Kiasu (now closed), 48 Queensway, London W2 3RY

char kuay teow mmmmm

This being my first restaurant review (no, not ever, but like, here), I am feeling rather nervous (thus, I have written a (probably legal in court) disclaimer - link at the bottom of the page.

Whew, now for the fun stuff.

On Saturday, after going up and down Portobello Market (antiques at £3 a piece? sure), 2 friends, the bf and I decided to have dinner at Kiasu in Bayswater. Now, anyone who's been to Bayswater knows the main street and which are the more famous shops on it. Mention Four Seasons and the nose will take you there.

For those reasons, I always knew that Kiasu was on that main street, just not quite sure where it was.

My sense of direction and observations of road names is not that brilliant, I have been told.

Anyhow, found it and was promptly sat somewhere near the window. Now, I have heard that restaurants do that to give the impression that they're full, so that more customers come in, feeling good that they're not the only customers there yadda yadda. But actually, wouldn't it discourage customers? I don't really like going into restaurants where the queue is longer than the street.

But that's just me, I'm sure everyone else loves queues (we are in England, after all).

The menu was brilliant i.e. small, each dish being well deliberated before being put there, and definitely full of great choices.

This is what we ordered.

Char kuay teow
One of the most authentic I've had in London, but if compared to the ones in Malaysian coffeeshops, I would say, it's about 80% there. The kuay teow was in short strands, as in, it wasn't quite long and slurpy probably because it's not easy to find proper kuay teow here to cook with. The egg didn't quite blend in with the kuay teow, and it just wasn't completely 'wok'-ified.

Roti canai
Now that was aweeesome. The curry was aweeesome. The roti was smooth and fluffy and aweeeesome.
If you don't tell anyone that I'm not an actual food critic, I won't. No one will know.


















Curry mee
The soup was authentic, and the waitress allowed me to match the noodles. Lots of ingredients, fresh stuff, very enjoyable. Every slurp made me feel warmer, almost like being in a coffeeshop.

I would definitely try to go back to Kiasu. The Hokkien Mee looked aweeesome (on the menu anyway).