Kaya Malaysian Restaurant

A Malaysian-recommended restaurant serving Malaysian cuisine, tucked away in a rather unassuming semi-basement spot in Chinatown. The food is fairly average, slightly on the salty side, but offers excellent value for money. Service is standard. Overall, it’s a decent place to fill your stomach with reasonably good flavors.

Visited Kaya with a group of friends. It was a good decision to book in advance as the restaurant is pretty busy and no doubt why, as the food and service was spot on. The staff are so humble and nice. Thanks to Zen for her patience and service, she made sure to amend the dish as per our request.
What did we try? Here's the list :
We tried the nicest Roti Canai that comes with dal+chicken curry and sambal paste, their OG Kaya toast and Pandan toast (they make their own kaya jam), Hainanese Chicken Rice - the rice was so flavourful on its own and the 2 different chilli paste they served along was too good, then we tried the Laksa Chicken which is a bowl of coconut curry with noodles, fish cakes, eggs and chicken, Mee Siam - Vermicelli noodles with vegetables, fish cake and we asked not to put chicken for the vegetarians. Not to forget the hot Milo which was nostalgic. They do charge a 10% service charge which is optional but we decided to pay for the service we received. The total bill between 5 of us was £71.72/-
Do visit and enjoy this experience. They are open for service from 12-9 all days.

Had the Nasi Lemak with Ayam Goreng, and it took me right back to Kuala Lumpur! Fragrant rice, crispy chicken, and sambal that tasted like home. Had a slight problem as the chicken was given to me raw at first, but afterwards they gave me a new plate so all was well. My friend’s Curry Laksa Noodles were rich and flavorful.

It's my second visit and i feels like everything is too salty (e.g. fried rice). Fried chicken and kaya toast were good though.
On a busy weekend, a reservation is recommended as there are not many tables available.
Staff were very attentive and good.

Finally visited here for Malaysian food. It was quite busy but there was a seat for me (solo customer). I ordered Roti canai, Half-boiled eggs with toast, and hot Milo. A strange combination but I wanted to try few things without breaking the bank. Their menu is on the expensive side and that excludes the 10% service charge they put on top if you eat in.

There is no ambience (not much décor and no background music) as mentioned previously by other reviewers which was fine by me as it's like stepping into a hawker centre. You just submerge yourself in the bustling crowd.

Hot Milo: it's standard but they forgot to give me a teaspoon to mix the Milo powder which gathered at the bottom half of the small mug. I had to use their tablespoon from their cutlery set in order to do so.

Roti canai: the roti was thinner and had less layers than expected. The condiments tasted good but quite watery. With the roti being that thin, I would have thought they'd serve minimum 2 pieces instead.

Half-boiled eggs with toast: They served the eggs de-shelled unlike in Malaysia where it's all DIY in cracking open the eggs. The flavours are standard adding soya sauce and white pepper but the eggs were disappointingly overcooked making this dish nothing special at all.

I wouldn't say that my experience was totally negative. It's ok to have Malaysian food there in Chinatown for convenience if you're already in city centre. If transport isn't an issue then I'd recommend elsewhere for decent portion sized Malaysian food at a reasonable price.

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