platters with 3 of the 4 small pocket spaces filled with 3 different curries. One is the fish curry, the second is the dal/dhal, and the third is the sambal. As a habit, my fave will usually be the fish curry and so I doused my roti canai with the fish curry first. Not bad. But when I tried the dal, that's when it occurred to me as to why people said that they are one of the places with the best dals around. I would certainly agree because unlike other places, this dal has a nice taste to it. It's hard to describe it but I usually don't like eating dal but this one is an exception. It really is the most delicious compared to the fish curry and the sambal. As for their roti canai, it's not bad in taste either. The only problem I had with it was it's lack of crispiness and it's not hot enough. It's only lukewarm which means that this is prepared beforehand but only heated up and served to me when ordered to churn out the dish faster. But dipping into the dal makes up for this since their dal is really awesome.

As I was about to leave to pay my bills, surprisingly the guy was just next to me and seeing that I was getting up to leave, he stretched out his hand to take the scribbled bill note to calculate at the cash register. Well, I can't complain on the service because it had been excellent to me. LOL. When I arrived, they immediately took my order. When I was leaving, the guy was already there to take my bill. In fact, this is only the 2nd time that I had such good service from a mamak restaurant. Mind you, usually mamak restaurants are known for bad service where you try to flag them down and they see your hand but they just ignore it. And usually, they just give you an attitude when taking your order or counting your bill. So I don't really see the fuss on why people are complaining so much on the bad service at this outlet because coincidentally I saw none of that happening here but saw lots of it elsewhere. Even from the restaurant I frequent which is Pelita at SS2. Sometimes, I just ignore them and don't order a drink at all since they never bother asking after I sat myself down with my plate of rice and decide to go for a cup of coffee at Rekindle instead.

But for me, on this day of visit that I decided to review on this place without anybody knowing at all, I had one of the best dals with a very good roti canai receiving an excellent service at Sri Melur Maju, USJ17. During that time, there's quite a lot of people too. Coincidence? Maybe. But that's what happened to me.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM4.45 in total. Since mamak stalls don't have receipts, I did some speculative calculation. They charge 6% GST and since the total came to RM4.45, the 6% GST charge is 25 sen. So the total before GST is RM4.20. Somewhere, I saw a comment stating that the Teh O' Ais is RM1.60. So if the beverage is RM1.60, that means the roti canai costs RM1.30 a piece. From Hungry Go Where's website, I also saw that price for a piece of roti canai. So I gathered that my calculations were correct. :)

Final Verdict:
6/10. Well, what do you expect. It's just a mamak stall. Or restaurant to be exact. So ambiance obviously will suffer. LOL. But I must say, they do serve one of the best dals that I had and their roti canai too is very good. I'm not sure about the service because many complained that it's terrible but they were excellent towards me. And yet, there were many mamak stalls that I've been too that were really terrible in their service as well including the one I frequent for my nasi kandar fix at Pelita, SS2. So this isn't really news to me.