The Malaysian street food experience
In Malaysia, eating is the national pastime. Anyone worth their salt will tell you exactly where to find the best version of any dish, and precisely what time of day to go and get it.
Malaysians don't much believe in rules about which food belongs to which hour. Soto, crispy seaweed, spare ribs, gado-gado, seafood noodle soup, laksa, tempura, congee, crispy duck, beef udon — all of it is breakfast if you want it to be. Lunch officially starts at 11.30, but the stalls are busy well before that.
By three or four in the afternoon you need a sugar boost, and the stalls deliver: kuih, those sweet traditional Malay and Nyonya cakes, alongside platters, beef ho fun, curry beef, chicken curry, prawns, roast duck and lemon chicken. We'll happily add cendol to that list. The choices are endless, so don't be shy.
Our story
Everything we know about cooking we learned from the generation before us, from recipes handed down through the family. Plenty of them were adjusted along the way to suit whatever was fresh and in season.
We still work that way — old recipes, accumulated knowledge, and the freedom to improvise. Especially in London, where some ingredients simply aren't available, there's real satisfaction in knowing a traditional dish has been done justice in taste, appearance and smell. Substituting an ingredient was always part of the job.
Cooking for our customers is the point of all of it. A happy face and a clean plate is the only proof we're after. Authentic Malaysian food isn't fussy or overstated — it's healthy, filling, home-style cooking that only really works when it's made with care.
Laksa invites you in for a relaxed room, a bit of charm, proper hospitality, and above all the food our families cooked.
Malaysian food
Malaysian food is the original fusion cooking: big, bold flavours, complicated spice pastes, and the chilli sambal that turns up alongside almost everything we serve.
The influences run from Arabic and Chinese to Dutch, Tamil, Indian, Portuguese and Javanese. Those communities came to Malaysia for geography and opportunity, and left cardamom, peanuts and a hundred other things behind in the local cooking.
What we're aiming for
To satisfy the craving for proper Malaysian food, and to share the cooking we love with Clerkenwell and the rest of London.
Our mission
We want to recreate the sights, sounds and tastes of Malaysia, and to feel like home to any Malaysian a long way from it. Come and eat with us for years. We're your best-kept secret.