Malay Chinese Noodle Bar review, Malay Chinese Circular Quay, Sydney’s best laksa, har mee Sydney, Malaysian food Sydney

I’ve never seen a noodle queue like it. A line of fund managers, brickies, sparkies and silks, stretching on to the horizon – or at least to the steps behind Jacksons on George. They have come to Circular Quay for the return of the soup king. The second coming of a deeply soothing laksa for less than $20.

Actually, it was more like the sixth coming of Malay-Chinese, which the much-loved Woon family opened in 1987. The original site was near the corner of Elizabeth and King, but it’s jumped around the CBD a few times since. Most recently, the Woons were serving chefs and lawyers on Hunter Street before being turfed out in December to make way for the new metro station.

In April, the canteen reopened as a noodle bar in another of those “exciting food and lifestyle” precincts you can find at the base of most new office towers. The space, which has a few seats, is smartly decked out with jade-green tiles and neon lights. Bring a friend and draw straws to decide who pounces on one of the sheltered tables and who orders the food. I time the wait to be half an hour when the line reaches its peak.

Most people are here for one of the 11 laksa lemaks (not to be confused with laksa assam, which is a fishy, tamarind-sour soup you can enjoy at Epping’s excellent Penang Cuisine).

The coconut milk-infused broth is balanced, rich and slightly sweet, with a dusky, dried-shrimp flavour in the background. Add a glob of chilli sambal if you want to achieve lift-off.

Protein options include beef ($15), skinless chicken ($16) and a seafood medley with al dente prawns ($17.50). I’m most fond of the chicken drumstick number ($17) that allows you to twirl shreds of soft, dark meat through snappy vermicelli, hoovering up a tofu puff here and there. Galangal and turmeric are front and centre, and the soup is finished when all that’s left is a puddle of oil-stained broth, the colour of something you might see a dermatologist about.

Is it Sydney’s best laksa lemak? Maybe. A proper answer needs more investigation, more time for comparison with the heady competition at Parramatta’s Temasek, Albee’s Kitchen in Campsie and a dozen other places. But I will say that Malay-Chinese has the best har mee in Australia. (Two-hatted Mr. Wong chef Dan Hong reckons it’s the best in the world.)

Some noodle soups are one-dimensional and become boring around the fifth slurp. Har mee is not that soup. Har mee is built on a foundation of prawn heads, stock-simmered for as long as it takes to unlock their powerful umami and magic. Malay-Chinese starts its har mee ($16) process at 4am for a brick-red soup that pings taste receptors you never knew existed.

There’s also pork, whole prawns, water spinach and hard-boiled egg to hold your interest, plus a textural two-step of fat hokkien noodles and rice vermicelli. Because of the long cooking time, the soup is only available every Tuesday and Friday. Har mee fans should note that there’s an Ashfield outpost of Malay-Chinese where it’s a weekend special.

Malay-Chinese has the best har mee in Australia. Mr. Wong chef Dan Hong reckons it’s the best in the world.

Other dishes from the short menu are more sympathetic to white shirts. Char kwai teow flat noodles ($16) radiate smoky, caramelised flavours from the wok, bolstering prawns and ruddy jewels of Chinese sausage. Beansprouts provide terrific crunch.

Combination hor fun ($16) is a similar fried and charred good time, but with the added bonus of a silky egg gravy which sticks to the noodles like carbonara sauce on spaghetti.

Hainanese chicken ($15.70) is supremely juicy, with flavour-packed poached-chook breast or thigh bedded on rice and covered liberally with spring onion, ginger, soy and coriander. If I worked nearby, it would be my lunch every second day.

A combination clear soup ($16) is the go-to for anyone after something as filling as laksa but with considerably fewer kilojoules.

Kosta’s Takeaway has also set up shop in the precinct and stacks its sandwiches so high you can share one between two. Lode Pies & Pastries is next door for an excellent pain au chocolat. But nowhere has the hordes of customers like Malay-Chinese.

With gold-standard classics at reasonable prices and one of Sydney’s friendliest restaurateur families at the helm, why would you queue anywhere else?

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine