Dinner at Island Kitchen by Ellies

by Iyath Adam

For our Eating Out article series this time, we drop by Island Kitchen by Ellies – part of the Ellies restaurants in the Greater Male’ Area.

Located on the beach road of Hulhumale’, the restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating areas, perfect for dinner nights with your family, friends or even a quiet date night. 

We decided to sit in the indoor area, which was air-conditioned and had an interesting array of paintings on the wall. The staff were attentive and quick to provide us with a menu as soon as we sat down.  

The menu had a lot of great options. Different rice dishes, noodles, burgers, drinks, breakfast dishes and even a seafood bucket (although this one needs to be booked first)! 

We opted to go for the nasi lemak – from their quite comprehensive Asian menu – and for drinks, we went with an iced milk coffee. 

For those who might be a bit unfamiliar, nasi lemak is a Malaysian dish, consisting of white rice made in coconut cream and pandan leaves, a spicy sambal (Malay/Indo chilli paste) and some sort of meat. It almost always comes with a hardboiled egg, peanuts, fried anchovies, and sliced cucumbers on the side, to beat the savouriness of the sambal. 

The iced milk coffee arrived first. Cold, slightly bitter, it wasn’t as sweet as some iced coffees sometimes can be but well-balanced. 

Time for the nasi lemak! 

Visually, the dish looked great. Everything was plated just so with the rice dome, fried chicken piece and sambal on top along with the nasi lemak condiments. 

First off, the rice was very well-cooked and fluffy with each individual grain visible. The sambal was sweet, salty and went well with the spiciness of the added-on chilli paste. Along with the lightly fried chicken meat, the whole dish was put together well, delicious, and great for if you’re looking for a hearty dinner. 

Overall, the food was tasty and extremely satisfying. If you’re in Hulhumale’, we definitely recommend that you check out Island Kitchen by Ellies for some guaranteed good food.