Kiasu Restaurant, Bayswater, London

Good authentic Singaporean and Malaysian food! Been here a couple of times before and the service has been reasonable and prompt.

However, with so many other Malaysian/Singaporean restaurants in London, this place has alot of competition, and there is nothing that sets this place apart from the rest. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing outstanding either.

Pricewise it is slightly pricey for the portions, but not exorbitant.

Before this visit I’d been to Kiasu once before and don’t remember being that thrilled by it though that’s not to say it was horrible - simply not memorable. Serving a range of East Asian dishes (Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Filipino) you’ll never want for options if you want to take a tour of Asia at Kiasu. Kiasu relies on a quick turnover of diners so its not the kind of place where you are going to camp out for the night and the cosy seating arrangement in a way discourages that.

Although we knew we wanted the Chilli Crab dish that didn’t stop us also picking up a beef satay starter, a noodle dish and some veges. In hindsight we should have asked them to bring the noodle dish and veges after our crab as it took our full concentration to eat the giant dish! The tiny table couldn’t cope with all our dishes so the waiter quickly joined our table up with another!

At £15.80 the crab, our headline act, seemed to be great value. It was superb. The sauce was to die for and seriously tasty. The crab was also served with two fried breads (the sweet Asian variety) which went well with the sauce. Could have done with more to sop it all up!

Overall I would say I was happy with my Kiasu experience. Service-wise it was only slightly disappointing when we first arrived - we were left to stand around for about 5-10 minutes in a clearly empty restaurant whilst the waiters seemingly ignored us.

Delicious Singaporean food at a good price. Obviously not as good value as hawker food in Singapore, but the authentic taste is there. A friend of mine celebrated their birthday here, and the service was impeccable.

Each year they have a festival at brick lane celebrating one of the wonderful national dishes of Singapore. The festival is always crowded and the lines for the food seemingly endless. Instead of lining up in the cold for a small sample, I simply added Kiasu (the main provider of this festival) to my list of places to eat at.

This Friday, I managed to finally cross this one off the list, when deciding about a place to catch up with my sister. We called ahead as we weren’t sure if you had to book or at least notify them about the crab. Apparently they weren’t too worried since they didn’t ask for us to book or even leave our name. We turned up early (6pm) as we know that it takes some time to eat a crab and we had a few other things to do that night.

I’ve actually eaten at Kiasu before but I was neither impressed nor turned off by it. I just remember it not being particularly memorable. They tables seat two or four mostly, with a few of the pair tables awkwardly placed against a wall. Each table is placed pretty closely to each other, meaning you hear other people’s conversations, and no doubt, they hear yours as well.

Anyway, about the crab… Priced at just under £16, I have to admit the crab was a pretty decent size (apparently between 500g or 600g). They also offer a soft shell crab (at £5.60) for those less inclined to get their fingers dirty, or who might want to have a quicker dinner. Either way, the crab, smothered in the sweet, spicy tomato based sauce was just too easy to eat. It definitely whisked me back to the time I visited Singapore, sitting by the beach tucking into another one of these. Complete with the fried sweet bread that we used to soak up the extra sauce, I’d highly recommend visiting Kiasu if you’ve got the craving for this.

The only problem with the evening was that we had to pay in cash, as apparently they don’t take (or couldn’t take) a card, despite the mastercard and visa signs plastered on their doorway.

This place has an air of Oriental authenticity to the menu and efficient service that is hard to beat. My mum is from Singapore so Ive grown up with Malaysian/Singapore cooking and this hits rather close to the mark. The chicken rice is particularly well cooked and remarkably close to home, coming with a gorgeous broth and immaculately prepared chicken. The prices are very good value and most of the dishes (if you choose wisely) are excellent. The juices are great too. Definitely worth a visit.

I went to this place for the very first time earlier in the year. The food is not too expensive but I must say it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. But I do have to admit the food served is fresh and piping hot when served. It was very nicely presented. They do have a lot of variety. More than you can get elsewhere. The service was quick and staff was polite and nice. Its more like a cafe than a restaurant. Seems like a good place for lunch where you can order a few dishes and share it with friends. Overall it was a good experience.

Authentic food at reasonable prices. Always a pleasure to go there. Evokes nice memories of South East Asia