Please note, this venue is now closed. Time Out Eating & Drinking editors, June 2016.
Upon arrival at Sedap, we were warmly greeted in Penang-Hokkien dialect by the owner Mary Khoo, who moved here from Notting Hill in 2009. Her family members continue to run the restaurant: from the stove all the way to front-of-house. Black furniture and olive-green walls add a sense of style to proceedings, as do neat touches such as a glass display cabinet showcasing antique tea sets.
We kicked off with a seafood char mee (stir-fried yellow noodles), which was packed with deep-fried shallots and minced garlic giving long-lasting flavour. Sedap is known for its Nonya cooking – a fusion of Malay and Chinese cuisines – and the typical hot and sour flavours were exemplified by a curry tumis, which arrived in a sturdy copper bowl. Inside, we found a tasty, soft and fleshy sea bream accompanied by okra. To finish, the own-made Nonya kueh (brightly coloured cakes) are difficult to resist. Accompanying the kueh with a glass of warm, sweet teh tarik (‘pulled tea’) would doubtless bring back happy memories to Malaysian expats. The good-value lunch menus are also worthy of inspection.