Masala Wheels, PJ Old Town

[This restaurant is on our NINE Favourite Meals of 2020 list. See the post here]

[Pork-free] Let Masala Wheels take you to flavour-town!

Masala Wheels (MW) finds the perfect balance of serving up delicious South Indian cuisine while supporting the underprivileged.

An accredited social enterprise, MW was at the forefront during MCO to provide #payitforward sponsored meals to the poor, marginalised and frontliners.

In fact, social work has been part of MW’s DNA from the get-go; it started as a food truck offering free meals in 2015 before it opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in PJ Old Town. Besides providing free meals, MW also empowers marginalised youth by training them in F&B skills.

*Find delicious banana leaf rice under the big tree*

We enjoyed our meal here. Three big trees shaded us from the scorching sun as we tucked into banana leaf rice loaded with luscious and bountiful curries.

*Take a seat, and the friendly staff will come with a tray of dishes*

Service is prompt and friendly; staff with effervescent smiles would bring a tray of dishes to customers waiting at tables.

Let us recount the ways MW pleases: The standard Banana Leaf Rice (RM8) comes with a variety of chutney and veggies arranged above the leaf’s spine (we counted nine including poppadom). We especially enjoyed the cabbage and brinjal sides.

*Nine side dishes including poppadom on our banana leaf*

Six curries are offered here to drench your rice with – three vegetarian (dhal, yoghurt, and onion), and three-meat based (mutton, crab and chicken). Standouts were the dhal, onion and crab.

*Six delectable curries to drench your rice with…*

There were 16 dishes available that day (look out for the list on a whiteboard) – so you’ll be spoilt for choice.

*Beautiful banana leaf rice drenched with curries*

We settled for two dishes to share – Mutton Peratal and Mutton Bone Marrow Curry (RM10 each).

The peratal was delicious – tender mutton chunks cooked with a variety of spices to yield a gravy that’s mild but flavourful.

The bone marrow curry was equally satisfying with a creamy, flavourful gravy that’s infused with onion, spices and bone marrow. While not fiery (i.e. pedas), the curries were delicious.

We HIGHLY RECOMMEND this place for great food, service and social work.

We will return with more friends to try their other dishes; the big trees kept us cool from the sun at high noon.