makan@Alice's - Thornleigh, Sydney.

Sunday: when the clear blue sky makes you feel miserable if you're inside the whole day. Luckily we've organised an outing so that the day wasn't wasted! Alice's is one of my favourite eateries on the North Shore for authentic Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine and has been reviewed by bloggers such as NQN and Helen at GYF. The high quality of food, staff attentiveness and variety of dishes are just some of the factors that make this eatery highly popular amongst locals and also customers from all over Sydney.


Customers come to Alice's for the Kuih too. It's displayed proudly at the front counter and it is often the case that customers will take a box or two...or three..before sitting at their tables as there is a high chance that when paying, the kuih which you want is gone. From my tasting of almost all of the varieties on offer, I normally indulge myself in a box of Kuih Lapis (nine peelable layers of rice flour - bottom left of the picture) and Kuih Serimuka (natural pandan flavoured coconut custard top with a coconut cream glutinous rice base - bottom right of the picture).

Did Alice's recently change their daily specials? Last time I went, I vaguely remember that I ordered Har Mee on Sunday, but it now appears that Mee Rebus is the Sunday special. Saddened by this fact when ordering on my false belief that Sunday still had the Har Mee special,I was informed by the waitress on the contrary, I quickly change my mind to Hainanese Chicken Rice. With the other members of my group ordering a Nasi Lemak and a Chicken & Prawn Laksa.

Home Brewed Barley Drink (Cold - it's available in Hot too). I'm a fan of drinks which have ingredients that you can eat after/during; so the past few visits to this eatery, I've been ordering this drink particularly. The barley is chewy and absorbs some of the sugary drink so it has a hint of sweetness when eaten. The drink isn't as cold as I'd expect, I'd even go as far as to say that it's room temperature and the 'cold' element is sufficed by a few cubes of ice. Perhaps an improvement to this would be to refrigerate a few drinks in anticipation of it being ordered. Despite this, it's a good substitute to my typical ordering of Young Coconut Juice.

Here Comes The Food.

Hainanese Chicken Rice: The simple presentation of this dish is coupled by the tender chicken and mouth-watering smell that wavers from the freshly steamed rice. I'm a bit confused though as this dish normally comes with a sauce of garlic, ginger, shallots; but is replaced by the sweet-chilli sauce. The chicken is at room temperature, soft and easily falls off the bone. The amount of thick soy sauce that is drizzled on top is enough as to not overpower the chicken. The rice is flagrant and generous.
Nasi Lemak with beef: you know that an eatery is 'good' when a person of Indonesian background professes that the nasi lemak is as good as their mother's home cooking. This will definitely be the dish that I try on my next visit. Although I did manage to taste a few morsels and can say that the sambal is almost as addictive as the tender beef that has been cooked a long period of time, such that it easily falls apart in your mouth.Chicken & Prawn Laksa: there is a generous amount of prawns given as well as fish cake and noodles. Whilst I haven't had the laksa here eat-in before, my previous take-away experience for laksa at Alice's was a bit disappointing. When arriving home and mixing the stock and ingredients together, it saddened me that I was only given one prawn and the amount of noodles were half of what you would get if you were to eat-in.
Something that you don't see everyday ... Twins!

Makan@Alice's
262-264 Pennant Hills Road, Cnr & Entry via Bellevue St.
Thornleigh, NSW 2120
Sydney, Australia

Dinner:
Thursday - Sunday
6:00pm - 9:00pm

Lunch:
Tuesday - Sunday
11:30am - 2:30pm

Ph: (02) 9484 8288

(NB: Call for lunch/dinner if you want to secure your group a seat, during the peak hours of lunch/dinner it may be a bit of a wait if you come without a reservation)

mobile: 0415 864 327
e-mail: aliceskuih@optusnet.com.au