This place is now McNoodle House...do I hear a law suit looming from a certain 'Mc'giant? Anyway, came on the recommendation of family, but was totally disappointed. Ordered the wonton lo mein (soup on the side). Usually this means a larger portion of noodles than the same with soup. I got a few smallish wontons, underneath a small pile of very greasy noodles. It was quite gross - the plate was swimming in oil. In fact, all the portions are very small for the price. The beef brisket was dry and tough. The special rice in a stone pot, which requires 20 mins to cook, was not worth the wait. Again the portion was small, with hardly any meat. Not impressed at all. With so many other choices close by, why would anyone waste their money on this one?

We personally came to know of Mak's by pure chance, looking for a place to eat in the Alexandria area (because all the other places like VIvacity and the like were booked). Needless to say, they're congee is just spot on! Those who do not like their congee on the creamy side will be converted once they try Mak's - it's simply wonderful (and better than Tai Hing's by a long shot).

Anything else that's good in Mak's?" you may ask. Well, that's the problem. While they serve a stellar bowl of congee the "rice bowls" that they seem to be so known for sadly do not live up to their hype - on our second visit we ordered a Chinese sausage rice bowl (which we had to order in advance because apparently it takes at least half an hour to cook). Not only was the dish dry as the Sahara (it practically had no sauce), but there were only a few bits of spareribs (only 4-5 small pieces plus the same number of sausage halves). Their Chicken Knees are worth a mention though - at par with the ones being served at other note-worthy establishments such as Kirin and Fisherman's Terrace in Aberdeen. While they weren't exactly as crispy as we would have liked them, they were bursting with flavor!

Now, let's talk about the service. For me this is where Mak's Noodle Restaurant falls short. When we went in we were ushered to a table that was situated right next to the cashier, somewhere near the back of the restaurant (we didn't mind it at all). We went on to order our dishes and proceeded to wait. Though the place wasn't busy it took us quite some time before we could flag down a waitress and ask for a tea refill, and while the waitress could be seen chatting with some of the restaurant's Cantonese customers (we were the only ones who weren't there - and we couldn't really speak cantonese so we resorted to english instead as a means of communication) she treated us rather coldly. Truth to be told she always seemed annoyed whenever we would flag her down just to ask for some more tea.

The saga continues! We ordered another bowl of congee as well as an order of chicken winglets. The lady who took our order kept asking us to repeat what we said (she apparently couldn't understand the word "winglets") so we had to point it out to her instead. What seemed like an enternity was actually close to half an hour and when we asked a waitress to follow-up our order she said that she didn't know what we were talking about. So she called another lady over and they were talking in rapid Cantonese until she told us in engrish that "oh, I'm sorry. I didn't get your order" in such an unapologetic and sarcastic tone. After that little episode the two ladies that approached us and the cashier were talking to each other in Cantonese again, no doubtedly about those customers who keep asking for tea and making such a big fuss about their order - while I don't understand Cantonese I'm proficient enough in Hokkien so I caught a few words (and let's just say those words weren't exactly pretty).

That experience was one of the most insulting situations I've ever been in. The waitresses showed preferential treatment to their Cantonese customers and didn't treat us with the same level of service that they gave everyone - racism even among your own kind. We were tempted just to get up and leave but we didn't want to disgrace ourselves and the restaurant so we waited patiently for our bill (which took even longer to arrive) and left a meager one dollar tip (we were also tempted to leave no tip).

Is the food good? Definitely.

Is the service good? Depends on who you are. IF you can converse in Cantonese then there's no excuse for you not to go to Mak's! If you can't (like us) then stay away from the restaurant like it had the plague - though I suppose there is no harm in trying it out. Who knows, you might have a different dining experience.