Quick guys - The Laksa Kitchen isn't around for long and shuts on December 18th!
The Tolli cafe in Kentish Town has stood pretty much empty for the last few weeks. Every day I walk past and think 'what is going on here'. My question, private thought it was, was finally answered this week by David of The Laksa Kitchen - a new pop-up that's only around for a few weeks!
This summer, David took a trip across Malaysia in search of 'the perfect Laksa' following his succesful pop-up earlier this year. Well clearly he found it because The Laksa Kitchen is back with a bang with amazing street food dishes and warming laksas both on the minature menu. Small plates, laksas, wok-fried dishes and desserts all feature and make the mouth water before you even see a swish of a steaming hot plate leave the kitchen!
We popped in for a late-night table this week and enjoyed a selection of dishes from the menu. We began with a bottle of the house white wine, which was a Riesling from New Zealand. It had a medium sweetness with vanilla, orange and red apple notes and a smooth texture. My view is a crisper wine would have been a more appropriate house choice against the creamy laksas on offer.
To start we enjoyed prawn fritters with fresh cucumber and a fiery chilli dip. The prawns were sweet and juicy (there was also plenty of them!). The mix of textures was good and the sweetness of the prawn worked well with the hot sauce. We also enjoyed curried vegetable pasties, filled with potato and onion. They had a wonderful aromatic flavour and were not too spicy, however they were served cold which was unexpected.
For the main event, we both went for laksa - duh! Alex went for the chicken and prawn laksa, topped with omelette strips and served in a thinner, chilli-laced broth. There was also a sambal served on the side to add even more chilli heat. The addition of tofu also worked well as it soaked up the rich chilli flavours.
I went for the seafood broth which was filled with fresh, sweet seafood including prawns, mussels and squid. The seafood was also really well cooked and not at all chewy. I also enjoyed the mix of rice noodles and egg noodles which gave texture to the bowl. I also liked the addition of tofu which soaked up the hot, sour and lemongrass rich broth - a winner in my view!
Come dessert, we were treated to The Laksa Kitchen's signature desserts of Kuih Seri Muka (two layered dessert with sticky rice base and pandan coconut custard top) and Kuih Dadar (pandan flavoured crepes filled with sweet coconut and palm sugar filling). I realy loved the sticky, coconutty rice based cheese-cake style dessert with the vibrant green pandan custard - not too sweet and well balanced in texture. I wasn't a huge fan of the pandan pancake, mostly because the texture of the coconut filling didn't sit well with me. But that's personal taste.
Make sure you hurry down to The Laksa Kitchen before it closes. The laksas truly are absolutely delicious and worth trekking to Kentish Town if you're not a local. Seeing the Italian cafe transformed into a buzzing pop-up is really quite an experience too so make sure you visit!
Thank you to The Laksa Kitchen for hosting this review. All opinions are my own.
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