Kiasu

For most people Malaysian food is quite scary and exotic. It is one of the most developed modern fusion cuisines - taking influences from the large local Chinese, Malay, Nyonyan, Indian and Thai populations in an exciting and flavour full mix. Hawker and street food staples like Laksa sit alongside familiar classics from other parts of South East Asia (Abodo from the Phillipines, Singaporean noodles).
Kiasu is on Queensway and from the outside looks more modern than you might expect. The exterior barely hinted at the disastorous interior which seemed to have been done by a first year design student - with its blue lighting, faux blue snakeskin banquette and bizarre paintings with 'kiasu' and odd slogans it was with a little trepidation that we ordered starters first. I am lucky to have a very good Malaysian/Indoneasian restaurant on Bondi Beach growing up so wasnt completely overwhelmed by the menu.
Our starters were all excellent but the serving sizes a bit out of kilter - A pork and beef cake with a flaky, light pastry came with three tasty fishballs that looked more like eyeballs. No real explanation was given for the juxtaposition but it was billed on the menu as a local treat. Next was a small, flat fishcake which looked more like a small pancake than any fishcake I had ever met before (including its ocular neighbour). It was packed with lemongrass and chillies and was a little firecracker which we wished there had been more of. Finally we had Pie Tee beancake cups filled with pork, prawns and grated carrot which were perfect little mouthfulls which I remembered from my childhood. Everything was accompanyied by dipping sauces of either strong chilli or tangy soy.
Our nasi goreng was totally amazing with achar pickles in the most gorgeous satay sauce, chicken satay sticks and sweet (red) chilli sauce prawns as accompanyments. The other two mains were deliberately plainer - a stir-fry vegetables with tofu and some roasted duck in a rich soy sauce - but still tasty.
I made the cardinal mistake of trying "something new". In this case it was a 'stretched tea'. When I asked the waiter  what made it stretched he made a gesture akin to pulling noodles. I thought it sounded odd, but had to order it anyway. When my friends Green and Jasmine teas came out in attractive white pots while I got what was basically a tea latte. I get it now - stretched meant 'watered down with milk until unrecognisable as tea'. Genius. Couple that with an overly sweet watermelon juice at the beginning of the night left us with no desire to venture onto the desserts. But I am sure we'll be back for the food on another cold and miserable evening....sometime.
Kiasu
48 Queensway
W2 3RY
Starters from £2.50, Mains from £5.50
Nearest tube: Bayswater, Queensway