Love Mamak

best laksa in the city! Love it. I will definitely go back next week. We ordered summer rolls, pad thai and mango stick rice. All of them exceed my expectation. I am thinking about to try some other things next time.

Came here because of the good reviews they had on Unilocal.They did not disappoint! The service was great. The owner came by to check on us a few times throughout our meal. He was very kind and friendly. The food was prepared quickly and was DELICIOUS. I’m a big fan of Malaysian food, so I only ordered off of that menu. Will return again!

Came here on a Saturday night around 8pm for dinner because of the great reviews on Unilocal.After experiencing this place myself I inspected the reviews more closely, and yes most of the reviews are from people with 1 or 2 reviews…
We had made reservations on OpenTable for 2. It doesn’t matter though, cause they just seat whoever they can as quickly as they can. The turnover here is super fast. That being said, we were seated within 5 minutes. The first thing you will notice is that they really pack in the tables, way beyond fire safety seating limits. You are pretty much elbow to elbow with the other table, close enough to whisper sweet music into their ears… Not surprisingly, when thinking about comfort, outside it was probably 60ish degrees, inside it was probably 80 – 90 degrees. Some people like it really hot, and some people can probably argue they do this to match the Southeastern theme.
Beyond being seated it took a while to get any type of attention. We did check-​in on Unilocal which gives you a free thai ice tea, which was probably about 3 or 4 ounces, or about 3 sips. Obviously not enough to keep you hydrated and the repeated requests for water were ignored.
We ordered mee goreng and rendang nasi lemak. Then decided to also add the plump dumplings to our order, except it took 5 – 10 minutes to flag down the waiter.
The dumplings came out pretty much immediately. They were basically falling about and the sauce looking like it was plopped on there from 5 feet above the plate. The dumplings were mediocre and the sauce was not spicy, and just taste of peanut sauce. Not sure how this is one of their specialties, but it helped lower my expectations for the main dish.
Soon after my rendang nasi lemak came out. And we sat there waiting for the mee goreng. We waited and tried to flag down the waiter or owner but failed so…
We waited some more…
Then finally the owner came over and asked if we had another order. It was probably 10ish minutes by now, my food had sat there. After the owner passed along the message to the waiter, the mee goreng came out in a minute or two. My dish was already cold and the mee goreng was warm.
The meat was overcooked and indiscernible. I think it was chicken or pork? The portions were on the smaller side also and cost a premium compared to most Malay and Thai places.
After an unsatisfying meal it took a while to get the check. The owner did happen to ask us how everything was at the end and asked us to leave a review and comments on Unilocal,which as promise I am doing now. I never said it would be positive though.

Great Southeast Asian food with exceptionally fast service. I got the Mee Goreng with Beef ($ 13) and it was delicious (the egg in it was cooked exactly the way I liked) Would definitely come again! Remember to check-​in for your free iced tea!

As born and raised Malaysian, I approve I love mamak for a quick crave fix for Malaysian food :) The roti canai is a MUSSSST. Ask for extra spicy curry laksa it’ll come out just nice.
Your homegirl from Subang

Holy Mamak! What great food. I used to think the best malaysian food in the US was found at Penang restaurants in Boston and Philly. This comes pretty close if not the next best thing.
Unlike the traditional Roti Canai, this one is served with Lentil sauce. It was a welcome change and absolutely worth it. Only down side was that the sauce portion was too tiny. I guess when you pay east village rent, you can’t just hand out the sauce — Haha.
I had the rendang nasi lemak with beef. So freaking delicious. I would’ve order a second round of it had it not been for my order of Chicken lemongrass, pork dumplings and thai fried rice. All good stuff. And wrapped it up with a pulled tea. Make sure you make room for a nap when you are done, cause you will need it!

Super good… Phở bowl for the win!!!
The Thai ice tea was delicious… Each sip made me smile.
Vibe was relaxing perfect for a date or special event.

I am shocked that this place has such great reviews! We went here the other day for dinner and the food was decent, nothing special, but the worst part was that at the bottom of the Pad Thai there was a small metal rusty hook that we almost ate (luckily we didn’t) but we were still disgusted. We informed the waitress and her response was well you ate it all. After letting her know how dangerous and scary that could have been if we ate that she finally gave us a small discount. Due to that experience, I highly recommend that you DO NOT eat here or at least be careful because you don’t know what you will find at the bottom of your food.

Came here because of the numerous great reviews for this place.
My favorite dish was Uncle Plump’s Dumplings. The dumplings were juicy, moist, and placed on a plate of delicious, savory peanut-​flavored sauce.
The service was great as well! The manager was very kind and even gave me a free refill on my Thai ice tea, which I really appreciated!
If you’re looking to come when it’s not busy, try around 4pm on a weekday. Definitely come try this place out! They offer a good variety of Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian food.

After taking ages to decide on dinner, my sister suggested Love Mamak. We weren’t especially hungry, but felt that we should at least get something in our bellies.
RESERVATIONS/​SEATING:
It was a packed house at 8pm. We had made a reservation on Open Table, but I really don’t think they were really using it. Each table was squished next to the other, and it wasn’t a very big space for the amount of people eating there. The owner was very sweet and managed to get us a table away from the door, but not without a 15 – 20 minute uncomfortable wait next to eating patrons and servers squeezing past you every 10 seconds. There is really no waiting area, so just be prepared to get slapped around a bit.
FOOD:
Food was interesting. They serve Malaysian, Thai and Viet food, which I found to be a unique combination of cuisine. The servers can all speak Mandarin. The owner brought us two small glasses of complimentary Thai Tea, which was very nice, given the long uncomfortable wait we had just endured. We ordered some food based on my sister’s suggestions, as well as items I was craving. Since we weren’t too hungry, we ordered just two items to share:
Roti Canai — hot and fluffy naanlike bread with some dip, and it was delicious. Totally unexpected. A must order.
Bo Luc Lac Flank Steak — ok I guess I must be noob because I had no idea how to eat this. There was a small pile of steak chunks with a whole bunch of raw vegetables. My sister and I made quick work on the steak, which was cooked to perfection, but the vegetables almost seemed like a placeholder instead of more meat.
Maybe it’s because we weren’t super hungry, but the food was just ok. Service was meh. That’s all.

I haven’t had a chance to eat Malaysian since I moved to California, so when I came home to New York for a quick trip, I found this great, cute spot. Since my mrs and I usually eat viet and thai we strictly choose from the Malaysian section, which is something I really enjoyed from this place. You could choose between thai, viet and malay dishes, and looking from the pictures, they all look like solid choices.
We went with the Roti Canai and Nasi Lamak. The roti was great with the dipping sauce and perfect as an appetizer. it was thin but doughy and I wish I had a larger piece, but alas, i had to save room for the Nasi Lamak. We got the steak for our Nasi and it was so tender. The sauce was slightly spicy, but my favorite part of this dish was the coconut rice. So. Good!
We got the free thai tea with check in, and it did its service. This tea reminded her of our travels in Thailand, so it was a bit more authentic then the sweeter ones here, (But I prefer the sweeter ones hah).
Don’t expect star treatment from the staff though, they gave me a no nonsense business only approach.

Probably a 3.5, but I’ll go 4 because the food is good and the prices are cheap.
Thai iced tea isn’t the best. Taro boba tea is basically milk with boba. Skip.
The dumplings with peanut sauce are good. The chicken wings came out super hot, but were also tasty and satisfying (not spicy or super crunchy, but a solid wing). The pork buns I’d skip — pork was sliced very thin and doesn’t do enough in the bun, they probably need to use belly for this. The roti was easily my favorite appetizer, cooked so well, fluffy, and the lentil sauce was delicious.
For entrees, the rendang was pretty good. The chicken was cooked very tender and had good flavor. The sambal was sweet (seemed to be some fruit in there), with a little kick at the end. The Mee Goreng was delicious — oily egg noodles with a tasty sauce, with beef and tofu. Only thing I didn’t love about the dish was the tofu — was overcooked I think.
Service is terrible. Not one refill on water, and took about 20 minutes for the check/​credit card process. Sure the restaurant was busy, but I don’t want to see someone take my credit card, then proceed to run food and answer phone calls before swiping my card.

Came with my friend and we shared a seafood curry laksa and wonton soup. By checking in we also got free Thai iced tea.
The laksa was definitely my favorite. The broth was very rich and it came with shrimp, clams, chicken, and an egg. The noodles were also soft and chewy.
Prices are super affordable here and I hope to come back.

Roti canai was excellent– crispy and stretchy
The sauce it came with pairs well, but it is also extremely good by itself.
A bonus is the Thai iced tea that came with a check in on Unilocal

This is one of those super delicious places where you basically only go for affordable and unforgettable food and don’t worry about the service or ambience.
I was craving some thai food during my stay in New York. This place came up on Unilocal due to the abundance of reviews and I was intrigued by the one free thai ice tea upon checking in. My friend and I ventured upon this place. We were happy that we didn’t have to wait but we literally had to seat ourselves in a crowded corner. The restaurant was pretty dirty, crowded, and very loud. When I tried to use the restroom, there was an out of order sign so I asked a worker about it. No one gave me a straight answer (not sure if they even understood me).
The thai tea was absolutely delicious. I ordered the roti canai. Despite it being a bit oily, it was the perfect definition of street food– messy, delicious and then sauce was just phenomenal. The spicy pork dumplings were also very good and the spicy peanut sauce it came in was so good that I wanted to dip other food in it as well. We also ordered the pad kee mao which was a really good portion with lots of chicken and rich flavor. I absolutely loved my meal at love mamak.

The food: 4.5÷5
The pad see ew was my favorite dish… and probably the best pad see ew I’ve had. Ever. When the dish arrived, the veg and noodles had gloriously absorbed a lot of the sauce already, so they were essentially soaked with rich and decadent Thai goodness. Perfectly cooked noodles… not too soft with just the slightest bite to them.
The pad Thai was also quite good. This place uses very thin rice noodles – I do prefer the thicker ones, as it makes the dish easier to eat. But even so, the sauce had just the right balance of fish and saltiness, acid from the lime, and a little fattiness from the peanuts.
I loved the steamed pork dumplings. Great soft texture without being mushy, the pork was well-​seasoned, and there was just the right little touch of sauce on the plate.
The red curry was pretty average. I was disappointed after the other two dishes. The curry was too much veg, not enough broth. The bowl was full of chopped peppers, eggplant, onions, etc but only like 5 pieces of chicken and just enough broth the cover the bottom. The broth itself was oily and separated, and lacked the depth of flavor I’m used to with a Thai curry.
The ambience: ³⁄₅
The interior is clean for the most part but the windows were all blocked with this bamboo stuff, so very little natural light actually came in. The décor and tables need an update.
The service: ²⁄₅
The server didn’t know her menu at all, which made ordering hard. The dishes were brought out in random order… for example the curry came out without rice. The appetizers literally came out 30 seconds before the entrees. They really need to get their timing down. Also could have used a bit more friendliness or energy from the server. She looked like she didn’t want to be there at all.

Literally one of the worst dinning experiences I’ve ever had! Had reservations at 8 and didn’t get seated until 8:30. There was a line out the door and they pretty much said they weren’t honoring reservations. You literally had to stalk people and take their seat as soon as they got up. No one bothered to clean out table so we cleaned it ourselves. Never got way or drinks until after we paid and the place was calm enough for them to actually serve people. There was only two waiters there so we we felt bad for them.?it was clear that the place was mismanaged.
I can sometimes forgive bad service if food was good but that’s not the case here. When the food finally came out it looked like it was literally just throws on the plate. The presentation was very messy that it made the food not look appetizing. Anything that fried came out too greasy.
Will not be back.

A lovely little mom and pop restaurant in East Village. Don’t let the shabby interior dissuade you, the food is excellent here! I’d definitely give them 5 stars just for the food (although I don’t know how well the food would stand up to delivery.).
I took off a star because I felt kind of uncomfortable that the owner kept loudly blaming someone for causing his phone lines to go down and then proceeded to slam every receiver he had (like 5?!) down on the counter. YIKES! Talk about hostile dining environment. Also, as others have mentioned, the service is really spotty. For an NYC restaurant during Saturday lunch hour, I was surprised to find there was only one older female working as hostess/​waitress — the lovely gentleman’s wife, I assume? We were seated in a corner, which made it really difficult for us to get her attention when we needed something or wanted to grab our check.
On to the food though…
I decided to play it safe and going with a Thai dish that is hard to really mess up: the pad thai. My friend was a little more adventurous and went with a malaysian dish: the Mee Goreng. Both entrees used similar ingredients, but had different noodles (he had fat round noodles and I had the typical flat noodles) and used different spices — which resulted in two very different tasting dishes, both of which were very tasty. The Mee Goreng is spicier than the pad thai, so if you have a low tolerance, that is something to keep in mind.
I’ve tried my share of Thai restaurants around the city, and I have to say that Love Mamak’s pad thai is hands-​down my favorite! It was super flavorful and they were generous with the different mix-​in ingredients (tofu, chicken, etc.). I literally inhaled my plate of noodles and started eyeing my friend’s plate for more.
The Unilocal check-​in deal is a free thai iced tea, which is smaller than the regular sized, but still a nice little bonus. I can’t wait to be back and I’m definitely bringing friends with me!

SERVICE IS HORRIBLE, BUT THE FOOD IS AMAZING.
We made a reservation for 8 pm, arrived on time and probably were seating at 8:30 pm. The host kept promising us the next table and giving it to other parties which was very confusing. So overall, don’t bother making a reservation because the host kind of does what he pleases. And then our server was just plain rude, when you ask him for something he didn’t make eye contact or even appear to be listening. I don’t know, it was just bad. The kind you have to experience to understand.
Otherwise, the food is phenomenal. We started with the pork buns which were delicious, the meat was well seasoned and topped with a yummy peanut sauce. We also got the roti which was so delicious and flaky. For the main, we got the seafood laksa which was good too.
The free thai iced tea upon check in was yummy too.
So if you don’t mind the frustration of terrible service, come on by!

Came in here for a late night dinner on Monday. Overall I had a good experience.
The service was pretty good. The waiter didn’t bring us water until we asked but he was fast and nice. We used the check in to get the free Thai iced tea which was a plus.
Don’t come here if you’re looking for ambiance because the place is small and simple. It’s not ideal for dates but would work for groups.
We ordered the Thai dumplings for an appetizer and it was okay. I think the flavors could have been a little better since it seemed to be a little more on the bland side – would have liked to taste more of the ginger and garlic. We got the Ka Prao Sauce with chicken and Bu Luk Lak Flank Steak for dinner. Both dishes had very good flavor and tasted fresh! They were a little salty for me but overall the spices and taste were great!