ORIENTAL CANTEEN

2a Exhibition Rd. South Kensington. SW7 2HF

Phone: 020 7581 8831

Nearest Tube: South Kensington




Location Location Location. Man this tiny corner restaurant has it good. Walking distance from South Kensington tube and a net catcher for any Imperial College student. Wish I had this kind of place as a university student. Wished I owned a place like this.

I can’t emphasise enough how tiny this place is. You can probably fit less than 20 patrons upstairs and just a few more downstairs. Etiquette is pretty much you share your table if needed and you order fast, eat fast and then get the hell outta there. Not a joint to languish and linger in. Nor is it a place where you can stroll up in a wheelchair or a pram. It's just too tiny.




They serve a mix of Cantonese and Malaysian food. I wouldn’t say that their roasted duck rice or crispy salted pork are the crème de la crème of what London has to offer. But it’s good value (around a fiver) and good portions.

Char Kway Teow is pretty authentic (still like the Selfridges one better). The curry laksa is alright only. Not rich enough for my liking. (Don't you hate it when sometimes you can actually taste curry powder in the soup?) But a worthy contender I guess if you have a bit of a crave. Char sui (roasted pork) is good – but how can you go wrong?



They have heaps of other dishes of course. Most of them are of them are stir-fried noodles or rice with your choice of meat. But if it’s ala carte you’re after, then you can order individual dishes with rice on the side. By the way, the vegetables are hideously expensive…£7 for a small dish of gai lan (Chinese greens).

So if you’re after a cheap eat, in a hurry and not too bothered about getting your vege intake for the day…and you’re in the area…Oriental Canteen is your best bet.

HRH

EKACHAI

Unit 205, 1st Floor
Southside Shopping Centre
Wandsworth. SW18 4TE

Ph: 0208 8871 3888

Opening Hours: Sun to Thurs 11am – 10:30pm
Fri and Sat 11am – 11pm

Parking: To get free parking, spend over £10 at Waitrose or see a movie after 7pm.

Website: Ekachai

There’s another branch at Ekachai City
9-10 Arcade
Liverpool street
London EC2M 7PN
Mon-Fri 11-10pm
sat-sun closed



I simply can’t believe where we’re finding good Malaysian/Chinese food nowadays. First it was in Selfridges, and now before we were going to see the movie Transformers in the Southside Shopping Centre, Wandsworth. A fluke really. We had the choice between McDonalds, Nandos, Pizza Hut or this place called Ekachai. We thought what the hell, we’ll give Ekachai a whirl. We wanted something quick, filling and hopefully edible. Ekachai more than delivered.

As soon as you enter you get the Wagamama vibe. Wide tables with benches for seats and an open-plan kitchen. “Oh crap,” I thought “Another try-hard quasi-euroasian chain”. Between us we ordered the char kway teow, Singapore noodles, beef hor-fun Cantonese style and penang laksa.

Our lychee drinks arrived promptly and practically less than 10 minutes after ordering our food arrived simultaneously. Huge portions. Good.

Hard to make us Culinary Hags impressed these days. But impressed we were and chuffed at finding a Malaysian/Chinese joint within driving distance without having to trek all the way to London centre.

The Singapore noodles (£5.50) and char kway teow (£5.50) were pretty close to the real mc coy. Both with generous servings of fresh prawns. My beef hor-fun (£5.50) was always very close to what you can get at say Four Seasons in Bayswater. The beef certainly wasn’t the tenderest I’ve eaten, but I thoroughly enjoyed it just the same.
The penang laksa (£5.90) is more curry-coconut based, not thick, but light and quite flavoursome. In the laksa are fishcakes, prawns, squid, crabsticks and a boiled egg.

You can see the rest of the menu from their website. A hodge-podge of food mainly Malaysian, Cantonese (including some dim sum dishes like siu mai, har kau, glutinous rice in lotus leaf), Thai (Thai beef salad, Tom Yum prawn noodles).
The cooks and staff all seem to be Chinese possibly from Malaysia. We Hags will definitely check out the rest of the menu to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

HRH