Food@Melaka – Italian Foods at Coconut House

November 10th, 2006

When you’re in Melaka and visiting around the heritage area like The Stadthuys and old Chinatown such as Jonker Street, remember to drop by at an unique Italian restaurant called Coconut House (椰子屋), for an endeavor of food indulgence.

Self-declared as the only Italian restaurant in Melaka, the Coconut House is undeniably well-known for its pizzas, which are baked in traditional style - woodfire.

Where is Coconut House?

The Coconut House is located at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock (also known as Heeren Street), the place where Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum, Hotel Puri and Baba House are located. Coconut House is situated directly opposite the Baba House. Click here for location map of Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and the landmarks mentioned. This Italian restaurant is housed in an old residence numbered 128 built during Dutch occupation. Don’t be fooled by the name; this restaurant is not specializing in coconut drink haha

The interior of Coconut House Melaka is still preserved with a flavour of old architecture assembling lifestyle of a traditional English-educated Chinese home (wow… what a complex description I’m making here haha).

OK, enough of descriptions. I have yet to introduce the main attraction in this restaurant – food :p I have yet to try and evaluate every item in the menu (well, quite impossible right, unless the boss offer me a treat haha), but I shall gladly share a few of my top favourites, as follows.

Irish Coffee

I’m not really a coffee lover, but this Irish coffee definitely captured my drooling tongue. It’s almost a fantastic blend to deliver memorable taste. I’m not exaggerating here; I’m speaking from my real personal experience.

There are 4 visible layers of blend in the Irish coffee – begins with cream bubble on the top, following by coffee, whiskey (alcoholic of course), and finally boiled sugar. I’m sure the look itself as seen from this picture, has already won your heart

The blend looks so nice that, I was hesitating whether to stir the drink hahaha.

My Pocket Pizza

The Coconut House is offering a wide variety of pizza menu items served in regular size. However, if you’ve already taken your meal, and just wanted some light bites, try the small pizza called My Pocket.

The skin is thin, and the ingredient filling is simply amazingly yummy! Two thumbs up! As mentioned above, Coconut House is known with its woodfire cooked pizzas. Baking in woodfire, though takes longer time, but surely delivers better taste comparing to the modern way of electronic oven cooking.

Rosemary Chicken

Roasted chickens are available everywhere. Though all the roasted chickens we’ve eaten are marinated; but usually, the marinating efforts are only seen on the skin, not the meat! Can’t really taste any special taste on the meat.

But, the rosemary chicken at Coconut House is special. When the waitress recommended this dish to me, I doubted if I should order an ordinary roasted chicken. However, impressively, it has not failed delivering satisfaction to me. The marinating rosemary taste could be gladly sensed on the meat, till the bone. No joke.

Homemade Ice Cream is Below Satisfaction

On a side note, the homemade ice cream doesn’t suit my personal preference. It’s like eating a frozen piece of ice ball, instead of smooth creamy dessert.
Pricing

Comparing to other alternatives of foods in Melaka, the pricing at Coconut House is considered a little bit higher than average. But, if you’re comparing the price in relative to Italian food, then it’s just normal.

Following are today’s prices for the 3 drooling menu items introduced and shown above:
Irish Coffee – RM 9.50
My Pocket Pizza – RM 8.00
Rosemary Chicken – RM 6.00

Environment

The Coconut House is not polluted with noisy environment. In fact, it’s quite a good place for a small group of pals to have a chit-chat session, or simply alone reading your favourite book, or taking a rest studying on map to plan your journey.

The attendants I met at Coconut House Melaka were friendly too. They were good at giving suggestions.

Future Plan

At the moment of this writing, the Coconut House Melaka is currently on the way of preparing a new menu set of vegetarian Italian foods. If you’re a vegetarian or simply sick of meats, perhaps you’ll be able to indulge yourself with vegetarian Italian course on your next visit.

Branch in Kuala Lumpur

The Coconut House is originated in Melaka, but there’s also a branch in Kuala Lumpur, located at Jalan Pudu Lama. But, personally, I’ve never tried the food at Coconut House Pudu, not sure my favourite menu items taste the same other there.

Revisited on 7th Jan 2007

Last 2 days, I revisited Coconut House with a famous Malaysian teen blogger, Jason Lioh, for his food review assignment.

The story first posted above was written based on a visit at night. Yesterday, we were there for lunch instead. All I can conclude, it’s better to visit Coconut House Melaka at night instead of noon We came across a few unfulfilled menu items (one of that was Rosemary Chicken), as they were sold off the night before. Besides, there weren’t enough chefs at noon, and thus orders took a long time to be fully served.

The My Pocket pizza introduced above is actually a “new breed” evolved from the most popular pizza at Coconut House – Calzone. We get to taste the legendary Calzone this time, a flopping pizza stuffed with Ricotta, Mozzarella and 3 types of cheese. Calzone is filled with sufficient fresh tomato cubes; hence it gives you plenty of natural juices in each bite. Thumbs up for Calzone, I like it. It costs RM12 for a regular size.

Since Rosemary Chicken wasn’t ready for order yet, we tried roasted marinated pork instead. Except its uneven meat tenderness (edges were particularly hard to be chewed), this roasted pork is worth trying for its deep marinating taste.

Italian food restaurant is never missing with pasta or spaghetti. We ordered the Baked Seafood Spaghetti. Though the main player of spaghetti - tomato source, is satisfyingly (satisfying only, but doesn’t mean excellent) tasted, but there weren’t sufficient variety of seafood for what we were paying. Despite being called seafood spaghetti, we only found a few pieces of thinly-cut squid and clams. Yet, it costs RM20. If I pay RM20 in Kuala Lumpur of Petaling Jaya for seafood pasta, I could easily get better portion with oyster and prawns.

Being adventurous, Jason ordered a special salad – Warm Rocket Salad, which is described as “fried bacon with red onion, thyme & pine nut, mixed with fresh Rocket and Balsamic Vinegar”. Hehe… I would say this Rocket Salad doesn’t appeal to Malaysian taste in general, as the smell of aged vinegar is too strong. If you’re adventurous into food, you may try it out though.

Though there are still a lot more dishes that I’ve not tried, but based on this post, I think you know it well of what are the foods recommended, and what otherwise, at Coconut House Melaka

By the way, Jason actually visited Coconut House Melaka for twice in 2 days, to continue reviewing and evaluating the foods at wider perspective.

Related Previous Posts

• Food@Melaka – Dutch Harbour Café
• Lemang Tonight
• Food@Melaka - Chocolate Fondue and Desserts at Sweet Sensations
• Food@Melaka – Capitol Satay Celup
• Ekspo Melaka 2006 Begins Today at MITC

Entry Filed under: Foods

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