Restaurants

By Kerry Cheah

Naming a restaurant ‘Delicious’ in any language is arguably tempting fate, but Sedap has a good heritage to fall back on. Malaysian owners Yeoh Teng Chye and Mary Yeoh are fresh from the kitchen at the now-shuttered Nyonya in Notting Hill, back once more to deliver noteworthy renditions of Penang-style hawker and Straits Chinese food.

Their new establishment is in a more run-down, non-descript building on Old Street with simple and inoffensive décor, but their char kway teow (fried flat noodles) remains one of the best to be had in London.

The menu’s fairly extensive and reflects the range of Malay and Chinese flavours that typifies the food of the Straits. Few dishes reach the height of that char kway teow – moist with the sweet and salty balance of dark soy and chilli, but dry enough to retain the smokiness of the wok and the integrity of the (admittedly sparing) ingredients. Choose wisely though and a fine meal can easily be had.

Such a meal could consist – as ours did – of belachan chicken, juicy chunks of boneless chicken in a crisp, light batter enhanced with shrimp paste; sambal brinjal, toothy strips of aubergine that are pleasingly charred and topped with a full-flavoured but not overwhelming chili shrimp paste; sambal okra, carried by that same aromatic chili shrimp paste; and chicken or lamb curry, both with a tenderness of texture and richness of flavour that suggests hours of simmering in coconut milk and fresh spices.

Less successful on the day we visited was a bland prawn mee (noodle) soup that suffered from a weak stock, and a laksa whose undertones of dried shrimp, lemongrass and chili were drowned out by too much coconut milk. Hainanese chicken rice was let down by hard, dry rice, and the accompanying chili sauce while perfectly adequate lacked the kick of ginger and garlic that could have led us to overlook other shortfalls.

Despite the occasional misstep (including service that is warm but sometimes slow when the small dining room starts to fill up), Sedap is a good bet for homecooked Straits food. And if you want to end the meal on a sweet note, the exceptional and seldom-seen Nyonya kueh (sticky cakes) will take care of that.

Time Out London Issue 2018: April 23-28 2009