Jom Makan

Chain restaurants are all the rage these days. They're themed too, and are a good way to create awareness about an underappreciated cuisine. Few in London knew anything about ramen before Wagamama (and arguably few still do, but at least they know ramen is noodles in soup. I know, it's like saying Manchester United is just a sports team...).

So to take advantage of this, the Malaysian government has backed Jom Makan ("Let's eat"? "Let's go eat"?), a Wagamama-ish venture, serving what one would normally get in Malaysian hawker centres. The flagship restaurant opened about a month ago near Trafalgar Square.

Of course I was dubious when the Pretty Lady suggested trying it - it's too much to ask that such a place would serve anything close to the standard of Gurney Drive, Wai Sek Kai, or even Jalan Alor. I changed my mind though. It wouldn't be as good, but what if it were good? It's not as if Malaysian restaurants are thick on the ground here in London (which on reflection is probably the point). Beggars can't be choosers.

Jom Makan

5-7 Pall Mall East

London SW1Y 5BA

+44 (0) 20 7925 2402

The place has clean and minimalist lines. Slate grey floors, large red lampshades evoking lanterns hanging from the ceiling and wooden chairs and tables greet you. Not quite authentic, but it's an improvement, since authenticity means greasy sticky floors, a random worker slopping grey water around with a mop, and little land prawns gambolling across the tiles.

Where I have a real problem is with the menu. The dishes are named in Malay then described in English, and it's patently obvious that the food is almost entirely Malay. There are a few nods in the direction of Chinese and Indian food - Hainanese chicken rice, but described as steamed chicken rice, char koay teow and roti canai. What happened to other dishes - o chien, sar hor fun, banana leaf rice, thosai are all halal!

It's a restaurant funded by the Malaysian government, for goodness sake. I know that there are lots of Chinese and Indian restaurants in London, but we're talking about Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indian food here. It's another small but niggling sign that Malaysia is going to be for the Malays and not Malaysians, and it annoyed me a great deal.

Anyway, the teh tarik is authentic, if less sweet than what you get in Malaysia. I usually have it kurang manis anyway, so it's great for me. At £2.60 a glass it better be I suppose, but there's even real tea dust in the dregs! That's it though - no teh halia, no kopi-C, no soya bean, no rasam.

The Pretty Lady and I tried the tauhu sumbat, the satay, the nasi lemak and the mee bandung. All were surprisingly decent, if slightly off in some respects. The tauhu is reasonably substantial, with decent sized pieces of fried bean curd, generous portions of chopped stuffing, and big dollops of peanut sauce on top. Only gripe - the bean curd was cold, obviously recently taken out of the fridge. The satay was authentic and properly spiced with the right amount of lemongrass, and the ketupat the right consistency (a review in the Metro called it "horrible and puddingy", which was the point).

My nasi lemak was mostly alright - the rice could have done with a little more pandan, and there cold have been a lot more ikan bilis, but those ingredients are expensive. The real disappointment was the squid sambal. It was salty and spicy, when it should have had some sweetness. Either they're not using imported chilli boh or they just forgot to add sugar. The rendang was pretty good though.

The Pretty Lady's mee bandung was a revelation. It wasn't great mee bandung, but it was a good facsimile of what you might get at a mid-standard mamak stall in Malaysia. It was even based on a Maggi instant noodle packet, and I could taste the assam laksa flavour. Anyway, it was spicy enough, and oddly satisfying, as it brought back memories of eating cheap nosh in the school canteen.

My verdict overall - Jom Makan needs more Malaysian stuff, not just Malay stuff. And arguably, it needs non-halal food. I'd pay a lot for good bak kut teh. What there is though, is alright, worth going to after a night out, say. For a good meal of Malaysian food, I'll still go to Singapore Garden.

Scores:

5 August 2008: TFQ = 22, CS = 21, S = 15, AD = 6, VfM = 7. Total = 71 points.