Satay Celup @ Restoran Capitol Satay

The line stretches along the row of shops leading to the restaurant, people standing by the roadside with cars speeding past them. All with a hungry look in their eyes, aiming and talking and plotting on how to maximize the space on the table with food.

This is not a script from a local drama, but it’s a local scenario that repeats itself very often. This was how I saw with my own eyes on the evening I decide to go and try the Satay Celup Restaurant everyone talks about. The line was long, in fact, if you count by time, the line is an hour long. That’s how long I stood there waiting for my turn to go into the restaurant.

Capitol Satay was said to be the origin of Satay Celup in Malacca before places like Ban Lee Hiang existed. With over 80 types of skewered food to choose from, you’d be surprise if you don’t see large groups going back for 2nd helpings. At RM0.80 per stick, it’s also cheaper than the ones we can get in KL.

No matter how big your group is or even if you are just a single patron, you will get your own table to sit on. Yup, that’s how it works there. You go there alone or in a group of friends, you still get one table to yourself. There’s no sharing of tables at all unless you’ve made your deal with the other patrons outside to share the space.

Once you’ve been assigned a table, the waitress will ask you to go pick and choose what you want from the display area while they clean up the table (if there’s someone seating there before you) and get the curry sauce ready. By the time you’re back at the table, a pot filled with boiling curry sauce would have appeared in the middle of the table and the waitress will then come around with two huge scoops of ground peanuts, sugar and various herbs and spices to mix it all right in front of you. I suspect, really suspect (so it’s not a proven theory but just my own hunch) that at the end of the day once we’ve eaten our fill and pay our bills, they’ll take the pot of curry to the back and recycle them.

Well, that’s just my theory anyway, don’t let that stop you from going there, it certainly didn’t stop me from eating there. After all, how many pots of curry do you think they can make in a day? Now, aside from what they’ve placed in the display area, there’s also extras like giant prawns, squids and such but these are priced separately, so you better check with the waitress before ordering or you’ll end up with a large bill and not knowing where the charges come from.

The hour long wait actually reflected to an hour long meal, literally I was sitting there for an hour, dipping sticks and sticks of Skewered meat into the pot and watching it boil and wolfing it down. It was a messy scene but this same scenario appears to repeat itself on every table there. So you won’t have to feel so guilty about dirtying the table. For those of you who wants to be mean and if you’re lucky to get seated by the entrance, start staring at those that’s still lining up and laughing while you eat. Definitely will make a trip back there again if I were to go into Malacca again, but I was told there’s another better place to go that’s also highly recommended by the locals so it really depends. If I’m there with some locals, then I’ll go where the local go.

Restoran Capitol Satay
41, Lorong Bukit Cina,
75100, Melaka
Contact No : 06-283 5508

Opening Hours:
5pm onwards

Ratings:
Food – 4/5
Service – 3½/5
Cleaniness/Ambience – 3/5
Value for Money – 3/5

Map:

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