Review of 'Jom Makan'

A fairly cool, small interior to this restaurant in the Southern Terrace of Westfield in west London, belies quite a nice assortment of true Malaysian food. The small kitchen is open to the main floor of the restaurant which is quite nice to see…

Overwhelmed at the menu where all dishes are named in Malay with a description in English underneath we choose to go for the “Kedah” set menu for 2 for £24 which was a good value. The menu offered Tom Yam Udang (spicy soup with prawns, peppers, tomato and mushrooms), Rendang Daging (beef curry), Ikan Masak Lemak (poached fish in coconut), Ayam Pandan (spicy, moist chicken wrapped in leaves on a skewer), Ulam-ulam (tomato with cucumber and carrot salad) with Sambal Belacan (spicy chilli sauce) on the side and we chose “Roti Canali” (fried flat bread) to go with everything. All of the portions were, of course, smaller than if ordered off the a la carte menu but the meal was a perfect size for the two of us. We did have to order some rice though as the whole dinner was quite sauce-based so we needed something to put it on (the single portion of rice was more than enough for the two of us). The Rendang Daging (beef curry) was tender but did not have a lot of flavour while the Yam Udang (soup) was very tasty as was the creamy Ikan Masak Lemak (poached fish in coconut). We did find the Sambal Belacan was spicy beyond belief to the point of being inedible though the salad was lovely and fresh. Next time we will be more inventive in our choices…

We were disappointed with our Jasmine tea which came as tea bags rather than the expected tea pot but it was still quite tasty. We were seated by the window off to the right against the wall of the restaurant and, despite being about 20 feet from the door, we felt a draft every time the door opened which was a bit uncomfortable.

The service was quite friendly and very understated. Broad smiles all around when we told them how much we enjoyed parts of our meal!

Rating:

Review Date: 2011-11-17


Cuisine: Malaysian

Address: Southern Terrace Restaurants, Westfield London, Airle Way, Shepherd's Bush, London ENGLAND W12 7SL

Location: London (England) - Shepherd's Bush

Map:

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8735 5870

URL: http://www.jommakan.co.uk/