Home

Island Cafe (Closed) (Malaysian cuisine) $$

111 East 4th Avenue, San Mateo, 94401 (Directions)

650-548-1386

Website Menu vCard

Exotic interior plays background to a variety of malaysian delicacies.
Reviewer: Jason Total Reviews: 1040 Reviewed: 7/17/2005 Rating: 6.5 My photo gallery	Terry and his family were in town today visiting so we planned to do a dinner in San Mateo. I had my sights set on taking them to a wish list place called California Sushi but they were closed. With plenty of other restaurants to choose from, we narrowed it down to Island Cafe. Located on 4th and if you cant find it, its next to the shoe store and across the street from Wells Fargo. The interior boasts this clever wooden shack with 3 tables underneath. Maybe its suppose to mimic a malaysian/thai wooden shanty. I thought it was cool and if you're not into that, they have regular seating in main dining area. Everything in Island Cafe is clean and well maintained. Waitress brought out a menu which can double as a magazine. There are sooo many dishes in here that I had trouble just picking one. As a group, we ordered too much food. Aromatic Chicken - its basically sweet and sour chicken. chicken had breading on it and I didnt care too much for this dish. I should have read the ingredient listing. pad thai - although ordered spicy, I thought it was kinda weak. For a pad thai, it was lacking those exotic spices curry beef - or whatever it was called, easily the best dish of the group. Curry sauce can go on anything....so darn good. The beef was tender shrimp with salted fish fried rice - this was ok, shrimp had no flavor, rice was fine, salted fish just isnt my thing. tasted like fish beef jerky. egg rolls - more batter than anything, i had 1 eggroll that had a sliver of mushroom with a 1 tiny matchstick of an orange thing that looked like a carrot. roti - its hard to go wrong with the roti and curry dipping sauce. I have no complaints here. shrimp puffs - next to the roti, this was a favorite of mine, its just crab or shrimp mixture in a deep fried bread wrapped in bacon. I guess anything with bacon automatically becomes a favorite. I have mixed feelings on Island Cafe. I liked the atmosphere and service but the food was just ok for me. Im used to savoring exotic flavors with all my malaysian or thai meals and Island Cafe just didnt do it for me. *Update March 19, 2006* Daniel has informed me that Island Cafe has closed. In its place is a new Cantonese restaurant called Iron Chef

Reviewer: Terry Total Reviews: 739 Reviewed: 7/17/2005 Rating: 7.5 My photo gallery	After Lalang Lalang the other day, I felt a little more comfortable with Malaysian cuisine so sampled a bit more this time. First things first, though. we enter the place, and it looks really nice. A large expansive restaurant with lots of Malaysian flavor to the decorations. The ceiling even had simulated wood hut overhead, fake rock on the walls, etc. Really nice arrangement. The waitstaff all looked clean and well-presented. The menus provided lots of pictures (as usual with this cuisine) and it made choosing difficult. I eventually went with the Roti Prata appetizer, the Vegeterian Eggroll appetizer, and the Pad Thai. The Roti and curry sauce was delicious (hard to find a bad Roti). The Vegetarian eggroll was standard. Nothing too special here, a bit greasy if anything. The Pad Thai was delicious. I picked out the chicken that it usually comes with and found the rest to be satisfying. The noodles had a mixture of flavors that melded together well. It wasn't super flavorful, but wasn't too strange a flavor. I found it to be pleasing overall. Its a tossup for me between a 7.5 and an 8.0. I will return someday and give the final vote. The cost was high, as Malaysian cuisine tends to be, but presentation was great and atmosphere was great. The food wasn't mindblowing like Thai food for me, but was pleasant. So I will leave it at a 7.5 for now.


Disclaimer

User submitted quickies (help)

Login to write a quickie.