Rasa Sayang

The food is excellent. Almost everything I had there was nice. The Hainanese Chicken and the nasi lemak were excellent. The prices are reasonable. I'm a Malaysian and I miss the food at home and this is a good sustitute.
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Mala Supramaniam - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Had been meaning to go to this restaurant for a while and passed it yesterday so thought we'd give it a try...

We planned to just have a few nibbles but couldn't decide on just a few! So ended up ordering Nasi Lemak, beef satay, spring rolls and steamed fish cakes which were all superb...

The mael was reasonably priced, £30 for all the above with a coffee and 2 beers, service was fine with a full restaurant...don't understand the bad comments!

Will definitely go back to try more food we couldn't manage to eat!
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Monday, January 04, 2010

We went to this restaurant , not expecting wonderful food because of the previous reviews. Must confess we were pleasantly surprised. Their Teh Tarik (pulled ceylon tea) was nice, their chendol (green flour jelly sticks with coconut milk, ice shavings and genuine gula melaka - brown palm sugar) is one of the nicest in London. Their wat tan hor - flat rice noodle sticks fried with cornflour and eggs with seafood was nice and the rice noodle sticks were nicely burnt on some to give it the hot wok flavour found in the Penang hawker variety. The otak, aroasted fish paste wrapped in banana leave was ok though a bit salty for my liking, but this is one of the few restaurants in London that still serve this dish. I would return to try their other dishes. Some but not all of their dishes are nice - I suppose it is knowing what to order.
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food critique - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Monday, October 19, 2009

mediocre food (the chicken with my nasi lemak was cold on arrival) and brusque service to the point that they nearly seated other diners in the seats for our late arriving friends.

not a lot of incentive to return!
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Ate here in summer and have only just gotten around to writing a review. We ordered several dishes. Most were passable, but nothing to write home about.

What really stood out were the Singapore noodles. The barely cooked noodles were covered in soya sauce without a hint of curry powder in sight. Words fail me...

If you are looking for an authentic taste of Malaysia/south east Asia you might want to look elsewhere.
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SB
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I ate at rasa sayang last night and was so upset that that I decided to to a review of the restaurant. I also looked at the previous and other reviews and I somehow stumbled across the review by the guardian of April 2009 which head line " NOTHING TO FIX EXCEPT FOR THE FOOD AND SERVICE"

I felt that the critic have managed to in the shortest possible number of words capture what I wanted to say of my dinning experience.

Food was not authentic and the service-what service???? Enough said.
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ViVian
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, October 11, 2009

I feel that the review by LONDON FOODIE is nothing but a write up/advertising feature about rasa sayang.

Granted we are allowed different opinions but the details to the point of minuteness as to decor and back ground of the food (history) and even the price of each dish seems to be overpowering for any ordinary food reviewer ie this sounds like and looks like a professional write up with a bit of humour sprinkled on top.

Hainanese chicken, carrot cake, char koay teow, ayam sambal, sambal chicken,sambal cluster beans, sambal ladies fingers and extra portions of rice for four people for only £42 + just dont add up. The average dish is between £6-£7 and LONDON FOODIE had 6 dishes + extra portions of RICE.

Say at £6/dish equal to £36 plus 2 portions of extra rice @£2.50 is already more than £40 and I doubt they would be so mean as to be drinking TAP WATER all night!!!! The only element of TRUTH is the question of the service staff..Atrocious

Food wise this place is a hit and miss. i was there yesterday and i wanted to write about my experince and when i saw the review by LONDON FOODIE, I wanted to puke!!!!! as it is highly MISLEADING
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duncan ho
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Thursday, October 01, 2009

Besides San Francisco and Shanghai, there is only one other place that I feel can rival London’s culinary diversity, and that is Singapore. I would gladly take a 12-hour flight to be able to eat there. The countless food courts, their wonderful Chilli Crab, the oyster omelettes that melt in your mouth, are just some of the many reasons why I keep going back. I love Singapore, and in my latest trip, I also discovered the most delicious Straits Chinese food.

I first came across the concept of Straits Heritage Cuisine a few years ago in Malacca, former capital of Malaysia. Straits Chinese food can refer to the cuisine that has evolved from the inter-racial marriages of descendants of late 15th and 16th century Chinese immigrants with natives of the region of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Peranakan and Baba-Nyonya are also the commonly used terms in Malay to describe this marriage of cultures and food. Needless to say, that the food is superb, complex, and richly flavoured with regional spices and pastes.

Rasa Sayang is not entirely Nyonya. Their menu is predominantly Malaysian/Singaporean hawker street food, and contains some of these nations’ favourite dishes like Chilli Crab, Char Kuay Teow and Pan-fried Carrot Cake. I was glad however to see some of my favourite Nyonya dishes in the menu like “Ayam Sambal” (chicken stewed in rich coconut curry) and Stir Fried Sambal Cluster Beans.

It was with much anticipation that I arranged to visit Rasa Sayang with my delightful Malaysian friend Charmaine Chow and her partner. I have been lucky enough to have experienced Charmaine’s Malaysian cooking a number of times, and knew that I would be in very good hands when ordering.

Rasa Sayang is simply decorated, aiming at functionality as opposed to style or comfort. The restaurant is small and the lighting is searingly bright. This is not a place designed to be restful but more like a canteen or a shopping mall eatery with a high turnover of customers and pushy, unfriendly waitresses.

We started with Hainanese Chicken with rice (£6.90) which we both agreed was very tender and succulent. I love the simplicity of this dish and the fact that the flavours come mostly from the delicious broth the chicken is cooked in. The broth is also served with accompanying rice.

This was followed by the pan fried carrot cake (£6.50) which was superb. Despite the name, the dish has no carrots but is made of pieces of rice cake & shredded radish (Japanese Daikon). These are pan-fried and served with bean sprouts, onions and other condiments. This was delicious and one of the best dishes of the evening.

The Char Kuay Teow (£6.60) was just as I remember having in the food courts of Malaysia and Singapore. The noodles were beautifully charred and combined well with the rich, dark and sweet soy sauce giving an intense flavour I have never managed to replicate at home. The seafood was good but not as abundant as it might have been, and the rice noodles soft and slippery like a good cheung fung. This is street hawker food at its best.

The Nyonya “Ayam Sambal” (Chicken Stewed in Rich Coconut Curry @ £6.90) was again amazing. The curry base (rempah) was incredibly complex, with hints of ginger, red chillies, cumin, coriander and belachan (Indonesian shrimp paste). I love belachan - despite the strong fishy smell and flavour, it is definitely an ingredient with a lot of umami.

We also ordered a couple of vegetable dishes – the Stir Fried Sambal Cluster Beans and Sambal Ladyfingers priced at £6.50 and £5.80 respectively. They were both excellent, and Charmaine and I had no trouble polishing them off with the extra portions of rice we ordered. The ladyfingers were nicely cooked, still pleasantly firm and not viscous.

Charmaine was very impressed with the quality and authenticity of all dishes that we tried, and our dinner companions and I agreed with her heartily. Our meal, at £46.20 for four people, would have been perfect had it not been for the poor level of waiting service.

Verdict – Wonderful, authentic Straits Cuisine in modest surroundings, and at very reasonable prices. The unfriendliness of the staff needs to be addressed. A place to explore the still relatively undiscovered Straits Chinese and Peranakan Cuisines in London. I will certainly return.
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The London Foodie - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 7
Thursday, September 24, 2009

i tend to discount bad / unfavourable reviews as a miss of the day and that if i believe everything in a review that is bad , i will end up going no where, eating nothing, watching no films and reading no books. However, there are times when one wish one had heeded the comments and reviews of personal experiences and be aware,one may escape the pitfalls and avoid much unpleasantness.

I was at rasa sayang last week on saturday with my girl friend for the first time as C+R was jammed pack and we were hungry and did not want to wait.

Was happy when Rasa Sayang managed to "squeeze" us in. Being a full house, we both did not expect everything especially service to be firing on all cyclinders BUT the disappointment in the quality of the food was terrible.

Maybe we have high expectations given hope by the good reviews and discounted the bad ones and that it was a full house,the food came out in a lackadiscal manner with us having our mains and half way followed by our starters and a missing dish in the end of the meal even though we have pointed it out to the staff twice whilst eating.The chicken curry was a disaster with the meat inside luke warm.

To add insult to injury the staff insisted that we had the dish when we ask for the bill.

Enough said.ONCE BITTEN NEVER TRY
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Voo Meng Duan
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Saturday, September 19, 2009

If you think you have a problem Melissa,just wait till you hear my experience on Tuesday 15/09/09.

That day was pouring down with rain and two of us ended up in rasa sayang (feeling of love for those who dont speak Malay).

Place was less than 5% full so expected everything to be at least ok in terms of food and service.

With one starter missing, came our main courses and drinks (I would have presumed that drinks will come before any food).

The curry sauce was hot BUT The chicken in it was COLD.We raised this with the waitress who took it away and I swear that it was MICROWAVED when it came back cause the dish came back within 3 -5 minutes and the sauce was bubbling away merilly.

When it came to settlement, no aplogies and an additional beer not ordered was on the bill. Pointed it out to waitress and a small debate started and in the end they did take it off.

With such a small number of customers present, I fail to see how this could have developed into such a fiasco of miss time service and bad cooking.
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shariffah hassan
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Thursday, September 17, 2009