Review of Nasi Lemak at Gokul Vegetarian Restaurant by iluvnippon

Ever since coming over to the dark side, it's been more than 9 years since we had our last Nasi Lemak.

While this isn't our first time visiting Gokul, we have always ordered other items on the menu.

At S$7.50 per plate, this is not an economical (vegan?) alternative to your friendly neighbourhood Nasi Lemak, but the awesome taste is to die for.

Breaking down the contents,

1. Rice - there were clumps in the rice, and although it did not affect the overall taste, perhaps it can be better (we ordered the chicken rice as well and there were no clumps in the rice). The coconut fragrance is there, so this is legit Nasi Lemak for sure.

2. Sambal chilli - we are not good at handling spice, so we're not in the best position to review the chilli but all we could say is that besides the fragrant spice, it had a sweet taste as well.

3. Spicy French beans, tau kwa and tempeh - this item was really flavourful and tasty, and a wonderful addition to the Nasi Lemak plate.

4. Otak-otak - they used a spicy marinade which was quite tasty but it did not taste exactly like the usual otak-otak. The texture was springy and chewy, somewhat like fishcake. There was no smoky fragrance of the char-grilled otak-otak so while we appreciate this tasty item on the plate, we think one should not expect it to closely resemble the usual otak-otak.

5. Keropok - while there was nothing exceptional about the keropok, we appreciate it's presence on the plate, it's crispiness adding variation to the dish. We didn't check with the restaurant but we assume and trust this item to be vegan friendly.

6. Fried Vegetarian anchovies and peanuts - a standard item for Nasi Lemak. The taste was good but we weren't sure if the anchovies are vegan friendly. It should be if they made it in-house but if it is from a supplier, we have heard that certain vegetarian anchovies are processed with egg in the factory and the producer does not declare egg in the ingredients because of supposedly negligible quantity. In any case, we trust the restaurant and give them the benefit of the doubt. It will be good if the restaurant can verify this as well.

Nonetheless, awesome Nasi Lemak and it will be even greater if it can be verified as 100% plant-based!