Killiney Kopitiam

Killiney has been a favourite restaurant of mine for several years, our love affair beginning in 2012 when I first moved to Melbourne.
I’ve been out of town for a while so was absolutely dying to return for lunch but was a little apprehensive that it was not going to be as excellent as I remembered it being… This was not the case! My food was delicious and just as incredible as I remembered! I ordered the Chicken Curry with Roti Prata (it’s $ 9.50 or something ridiculously cheap) and it was yummy! The Roti is awesome to dip into the curry sauce which is not too spicy/​not too mild.
I tried the Singapore Coffee for the first time and it was also an absolute treat! Whoever thought to put condensed milk in black coffee needs a medal!
I will definitely be returning a few more times before I leave Melbourne– I still need my other fave dish, noodles with chicken and fish balls!
Check out this restaurant– cheap food and awesome quality plus the staff are gorgeous.

Cheap tasty Malay/​Singaporean food. This is my local and I come here way too often so I am slightly biased.
I love how the waiters/​waitresses here ALWAYS try to find a table for diners, no matter the size of your party, they do this without whining or pushing people out as I’ve seen many restaurants do when they get too big for their shoes.
I love that they have board games to entertain you even though the food always come out before you can say «I’m bored»
I love the price, most of their meal will cost you less than $ 10 and they are substantial servings.
Killiney is not a place for romantic dates, bear in mind they cater largely to poor and enthusiastic uni students so they are cheap, fast, and fuss free, and with these prices you happily accept that they may not taste 100% like your Malaysian/​Singaporean aunt’s cooking (if you are of Malay/​Singaporean origin)
My kids just love going to Killiney for lazy Sunday dinners, and if lazy and cheap sounds like your Sunday dinner too, then I think you might like it here :)

So the best thing about going to a Malaysian/​Singapore restaurant with your siblings and cousins? We order a bunch of food and just share EVERYTHING! There is generally 7 – 9 of us so we get to order lots of food to try.
This time round, we went for options like
— Mee Rebus
— Hokkien Har Mee
— Nasi Lemak Complete B
— Nasi Goreng
— Hainanese Chicken Rice
— Chicken and Fish Balls Mee Pok
— Roti 3x
And we also got drinks like
— Hot barley
— Milk Dinosaur
— Ice Kopi
Although we didn’t get to eat a whole lot of everything, we tried bits of most dishes and was satisfactorily FULL.
Highlights were the Roti and Nasi Lemak. The Mee Rebus lacked the flavour I am used to, the Hainanese Chicken Rice can never compare to what my mother makes. There are so many different options for Nasi Lemak, we got one that included most things.
The prices are pretty good, much cheaper than Mamak and Papa Rich but I think flavour wise, either of the latter options would be my preference.

So when a planned visit to Mamak in the city ended up being a rerouted trip to Killiney Kopitiam on Lygon Street, I was a little disappointed. Killiney is another non-​Italian option on the Italian dominated Lygon Street.
They also have great hawker food options at competitive prices, and our whole table decided to try a range of the menu but let’s get to the real news: The Nasi Lemak options! I was almost in Nasi Lemak heaven…
— — — — — — —
Nasi Lemak with Egg and Ikan Bilis
Nasi Lemak with Fried Tofu (Vegetarian)
Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken
Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken
Nasi Lemak with Fried Fish
Nasi Lemak with Rendang Beef
Nasi Lemak Complete A (Fish & Curry Chicken)
Coconut Rice served with egg, deep fried fish, curry chicken, sambal chilli, fried anchovies, peanut and sliced cucumber.
Nasi Lemak Complete B (Fried Chicken & Beef Rendang)
Coconut rice served with egg, fried chicken and beef rendang, sambal chilli, fried anchovies, peanut and sliced cucumber.
— — — — — — -
We went for the Nasi Lemak Complete B, which was definitely a great option considering it had two protein options. I would love to come back and try the fried fish and curry chicken.
Coconut rice was pretty good, not overpowered but with a nice hint of coconut. The egg was a nice hard boiled egg, split in to two which is how you will see Nasi Lemak served in many places. The Fried Chicken had a very nice flavour and was super crispy on the outside. The beef rendang unfortunately was not that great and the beef was very tough! The anchovies, sambal and other condiments were spot on!
The speciality which is the Kaya Toast was definitely a surprise to me, my in laws assure me that is authentic to how Singapore serves it. With big chunks of butter in the middle! The butter for me was overkill but the Kaya was brilliant.
Look forward to coming back and trying something else.

This place has cheap prices, a warm, cozy small town ambience and… yea that’s just about it. I admit I may have expected too much after hearing so many friends rave about it. Apparently it’s a franchise that originated in Singapore and traveled to Indonesia as well.
Selection wise Killiney’s menu offers a nice variety of hawker food. My friends and I were feeling nostalgic and decided to try something unconventional like mee pok and mee rebus which I’m sad to say is not their forte. I’d advice first timers to try something else.
But then again for these prices I really shouldn’t complain (it’s obvious they’re going for the uni student crowd). Here’s hoping that more reviewers will provide feedback and help them improve their menu because I think they have a good thing going on here, good locale and an established brand. All that’s missing is a few tweaks and adjustments in the kitchen.