Melati (Peter St)

I have been going to Melati for many years and it is still my favourite Malaysian restaurant in London. The staff are lovely and I have enjoyed every meal I have had here. This place has been around for a very long time and has become a Soho institute - there is a reason why it has survived so long, and that is because people love coming back.
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Delores VanCartier - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I hadn't been to this restaurant since the 80's and I could see why. I was very dissappointed. The best way to describe it is that the food was like yesterdays left overs warmed up. There was no spark or life to the food and for that it was expensive.
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Fitpaul
5 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Saturday, October 29, 2011

We ate here yesterday for lunch and chose 4 starters and 1 main to share between two of us. Tom Yum soup huge bowl of, and the spicy coconut chicken soup was the best Ive had. The lamb patties were gorgeous and you could really taste a multiple of flavours. Soft shell crab always a good one. To finish the spicy fried chicken wings in lashes of red chillis spring onions mmmm the batter was amazing. The helpings here are very generous and a quick glance around the room I saw tiny ladies eat masses of food.

Our host was lovely, very friendly and I loved the fact he knew I was a geordie!

A WINNER!
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Rosie Morse
10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, March 18, 2011

I've been eating at Melati every week for the last six months or so and simply can't understand some of the negative reviews here.

The manager, Sam, and his team are always friendly and professional; ask for a dish to be prepared with more or less chilli, for example, and your request will be accommodated. The surroundings may not be the most opulent but they're comfortable and it's great fun lingering with a beer watching the denizens of Soho pass by through the glass frontage.

Among the standout dishes are the kambing chilli rice (lamb fillet, thinly sliced and prepared with chilli and onions) and a succulent beef rendang, which is on a par with any I've had in London.

Melati provides good food, friendly service and excellent value for money, in my opinion. It's well worth a visit.
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Ajay Ramgoolam
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I ordered Satay Beef as a starter and Nasi Lemak as a main course.

Nasi Lemak came before the satay. The satay chicken (exactly! I ordered beef!) came when I was about to finish my Nasi Lemak.

Both dishes were disappointing and I didn't think they were at all authentic.
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Giggle Giggly - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Friday, April 09, 2010

I am Malaysian myself and despite Melati billed itself as serving traditional and authentic Malaysian cuisine, I regret to say this could not be further from the truth.

I checked out the restaurant with a friend of mine and we went for the Set Menu C, which comes out to £20 per person with a reasonable amount of food. The place was not very crowded, however service was exceptionally slow; it took a good 15 minutes after our order went in for the waitress to serve us with a starter set comprise of chicken satays, sesame toasts and spring rolls, which is hardly anything sophisticated. To their credit, the quality of the starters was excellent though and the satays were some of the best I have ever tasted.

The main course, however, were extremely disappointing. The Beef Rendang was not spicy at all, and the beef was rather tough. In addition, the gravy was not flavourful nor savoury, to which I suspect was largely due to the absence of serai (lemon grass).

Next came the Sambal Prawns. Despite it looking promising, I was quickly disappointed. There were only SIX prawns in the whole dish and the sauce was very watery. However the biggest complaint has got to be the chef opted to use bell peppers instead of chilli peppers to cook the prawns. Sambal is supposed to be rather hot and despite I understand there might be a need to tone down the hotness to cater to the British taste, I felt as if I was eating sweet chilli prawns instead.

Stir-fried vegetable was pretty much the usual fare one gets at any Chinatown restaurant and although it was not bad, it was nothing exceptional either. The Ayam Kicap Manis was perhaps the only food which I enjoyed.

All in all, I would not recommend this restaurant to any foodie who is seeking real authentic Malaysian food. I think the restaurant is doing itself a great disservice by taking out the fiery zest found in most Malaysian dishes. One thing is for sure, I certainly would not be returning to this restaurant any time soon.
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Khan - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, April 07, 2010

I've been dining at Melati for the past 15 years. I have never had a bad meal there, only excellent ones. Things to try are Singapore Laksa, nasi goreng, nasi lemak, curi curi goreng, satay etc to name a few. The food is truely delicious. Portions are generous, prices are very good value and the staff are lovely.

I've read some of the less good reviews with suprise. As a long time diner there, I can put that down to some temporary upheavals they had in the kitchen. They have been resolved now and I can't recommend enough that people try this restaurant if they haven't been before.

There are so many restaurants in Soho were you can spend an equivalent amount of money,usually more. Melati offers good food in a pleasing environment with excellent staff. I really can't recommend it enough. Give it a go and you will not be sorry!
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Hester
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Thursday, February 04, 2010

The food was very good, warm friendly atmosphere, nice to go with friends, I will definitely recomended !!
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Gian
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I went there yesterday for my boyfriend's birthday, and it was actually really disappointing. Considering all the favorable reviews we were excited to get some authentic malay food-he is from brunei-but instead we got some bland oily chinese-malay- mix of food that was on top of that pricey-the service charge, plus, the dishes were not separated on the bill, so we were unable to work out whether it was the correct price.

The starter -we had softshell crab-was really good and fresh, but the main courses, were under-or overcooked (in the case of the rice) ...It was not bad-I have eaten worse in London, however, it all tasted like plain meat/fish, with some sauce poured over it, the flavours just lacked depth and complexity.We picked rendang which I believe is really hard to go wrong with but the meat was def not left in the sauce to boil to soak up the flavours it was also pretty dry, if it hadn't been for the overly oily sauce. The squid was just the plain squid, not fried or anything , with tomato sauce. no spice, no nothing, it tasted like gummy. The mangetout had some ready-made typical chinese goo sauce poured over it, disappointing.

Usually I am not big on writing reviews because I think people are different, and like different kind of flavours but for us, we felt really unhappy, especially, as the waiter practically forced us to say the food is delicious.

Not positive for us, we will def not be back, but try for yourself, maybe we just came on a bad day.

I think Satay house is by far better.
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susie
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, February 25, 2009