After a hard hour (yes, hour - I'm male) of Christmas shopping it was time for some refreshment…read more The city centre did not appeal so I took a trek through Garnethill to Charing Cross, arriving at St. George's Road outside Satu Satu. Satu means 'one' in Malay. Satu Satu translates exactly to 'One One' or, more correctly, to 'One by One'. The brand speaks Malaysian Chinese. It's one of a few Chinese restaurants in what's becoming (or become) Oriental Row. It's informal, a largely open plan space with 18 covers, informal decor in good order. A third of the floorspace is given to the open plan kitchen. It's warm and, because of all the wok activity, a bit smoky at times, despite the industrial extraction hood. Don't go in your tuxedo if you're attending the Opera after. There is the aroma of nice things frying and the happy clatters of blenders punctuating Chinese pop music. A couple of small Chinese children amused themselves with electronica while their carers worked. All in all a homely feel. The welcome was fine. I was seated quickly. The two-course lunch deal appealed to the wallet. The soup of the day was sweetcorn chicken, that staple of Chinese restaurants west of New Delhi. Not a dish that gives the chef to demonstrate his ability so I opted for the sambal tofu instead. A pot of Chinese tea filled the space while I waited. Service is speedy and the food cooked to order. The alarming flash of flames from the wok is proof if you need it. The sambal tofu was disappointing. It's not a complex dish and, much like the soup, only requires correct assembly. The tofu had been fried too long and was charred on the outside though edible. The samba was cold, in contrast to the hot tofu. Though laced with translucent onions, it was oily, too sweet and lacking the chilli bite of proper Malaysian sambal. That last, in its proper avatar, is all heat and no sweet. Pork hor fun, on the other hand, was the high point. This would be fried char kway teow to Malaysians: the flat hor fun rice noodle stir fried over immense heat with soya, blacan, seafood, egg and meat, depending on your taste. Satu Satu's version was not comparable (perhaps not meant to be) since it had, apart from noodles, only beansprouts and slices of pork. Not an issue - you can't expect the the real deal as part of a value lunch deal. What it did have was good texture (proper hor fun noodle bite), the smoky aroma and crispy bean sprouts. It lacked a certain depth of flavour that frying in lard (the Malaysian way) gives. It took a smattering of chilli oil (freely offered) and a bit of mixing to improve it. Overall, for five pennies short of a tenner, it was satisfying and reasonably good value. What could be improved? Well, what distinguishes the simply good from the truly excellent is detail and consistency. Make your own sambal. It's not difficult. We like authentic. Don't make what you think people want. Make what you want to eat. And warm it. Would I go back? Yes but this time I would go for one of the 'Signature' dishes.

Quirky and a little bit different. This latest Glasgow Malaysian/Chinese restaurant is a real gem…read more Quirky = Ribena ( hot or cold) on the drinks menu = awesome. Great food - Malaysian chicken wings and a curry soup broth with noddles, both were superb and had just the right of spice The staff were very friendly and helpful to. Two drinks, two starters and two mains were 33 quid.

Went over with my partner today for dinner as there was a special weekend event by Julie MacLeod of…read moreMasterChef! The amazing thing is, she was cooking up a special Malaysian inspired dinner! AMAZING. I was immediately sold! During the dinner, we were served a started of Roti Canai with dahl (a type of flat bread with gravy that's usually made of chick peas), a main of either Beef Rendang (traditional Malay dish) or Sayur Ladeh (also traditional from back home) with rice, and a dessert of Banana Fritters and ice cream (known as Goreng Pisang in my language!). I'm happy to say that I'm very happy with Julie's version of these different traditional foods from Malaysia! Was very happy with the tenderness of the beef rendang, and the banana fritters got me all nostalgic! She's also such a friendly person. We chatted for a bit and I learned that she's actually half Malaysian! We truly have a connection (75% of through food I assume). I love Babu as an Indian street food place on its own, but these small special events just take the cake for me (and has bumped my precious 4 stars to 5!). Julie might host more of these events in the near future and I'll be sure to be one of the first to book a table! Loved it!

I'm a huge lover of Babu Bombay Street Kitchen, and when I heard that their new chef Julie was…read moredoing a Malaysian menu, I knew I had to try it. It's only on this weekend (Thursday 23 - Saturday 25 April) and there's two sittings each night. We were a little early for our seating at 7.30pm but the place was totally ready to go so we took a seat at the communal table and looked over the menu. It's 3 courses for £18 with a set starter and dessert, and choice of two mains. Now, I am a huge fan of roti canai and thought I'd tried the best one in Glasgow but this one was served with a slightly sweet, coconutty curry sauce which was just delicious. For my main I had the sayur ladeh (veggie curry) which was packed with aubergine at my request (thanks chef!) and the flavour of the curry sauce was amazing. I personally prefer my aubergine cooked really well to the point of collapse, whereas this had more bite to it but it was still a delight to eat. I will admit I had a bit of food envy as I tried some of the beef rendang and that was amazing. Finally, there was fried banana balls. Graeme doesn't like banana and I can't eat ice cream so we did a bit of a switcharoo and we were both happy. The fritters were lovely, super crisp with a nice hint of ginger. Two is the perfect sized portion; 4 was a struggle! Ha! While you're eating you can order drinks etc from Babu which are interesting and reasonably priced. I believe you can also BYOB if you fancy drinking. This was one of the best popups I've been to - it was executed in such a relaxed, calm manner and you'd never have known it was the first night. The staff were all so sweet and lovely, and you could tell they were so excited about the night as well which makes it all the more enjoyable.

Ever the creature of habit, stumbled past this place on a Sunday lunchtime & saw the reviews on…read moreYelp, so decided to give it a whirl. First impressions, busy and bright/airy interior. Lady who saw us over to the table was a wee bit brash, but didn't think much to it. Waited for around 5 minutes before anyone came over to offer a drink. Quite a difference from Asia Style. Went for Jasmine Tea, which is a £1 charge. You don't pay at Asia Style, so seems strange to even charge a token £1 for it. Thai Green Chicken curry & the special, Okra with Crispy Pork. Didn't have to wait too long, around 10 minutes. Beautifully presented, but I'm afraid the taste is no match for Asia Style. Pungent smell of fish sauce overpowered both the dishes, which didn't help the enjoyment. Okra was not fried enough, so as you bit in, it was quite watery. Overly salty pork (that'll be the fish sauce) and quite fatty. The Thai curry was more of a soup. Chicken was well cooked, but again a lot of fat on the chicken and that fish sauce...arrghh! It just over powered everything. Service.. well, it made Asia Style look positively in the same league as The Black Sheep! Not very attentive and brash. Certainly wasn't trying to win you over with personality or attentive service here. £28.00 in total for a tea, 7-up, two mains and a boiled rice. Not the cheapest & certainly not outstanding enough to make me want to try this place again. The location is by far the winner here - certainly no competition for Asia Style. You Don't Gotta Eat Here... Sadly! :-(

Wat Tan Ho. Or 'flat noodles in egg gravy'? I think I'll stick to the Malaysian name, thanks…read more.. This is what I've been looking for! A simple, clean little cafe serving noodles, rice dishes, soups - it's perfect. The staff were lovely, too, recommending my noodles and bringing them fast because I was in a hurry. Yum. Slurp. Yum.

I've been a fan of Banana Leaf for many years. Prior to its refurb at the end of last year, the…read morerestaurant itself was really shabby and kinda run down - awesome food though. We recently popped in with some friends a couple of weeks ago - and I'm impressed. The refurb has worked wonders. It's managed to retain the friendly atmosphere it previously had, but now has a bit of style to go with its substance. As it's a traditional Malaysian restaurant, the tables are set with chopsticks. Ordinarily I have no issue using them, but I've a health issue that causes my hands to shake, so I asked for a fork. And I got this, delivered with quite a smirk. I'm not justifying in a restaurant why I needed a fork, but I wasn't particularly happy with being (innocently, I'm sure) belittled in this way. I had chicken satay skewers with peanut sauce to start with - really tasty, in a properly cooked, 'falling off the skewer ' kinda way. For main, I had kung po chicken and steamed rice. This was AMAZING! And much spicier than I had expected. Overall the staff were really attentive and the food was awesome. I'm knocking 2 stars off: one for the fork thing; and the second for only having one toilet (it gets really busy here).

I could eat in this place every single night!…read more I am not sure I have enough words to cover how good this place is. Ok so here goes. For starters we ordered the platter, but only for one person which was plenty and the Salt and Pepper squid. I would recommend the salt and pepper dishes every time, they are that good! For mains we tried to do the whole lets share but when we both tasted our dishes we didn't want to give them up! We got a Braised Beef curry ( spicy!!) and Salt and Pepper scallops! Oooo mmmm geeeee! Nice! We also ordered 2 portions of rice, Which seemed to be more than enough. As we watched more people being served their food we noticed they seemed to be all doing the same thing which was ordering your own portion of rice and then sharing all the mains with veg as well. The only negative thing I would say (and I really don't want too) they don't have a great selection of beers that are local to their cuisine, so we both selected the tiger beer. I really want to mark this place higher than I can. 10 stars for me!

We enjoyed an early dinner of Malaysian food while we stayed in Edinburgh…read more Service was quick. Ambiance was compact with colorful wall of food and characters. We ordered the beef rendang which was fork tender and delicious. The sauce was rich but contained a bit too much onions for my liking. The hainese rice was a good side to soak up all the sauce. It was the same price as regular bowl of boiled rice. The char kway teow was served with a good mix of seafood, chicken and veggies. The noodles had a nice chew and overall a nice smoky flavor. It was cooked perfectly without much oil. Would consider coming back if we're in this area of Edinburgh again.

This time I dine in & bought some takeaway from the restaurant. The curry laksa was super…read moredelicious. The place is very cute and small. Service was great. Definitely recommend this place to anyone.

I came here for a friend's birthday party the other week end, unusually without having ever heard…read moreanything about the place. Being part of the quarter mile I expected this place to be a massive rip off, but our group of 9 all had 2 courses and drinks and it came to £24 including service. Quality wise I felt things were a bit mixed. I was pretty underwhelmed by my main (which I've forgotten the name of but it was the first chicken dish on the menu.) serving it in a banana leaf was a nice touch but actually I found it inconvenient. My friends dishes were all pretty damn tasty though, I think I just wasn't a lucky one. This place doesn't quite smash it, but the staff were attentive and lovely, and we're happy to cater for our large group.

I came here on a few occasions as I was staying next door and thought the food was just "ok"…read more I'm deducting a few stars for a few reasons. The main reason is that much of the menu is served with fish (either as an accompaniment or mixed in) and as I have an allergy to seafood, I couldn't get much of the food (for example, any of the curries). I asked if it could be made without the seafood ingredient and was told that it was already mixed into the sauce. I get that things are fresh, but how can you not take into account those with allergies? And if made fresh, why can't you leave it out? I believe I got the wrong sauce with the Roti Canai that was ordered as I've never had that type of sauce served with it before - was a tangy red sauce of some kind which did not go well with the bread, which was very greasy. The onion and ginger chicken lacked flavor. Overall, it was ok, but nothing compared to what other reviewers have said. Maybe it's an off night in the kitchen.

Part of a chain of several Kampang Ali restaurants in Edinburgh (one on Clerk St and another in the…read moreQuarter Mile). This one is in the arcade walkway down off the South Bridge that's not too noticeable if you don't know it exists there. Oddly, on the Saturday night, they had a shortage of rice! Aside from that slight disappointment, food was overall good quality and quite enjoyable.

As I understand it, Kampung Ali has a couple of locations. WE stumbled upon this one in the North…read moreBridge Arcade. So you have to pop off the street to find it. My DC has a "thing" for laksa so anytime we come across a place with Laksa we have to go! So she had their laksa, which was very nice. The rice noodles were of the wide type rather than vermachelii. But the this is one of the dishes that everyone's grandmother does different, so just go with the flow and see if it is spicy enough to make your nose run. This one seemed to have very little shrimp paste, but it was still very good. the squid was not over cooked, which can be a rare treat. I had the roti with beef randang. It too has a nice spice and very tender. A bit different than the randang I've had before, but again everyone's grandmother type of dish. The roti were hot off the plancha and supper flaky. Perfect for scooping up the beef. A little small on the portion size for the price, but very tasty. Some tiger beer and the tarik rounded up a very nice dinner. Service was friendly and sweet.

Wau Cafe has been on my radar for a while now, ever since Serbian Cafe, "Seb's" shut down a while…read moreback. They offer traditional Malaysian food in a relaxed, no frills cafe style environment. Oh and they don't have a booze licence, just in case that is a problem for some of you ;) Firstly be warned, if you bring your cat, there will be no room to swing it as the place is teeny, but they've managed to ram around 6 tables in here. Even if the place is half full, you may feel slightly intimated as people are pretty much eating on top of you, therefore, they will be able to hear everything you are saying. Not a place for a romantic dinner then, remember that! The floor is manned by a solitary, lackadaisical waiter, who seemed to struggle with the half full restaurant, so service was a tad slow. I don't want to get the young chap into trouble but it did seem like he had been 'puffing the magic dragon' that night. My suspicions were confirmed when a glass was smashed (in this, the smallest cafe in Glasgow) and he didn't hear it, so we kindly let him know. He seemed slightly surprised but happily dealt with the situation. Unfortunately some of the food we ordered ended up being unavailable but were only told after 10 minutes of ordering, so it was a rush to pick something else but I just opted to swap the meat from my dish. On to starters, the roti was great, but the chicken wings pretty tasteless and greasy. Also, it may be authentic in the far east but seeing hairs on a chicken wing doesn't do it for me. Mains were packed full of flavour but unfortunately just didn't taste that fresh. The mains we ordered seemed to have been cooked to death, or perhaps just reheated to oblivion. The whole feel of the place is that they are still trying to find their feet but I have a strong feeling they could be on to something good here. But, certainly for the moment, they are still trying to discover their Wau factor.

What a place. The food is absolutely delicious! I could live here. The service is brilliant. They…read moreeven gave me free ice cream.

Yet another lovely dinner at the Cotton House. My only issue is that I want two stomachs :( The…read moreshredded duck was beautiful, it's not just food, it's an art. I ordered the sizzling chicken satay, which was very much on the hot side for satay. I was incredibly disappointed in myself for not finishing it! They are happy to pack up left overs though. Booking one week in advance got me a table for three at 6pm on a Saturday night. So again, if you have a specific time you want to eat, give them plenty of notice.

Now, I've walked passed this place hundreds of times as I'm ALWAYS somewhere in GWR, and every time…read moreI walk pass, it's empty. It looks super sad and there always 2 people eating which I assume are the actual staff members. Every time I build up the motivation to try Asia Ma, I went up straying to Ka Ka Lok as its more "happening". Well for once, we managed to pull through with our decision and enter this empty restaurant. Yes, it was just me and Gian dining in at a Malaysian Chinese restaurant at 930pm. A bit awkward but, we figured maybe cause it's late? Who knows. We were seated by the window by a friendly Malaysian (I assume) auntie, given menus and two baskets of prawn crackers (how generous ey) as we skimmed through the choices of food. Went for the menu with the Chinese words because that's where the good stuff is ey! Hehe Anyway, I chose the dinner for us and we had fried rice, steamed chicken with fungi (takes 20 mins to prepare and no, it's not the fungi you think! It's herbal mushroom!), deep fried homemade tofu, and pot of Chinese tea for 2. So 20 mins of chatting and prawn crackers later, I will quote Gian, "you chose well Sarah". Yes, the food was amazing. SUPER delicious! And huge in terms of portions!! We had extra for lunch the next day! The steamed chicken with black fungi was very herbal, gingery and just plain delightful in terms of light flavours! It complimented the deep fried home made tofu super well because that was seasoned with Malaysian soy sauce, shrimp, spring onions and all kinds of robust flavours! Along with fried rice, it was TWO THUMBS UP FOR ME! Altogether it was 15quid per person, and FYI, I have a lot of left over for lunch haha it's like you're paying for 2 meals! Guys, don't be fooled by the emptiness of Asia Ma, their food is AWESOME! Next time, imma go try the fish head tofu hot pot and Assam fish. Exciting!!

Is it a rebrand or is it brand new? I'm not sure. What I do know is that it is very good and much…read moremuch better than Asia Style that was here previously. I'm surprised I'm the first to review TBH as Asiama has been here for a while. I have wanted to visit it for ages and I am glad I finally got the chance as the whole experience was really good. From the moment we arrived the staff were friendly and welcoming. It felt a bit like a Hong Kong cafe with the roasted meats hanging in the kitchen. We ordered a selection of dishes to share between four.... Here goes.... Roast duck, salt and chill chicken, Malaysian beef curry, char Sui Sichuan, authentic peppered chicken, fried rice, boiled rice and even some cheeky chips to help soak up the hangover. The food was all pretty good. The Malaysian curry was superb, spicy and with loads of sauce it was a favourite. The salt and chill chicken was really tasty and it was a great size portion. The Sichuan char Sui was my next favourite and was cooked really well. I also enjoyed the peppered chicken which had loads of peppers and onions as well as chicken. The only dish I was not that keen on was the roasted duck which was just a bit to chewy and fatty. The staff obviously thought we did not have enough food as they then brought out some really tasty and authentic dim sum which they informed us was complimentary. It was a great touch. By the time the free oranges arrived I was stuuuuuuffed! I'm tempted to give it 5, but I'm gonna go with four. Reason being the roasted duck was a Wee bit disappointing and the competition for authentic Chinese restaurants in Glasgow is now red hot. Don't get me wrong this place is excellent and I will definitely be back. Nearly forgot.... All that food and only 15 quid a head, bargain! Check it out soon Yelpers, it deserves more reviews.