Fancying another go at Malaysian we decided to try out Satay House at Paddington. This is a more established Malaysian restaurant (having been around for at least 30 years) and was all buzzy when we arrived at 8.30 this evening. Whether its urban myth or not even the Malaysian Prime Minister used to frequent this restaurant when he was in town.

The Satay House has a decent selection of Malaysian food though quite a bit pricier than other restaurants I’ve been to. It was pretty late so we didn’t eat too much tonight sticking with chicken satay skewers, Mee Goreng (our test dish for all things Malaysian) and Nasi Ayam (which is a fairly simple steamed chicken with rice cooked in chicken broth.)

In a reversal of our meal at Jom Makan the dishes were all served hot, all tasted pretty good and came out in the right order. Strangely what was lacking tonight was the service. It was friendly when we finally got some attention but the waiter seemed more interested in making conversation with diners who had finished their meals and clearing tables than in taking our order. It was almost condescending how he would nod at us as if to say “yes I acknowledge you are there but I will not actually serve you anyway.”

I don’t want to let one waiter turn me off from the Satay House because to be honest good Malaysian restaurants in London are few and far in between. Prices for the services you get are a bit higher than average but I guess that’s to cover the recent update that the restaurant has gone (apparently by the designers behind GBK and Wagamama.) Good atmosphere but be warned that tables are very close to each other so be prepared to hear the conversation on both sides of you and for them to hear yours!

hGood Malaysian … at a price.