Cempaka — Restaurant in London

Cempaka Restaurant is hands down the best Malay food we’ve had in London! The service was warm and attentive, and the ambience was really nice, it felt like home.

We tried a variety of dishes, and every single one was spot on. The Malaysian Chicken Satay was delicious and authentic. My uncle had the Oxtail Soup with white rice and he loved it so much he finished it all. One of us ordered the Buttermilk Chicken with rice and couldn’t stop raving about how good it was.

I had the Nasi Campur Cempaka (2 dishes) which came with white rice, sambal belacan, and cucumber. I chose fried chicken and squid sambal. The fried chicken was hot, juicy, and I even got the drumstick I asked for! The squid sambal was full of flavour, and the sambal belacan was exactly how it should be: spicy and just like back in Malaysia.

For dessert, we ended with Cekodok Pisang drizzled with golden syrup, so good! And the Milo Dinosaur was the ultimate nostalgic gem.

If you’re craving authentic Malaysian food in London, this is the place to be. Highly...

I visited Cempaka a few weeks ago for dinner and had the worst Malaysian cuisine experience in London. I ordered the buttermilk chicken rice, and while the rice portion was decent, the chicken was extremely disappointing. There were only 7 tiny pieces, about the size of a pinky finger, and the presentation was poor.

I also had the mushroom soup, which was unbearably salty—more like salt soup. For dessert, I tried the fried banana, but it was mostly fried flour with barely any banana, leaving it bland and unappetizing.

To make matters worse, it took 50 minutes just to serve the buttermilk chicken rice. This meal did not taste like authentic Malaysian food at all, with everything being overly salty. The only thing they served well was the Teh Tarik, which was quite good. I would only recommend this place if you're craving Teh Tarik and nothing else. Otherwise, I'd suggest trying the Malaysian restaurants near Queensway for a much...

Everything was AMAZING. Chicken satay was so good. A lot of places just grill chicken and put it on a stick, but theirs was almost fried in a light batter with like a curry flavoring. Peanut sauce was better than any Thai place I’ve been to.

The nasi goreng paprik had hints of lemon grass, chili, green onion, turmeric, chicken was flavorful and moist. Really wonderful assortment of flavors plated beautifully.

I’ve always loved drunken noodles at any Thai place and kuey teow goreng blew them all out of the water. It almost seems an insult to compare it to the Thai noodles. Honestly, amazing.

They will alter spice level if you need. We got both entrees one spice level higher than the default and that was perfect. I hope they are still here next time we are in London. Definitely will come back. Sad we won’t be able to do breakfast as our flight out is so early because it...