Tropika Malaysian/Thai Cuisine

r-r-r-radish cakes, come to momma!

Food:

On this night, I luckily had 3 dining companions, which enabled for a multi-appetizer, multi-entree meal (of course this could not have been accomplished had we not had the 2 entertainment book coupons)! Food was good, as usual, with the appetizers ousting the entrees on a quality scale.  In chronological order, we savoured and feasted on the following:

Stir-Fried Radish Cake (2 orders!) - Best dish of the night, hands down.  Tropika's version of the radish cake is definitely like no other.  It is ridiculously tasty, perfect in texture, more darker in appearance (lots of soy sauce is used), and very flavourful.  I like that is is comprised of little chunks of radish cake, molded into a semi-circle and stir-fried (as opposed to pan-fried or steamed).  Two thumbs waaay up!

Roti Canai (2 orders!) - The roti here is one of the best, imho.  It's not as flaky as one would like, but I like that (very minimal) sweet taste to it, and I love that accompanying sauce!

Chicken Satays - Little morsels of nicely-marinated chicken thighs...already quite good and with the peanut sauce? Ten times more delicious!

Pad Thai - I don't particularly love the Pad Thai here but always end up ordering it.  The portion is actually quite generous, though I'm not quite feeling the ketchup-y sauce.  The noodles are kinda dry, but I do like the tofu, chicken and shrimp that it comes with.

Green Curry Chicken with Coconut Rice (on the side) - The curry here is actually just ok too.  One can tell that it is prepared to cater to the Western palate with a substantially bigger ratio of coconut milk.  I actually prefer my curries to be more spicier, but this one was ok.  The rice was not as coconut-infused as I would've liked but it paired well with the curry!

Sweet & Sour Fish - Perhaps we had ordered the wrong dish, but this dish was the biggest disappointment of the night.  Not sure what kind of fish it was, but it was quite dinky and hardly meaty.  There was, however, a generous amount of veggies - diced peppers, tomatoes, onions...and pineapple.  The server also deboned the fish for us, which was a plus.

Sambal Beans-This was a great choice! Once again, good portion of nicely fried (and then stir-fried) long beans tossed in minced pork, xo sauce, chilies and shrimp paste.  Love, love, love the flavourfulness of it all!

Service:

Ok - not praise-worthy nor something to complain about. Though I wonder where the female servers are? :S

Value:

Reasonably priced (and even better with an entertainment book coupon! :) )

Ambience:

Arrived here on a Monday night and the restaurant was still about 3/4 full!  This decor is quite minimal, no music, but it's fine. A little loud

Overall: 7.6/10

Yay: Tropika has multiple locations, accepts varied coupons (try looking in the Georgia Straight if you don't own a Ent. book), great for family dinners and serves wonderful food all around.  Come for the radish cakes alone...mmmm

Nay:  Their entrees are good, but not spectacular.  Their drinks, though extensive, are not very good....and where are the female servers when you need one? lol





Posted by: J