Nyonya Grill

Why so much hate for Nyonya? I’m half Singaporean, and coincidentally so is my girlfriend, and both our families are fans of this place.
First of all, totally skip the Mongolian stir-​fry grill and have a seat. Thank me later. Put the napkin on and order some great Malaysian/​Singaporean dishes. Here you go:
— Start with a couple satay tenders. I’m partial to the beef, but chicken’s good too. Make sure to get a vegetable and some peanut sauce on that sucker before throwing it down the hatch.
— Take a pass on the Singapore Rice Noodles (NOT a Singaporean specialty). If you’re doing noodles, give the Mee Siam a try – spicy and delicious.
— If you’re going soup, try a lemongrass broth or the curry.
— Get some Hainanese Chicken with the delicious soy based sauce. Then pour that sauce directly on the yellow rice.
— If you’ve still got excess rice, top it off with some Beef Rendang.
Enjoy, rinse, and repeat.

This place started out as a Mongolian BBQ and bakery (how’s that for an odd combination), where you’d load your bowl with veggies and meat and it would be cooked on a giant grill.
The bakery is long gone, but the Mongolian BBQ remains, although the staff tries to point you to the Malaysian dishes. The first time I went after the change, the Malaysian entrees were good, but the last couple of trips, the food was greasy and not that great.

Food was so-​so, spicy, but not really flavorful. They could rearrange the seating so it would have better flow. My only comparison is to a Malaysian restaurant in NYC that was awesome. We tried some fish that seemed undercooked, I believe they were mackerals. The rice noodles were so-​so. I did see a large grilling area for what some people would call Mongolian style, where you would grab a bowl, fill it with your choices of meat and vegetables, take it to the cook at the grill and they would cook it to your specification with assorted sauces. I need to try that at lunch! The karaōke was non-​existent and they had an asian female singer doing her best to keep the diners entertained.

There aren’t that many Malaysian restaurants in the Houston area. I’ve been to Malaysia and the food at Nyonya Grill is okay, but it doesn’t come close to the chain Penang on the east coast. That being said, there were some good dishes. The specialty tofu is quite good as was the Assam fish, and the kang kung belacan. Skip the char keow teu. The roti canai was average but the curry sauce that came with it was watery. The satay and the Hainan chicken rice were about average too. I probably won’t come back unless other people want to cone here. I’ll have to try Banana Leaf next for my Malaysian fix.