Kiasu

Laksa and Hokkien Mee

Kiasu, 48 Queensway, Bayswater, London

First up, I must stress that Kiasu is a Singaporean/Chinese/Hokkien Malaysian restaurant, and not a Nonya/Malay Malaysian restaurant. Secondly, I have a strong bias for Malay Malaysian restaurants ...

That said, the laksa was quite good, although it looks more creamier than it should be.

For starters, I ordered something called Ngoh Hiang ... and when the dish arrived it wasn't what I expected from the description ... have I imagined something else altogether? Will need to check with my mum!

 

The laksa looked very creamy, but luckily it wasn't too rich. Not entirely the authentic laksa -- it had cucumbers in it, and the noodle was the wrong type -- it's more Singaporean Laksa soup with Penang laksa ingredients ...

 

From the description of my order (Hokkien Mee soup) I knew I was getting Har Mee (prawn noodle soup). I thought Hokkien Mee was a thick noodle in dark soy gravy? Nevermind ... anyway it was good, not super salty, can't blame them from not being able to source fresh prawns though, because I have that problem as well ...

 

I was too full to even contemplate dessert, even though I would've liked to have some chendol!

Curry Mee and Nasi Lemak

Needing to replace lost body fats after a long day of cycling, we ordered ...

 

The curry mee had really fat pieces of pork in it, which was wasted on Muffin because he doesn't eat visible fats ... and it is as rich as it looks!

The nasi lemak is probably one of the best ones I've had in London, but still not entirely impressive compared to the nasi lemaks I've had in Sydney or Malaysia. The prawn curry bit of it wasn't quite spicy enough and was a little too sweet ...

Chicken Rice, Singapore Chilli Crab

Vicky ordered a Char Kway Teow which arrived first so we had no choice but to pick at it while we waited for our food to arrive ... tho Vicky requested her noodles to have NO chilli in it (how blasphemous!) which was a shame ...

 

At £7.00 the Chicken Rice wasn't exactly VFM, but it was pretty good ... The ginger, chilli and soy-sauce condiments that accompanied it lacked something tho ...

 

We saw that the Singapore Chilli Crab was on the specials board so couldn't resist it ... especially when it costs around £11.50! However they ran out of bread and charged for the rice that appeared in its place ...

 

For dessert we gave ourselves brain freeze with ice kachang and chendol. There weren't much chendol in my chendol, it was mainly coconut and palm sugar icy water ...