This place have Kristang cuisine (Malaysian with Portuguese heritage). The staff can speak English well. It’s very homely atmosphere.
The flavor is very impressive, my favorite is Eggplant Sambal.
I don’t think I’ve had such an aromatic, strong but not overwhelming sambal dish.
Also their Devil Chicken Curry may taste mild initially but give it 5-10 mins and you’ll start to feel the burn. Very true to its name.
There’s an indoor and outdoor seating, no air condition. Also have event space, so you can call to booked if needed.
Walked in on weekday 👍
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
RM 20–40
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Tue 12 Dev 2023
We brought our school holidaying grandnewhew and grandniece from Singapore for a pre-Christmas feast.
Sat 2 Sep 2023
Our niece working in Singapore came back to Melaka with her two children for their school holiday break. She invited us to join her family at a popular Portuguese Cottage Restaurant near her house. This hidden gem is a repurposed squash court. The place was decorated with an interesting combination of plants, fish, squash rackets and several rustic items giving a nostalgic vibes. The indoor seating is in the two squash courts and the outer courts are where the outdoor seating, cashier counters and kitchen are placed. We relished popular Portuguese dishes like baked fish, chicken devil's curry, three flavours of prawns, squid fritters, mamak mee goreng, fried kangkong belachan, Big Ben's fried chicken, cincalok omellete, brinjal moreo and smoke duck aglio olio for Maegan only, creating cherished memories. The service crew were courteous and efficient. The prices are competitive and reasonable. Parking is freely available.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
RM 20–40
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Recommended dishes
Portuguese Baked Fish
If you are looking for Portuguese food. Instead of going to the Portuguese settlement, I would recommend this place.
Mostly the locals will dine here so the prices here are much more reasonable compared to the tourist hotspot. It's more local rather than catering to the tourist palate.
So far I recommend you to try the Devil's Curry and the Portuguese Grill. Don't worry, it's very tasty and it's not too spicy.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
RM 40–60
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 3
Recommended dishes
Portuguese Baked Fish
Came here all the way from Tanjung Sepat!
Uncle Ben always delivers. We really liked the burger. I think it's the best in town. Hard to find in Melaka. Ultimate Smashburger indeed... No joke man
Of course, must "whack" the chicken curry d*vil n fish. Necessity
Had a great n wonderful time here last night. Awesome camaraderie!
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Authentic portuguese food, like the fried chicken much. Spiciness within acceptable. Pay by cash or bank transfer. Lots of parking area.
Food: 4
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Place with good food.
You need Google Maps to go here since it's located around housing locality. Without maps, you will be lost.
The food quality and taste are good. With a decent amount of variety. There are vege options, and the restaurant can customise it to the needs of the customer.
It's a halal restaurant.
It has restrooms available for customers.
They have both options for cash and QR mode of payment.
Areas to improve will be to include dessert in their menu and improve on the ambience in the indoor sitting area.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
RM 20–40
Food: 4
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Place is located in a residential area, so one could easily miss this place (it is just further down the road from where the Ujong Pasir Tuesday pasar malam is held). However, the restaurant is by the road side and not in the middle of a housing estate. There is ample of parking just opposite the place as well.
The place has no indoor seating. Since all tables are outdoors, need to rely on natural breeze. So you might be sweating when having your meal if there are no breeze that day. They do have fans around so maybe you could opt for tables that are in front of the fan.
Menu only have a few items from meat (chicken, beef, mutton), fish, prawns, eggs, vege, and they even have a small selection of western food. Think of them as a zhu char place but with some Portuguese dishes.
We had the deviled curry chicken, cincalok egg, black pepper eggplant and Portuguese grilled fish (we had siakap).
The food here is amazing!! Truthfully, I've never had Portuguese food before so I didn't know what to expect (except for the cincalok egg). But the dishes all surprised us. Deviled chicken curry was really flavourful and tender, and the sauce was so thick and fragrant.
The eggplant dish surprised us the most. It was such an unassuming dish, with grilled/baked eggplant, topped with black pepper and salt I think, that was crunchy. Omg, the black pepper just contributed to the fragrance of the dish without being too spicy. The crunch from the black pepper also gave it some texture from the soft and moist eggplant.
We absolutely recommend both the deviled curry and the black pepper eggplant!
The Portuguese grilled fish was tasty as well. Fish was super moist and not overcooked in the slightest. As the fish was halved before it was cooked, the bottom part of the fish was charred which contributed to the smokiness to the sauce what was slathered on the fish. So good la, you need to try it on your own to understand how we felt when eating.
Already looking forward to returning to this place again when I'm in Melaka. 🥰
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Finally after years I managed to meet up personally with Ben.
A lovely affable guy and a great cook.
I first met Big Ben when Big Ben was still located in the Portuguese Settlement.
Fast forward several years and Ben has moved to a lovely new place which is well maintained.
The new place is calm and serene and it's peaceful to dine outdoors , a great feeling.
Ben has decorated his restaurant beautifully for Christmas. The Nativity scene is fantastic and a must see.
We ordered Mutton Vindaloo, Beef Semur which was delicious and tender, Bens Fried Chicken, Curry devil, Okra in Garlic sauce, kailan in garlic sauce and French Beans in garlic. And they were good to taste. Service was good with Ben personally attending to us. The dishes were not overly spicy.
The staff were attentive and good too.
Prices were decent and reasonable. My mum was shocked that it hardly cost us for all that food.
Continue to do a Great Job Big Ben and wishing you success.
I was expecting the best as Big Ben's was one of my favourite stall in Portugese Settlement (stall no. 6). They moved to this spot in Taman Sinn, just about 5 minutes drive from the Settlement. The shop area and ambiance is quite suitable with the setup. The issue here is the service, they are overwhelmed with the number of customers. We booked for a table inside and we arrived on time as well. It took about another 5 minutes before we got the menu to order (even that we prompted them). After that, it was an agonizing 50 minute wait for the food (which I felt was too long). I noticed there was no specific table numbering and they were serving the tables at different timings (those who came later got their food first). And then, the server even came and told us that the Portugese baked fish order was forgotten by the chef and advised that we need to wait another half an hour just for the fish. We cancelled the dish as we waited too long already. The portion of the dishes was okay, the large was for about 5 people. The food was tasty, the prawns & squid are fresh and pricing was reasonable as well. Unfortunately, the rice was too little to be charged RM10.50 for a big bowl (approx 4 bowls of rice). Then at the end, when our bill came.. The fish was charged. This was unacceptable. And also we were blamed by the cashier and one of the worker that we cancelled the fish and they did not forget the dish as we confronted why the chef forgotten the dish. I was appalled by the response and my wife flipped as well. This is not the same service we got when they were in Portugese Settlement. Please improve your service by adding more workers to handle the crowd and put in table numbering to avoid missing the order of serving. Food was good indeed, hope you improve Chef Ben.
A must go place to eat while in Malacca!!
Authentic Eurasian (Devil's Curry)/ Portuguese food offering and the must try Grilled Brinjal (Egg plant) dish goes well with the Tiger Beer!!
Mutton, Fish and Beef dishes offerings are tasty at reasonable pricing and portions too.
Say hi to Chef Ben when you are there !! 👍😀
