Satay House Malaysian Restaurant — Restaurant in London

I have a particular interest in finding good quality satay, having eaten some of the best in Malaysia and Singapore in years gone and lust after that really high quality amazing taste! I was quite disappointed being frank with the satay here. The main issue was the sauce itself which seemed a good attempt but the peanuts inside were too noticeable and chewy/ large/ not of great taste. In satay sauce I’ve had overseas it’s always been the case the peanut is suffused into the sauce as a whole. I know one can never fully replicate the taste of satay in Asia but frankly I have to say I didn’t fully enjoy the satay here and at £14 for four skewers would have hoped for better. The chicken itself was good and the accompaniments. I would suggest that the chef look again at the recipe, revisits how it is made in Asia and what is needed to really get this up to a high standard. I think it is a great unique selling point but they need to enhance the offering.

I also had Nasi Goreng which was good but there were only two prawns and little chicken in what was a very large bowl of rice. I always feel annoyed when I go to a restaurant and get charged £14 for a meal where they are trying to save money by restricting prawns/ meat content. From my perspective as a customer I would have been happy to pay £20 and have five prawns in the dish. That said I do appreciate students etc may not be able to cover such an amount and do know the restaurants in general are all doing this to manage inflation. However the location and feel of the restaurant suggest they are going for a high end vibe, hence I would recommend they re-visit how to up their offering, make it more appealing at a level above what one might expect to find in less aspiring restaurants.

The atmosphere was excellent and I was impressed with the restaurant itself and location which...

I would give 3-star to the food and 2-star to the service. Overall, a 2-star experience.

To start with, the chicken satay is 5/5. Like other reviews say, the satay sauce is probably the best. It is definitely the highlight of the meal. The roti was fresh and tasty too.

I ordered the Laksa. I totally agee with an other review. The laksa is BLAND. On top of that, it only had very little broth and after 3mins, there was barely any broth but all absorbed in the noodle, making the dish very dense and dry.

To salvage the Laksa, I asked for some broth and some chilli sause. The waitress seemed confused telling me that they needed to charge me for the chill sause but instead, chill oil was free. I found it odd but sure. I opted for the free option.

Later the extra broth and chill oil were brought to me. The Laksa was less dry and edible with the extra liquid.

In the end, I saw an item "OPEN TABLE" on my bill. Although it was just £2 I enquired. The waitress started apologising for "miscommunication" and said the charge was for the broth. I found it hard to believe - when the Laksa is so dry and blend, the restaurant thinks it is okay to charge extra when the eater decides to salvage the dish. This is the main reason I dislike the service.

(Photo attached is the laksa - looks OK in picture but really dry, dense and kind of bland)

Also, they added £1 in my bill as donation to a homelessness charity. I am not heartless but I hate being forced to donate to an organisation that I had no knowledge of. I found it very sneaky and respectfully asked them to remove it.

It is good to care for your committee, but I just hope that the restaurant can give their customer the information and the choice to donate, instead of sneakily forcing it...

We sat downstairs with friends. Ordered plenty of food with a waitress, and she confirmed our order by repeating all of them again.

The food was served by another waiter, and he kept saying there was only one order left, despite us telling him that there were still three missing. He came back with our order and repeated exactly the same order we told the waitress before. (He could have just checked easily the missing dishes, instead he used the tone suggesting that we didn't give our order properly and "it was your fault"). He was being loud and disrespectful. I asked him to be more polite and he immediately raised his voice, shouting "I'm done, u guys are rubbish" and went on rambling angrily, straight at us, acting very aggressively.

The rest of the dishes were served by the waitress and everything is fine. But the mood is ruined. I have booked the restaurant for my friends to try out the Malaysian dishes.

No one came to apologize to us. Nothing.

Honestly it was a huge disappointment, we have never had such awful service before in any restaurants. This restaurant is also charging more than other Malaysian restaurants nearby, and I would expect the service is to be better. The food is fine and authentic Malaysian, but I would never step into the restaurant again for the...