Beehive Cafe, Thorndon, Wellington

This post was originally written for the Makan Blog Squad. Mr and Mrs Cake dined anonomously courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.

The Beehive Cafe is a surprising name for a Malaysian eatery (or so I think) - and indeed, at first look it appears more like a run-of-the-mill sandwich shop, with lots of cafe tables and some display cabinets. Our visit was in the evening – very handy to my work, so an easy on-the-way-home pit stop – and there weren’t many other punters, but it is apparently very popular with the lunch crowd.

We ordered a couple of very yummy-sounding appetisers and a main each, and the servers were very friendly and helpful. After a very reasonable wait (only about 15 minutes) all our dishes arrived.
The mini murtabak were little parcels of deliciousness, basically like roti samosas, with a nicely spiced lamb filling. There was also a wonderful satay dipping sauce, and though not overly peanutty it had a wonderful warm flavour that went wonderfully with the wee parcels.

Our other starter was a dish which combined chicken with lovely fresh salad veggies – and dull as that sounds was really tasty. It was topped with a zingy sweet chilli sauce – I’m not a huge sweet chilli fan but this was very flavoursome, not too sugary. Though this was an appetiser it was a generous portion and would make a perfect light meal option – it would be a great alternative to curry.

My rendang was very good, with a very complex spicy flavour and just a little bit of heat. The beef in it was well cooked and not tough (as I’ve often found in that kind of dish) – and the sauce was so good that I kept nibbling just a little more well after my belly was full.

Mr Cake ordered the fish sambal, which was a firey red colour, and as ordered was nicely hot, though not mouth-burningly so. It was a little sweet and had chunks if fish through it, though the fish wasn’t great – the dish was good but paled next to the rendang. Mr Cake adores roti so we couldn’t not try Beehive Cafe’s version, and it was fantastic – fresh and chewy and not too oily.

All in all we thought it was fantastic – it’s only open till 8pm so a good option for lunch or an early dinner, and being up by Parliament means it’s not in the prime evening eating zone – but we’ll definitely be back for more of that rendang!



 Beehive Cafe is located at 100 Molesworth Street (Molesworth Arcade), Thorndon, Wellington, ph 04 473 3370