Melur

This small yet hidden restaurant is on one of the dirtiest streets in London — Edgware road. Don’t let this scare you though, the meals they serve are authentic and my Malaysian friends always talked about this place. For lunch you’ll get a full rijsttafel for a little over 10 quid — really quite a steal if u want to indulge yourself with Malay/​Indonesian food

My husband and I loved all of the veterinarian options that we had! There was a veggie appetizer that was fantastic! (And almost all completely fried, so how could it not be?)
I just wish we’d gone all veg here! We didn’t particularly care for the meat mains that we ordered.
The portions were quite large.
We ordered the veggie combo starter, rice, and two meat entrees, we Should have just ordered the starter and rice and that would have been enough for the both of us!
Thai iced tea was great, as they are everywhere :)

What a brilliant find! I was looking for rijsttaffel («rice table“which I like to refer to as Indonesian tapas), but I could only find 2 Indonesian restaurants in London that served this. The Other restaurant sounded interesting, but they required a minimum of 2 orders, so that immediately doubled the expense to over 30 GBP for just one person who wanted this mix of dishes. On the other hand, Melur allowed me to do a single rijsttaffel order for only 10.50 GBP. Very nice! Melur had 8 dishes in the rice table, which I don’t know if that’s a good number or not, but it gave a broad enough selection for me. They let me choose my soup (I went with lamb because it seemed more authentic). It was very good. The rest of the dishes included plain rice, beef rendang, gado gado salad, satay (2 skewers of chicken), fried chicken chunks, curry fish with aubergine, and prawn crackers. It was all flavourful, except the prawn crackers which needed to be dipped in the other sauces. The fried chicken chunks dish was my favourite because they were fried with garlic bits and chili peppers — but this would have been better if it were boneless chicken. I wasn’t really in the mood for fish, but the I did like the aubergine in the curry fish sauce dish. It was a bit hard to find because it’s a small restaurant located downstairs of a building, but it was very nicely arranged and the staff were extremely friendly. I will definitely need to go back when I have the chance.

Authentic, inexpensive, great service. South of Edgware Sta. Doesn’t look like much from outside. As close to home cooked meal as one can get after having crossed the «wrong» ocean from America. =P

The service was friendly but that’s the only real positive.
The place was dark and dank with little atmosphere. I ordered a lychee drink, which came with perhaps more ice than drink.
I also ordered the green lamb curry. This was a sad affair. Whilst it was indeed hot, the dish looked very barren with tiny pieces of chewy lamb and nothing much else inside it. No bamboo shoots, carrots or anything else. It was a little cheaper than the other dishes, but poor.
The satay started we had was equally disappointing. Expensive for only 6 sticks, the lamb satay was burned and super tough. Only the satay peanut sauce saved the dish as it was extremely delicious and mildly spicy with the signature chunky peanuts and smoky taste.
The other dishes out party had didn’t look anything special either. In essence the menu here tries to do too much and a lot of it not very well. If you’re looking for something close to average home cooking you might be impressed with if you’d made it yourself with ingredients you’ve found around the kitchen, you may well be pleased. The price is also quite outrageous for the standard of food.
However having been to the quite good «C & R Café & Restaurant» two weeks prior with much better pricing, portion and taste, it’s a no brainer. This isn’t one to give reason ever to try again.

Went walking off from our hotel looking for an Indian restaurant but, this being London, got totally lost. Apparently the english don’t believe in posting street signs to tell you where you are. Meh.
Fortunately, this being London, it didn’t actually matter that we couldn’t find the restaurant we were looking for because any random street you stumble onto is bound to be packed with delicious places to eat. Wifey and I stumbled on this place and, after a brief glance at the menu posted at the door upstairs, descended into the lair. Malaysian food is somewhere between Indian and Thai, two of my favorite types of food, and I had a head cold so curry was exactly what the doctor ordered.
The restaurant is downstairs and feels like a bar or a lounge and in fact there’s a big bar along one wall and their menu has a wide selection of beers, wines, and mixed drinks — including Malay favorites like Aloe Vera Juice and Gin. Gin & Juice was never so healthy! Wifey and I opted for non-​alcoholic mixed drinks and I got Lychee nut & rose petal and she got coconut guava grape juice. Both were brilliant, really really good.
We got a mixed vegetarian starter platter which included a bean curd satay (my personal favorite) and a variety of other tasty treats. I got hot Tom Yum chicken soup and the wife got Sup Sayer vegetarian soup. For entrees I got the Gulai Kambing (spicy lamb curry) and wife got Ketoprak (rice vermicelli with bean sprouts, tofu, and rice curd in peanut sauce). One thing I noticed immediately is that, unlike indian or Thai restaurants that I’ve been to in the states, these plates are a bit … sparse. My chicken soup was just that — chicken with a bit of mini corn and broth. The lamb curry was chunks of lamb in curry sauce, period. Rice was 2.20 extra. I mean, not being surprised with extra ingredients is cool I guess, but It’d be nice to get more complex flavors. I don’t know whether that’s a feature of Malay food or British food or a bit of both.
One thing to be aware of — when they say «spicy» in the description you should pay attention. I eat spicy food all the time and have never yet met a curry I couldn’t conquer but I’ve officially met my match in the Gulai Kambing. It was good and I ate most of it but about ¾ of the way through I just had to stop because I couldn’t take any more heat. Gulai Kambing — I salute you! You are a worthy foe!
If we’d had any room left I’d have really liked to get dessert. Unfortunately I’m on a plane back to the states tomorrow so I won’t get a chance to go back any time soon. This makes me sad.
Summary: simple but tasty dishes, spicy means spicy, drinks are awesome, relatively affordable. Good spot!

The starters were great (fried squid and soft shell crab), and the main courses to share were decent, but these were ruined by the restaurant’s arctic temperature dining environment! We sat at a round table closest to the entrance, but to be fair the entrance was at the ground floor, whilst the dining area was in the basement. Even so, there seemed to be a constant cold breeze coming from the toilet (directly behind our back), or side entrance, and by the end of the meal we had to wear our coats, gloves and my friend even took out her woolly hat, I’m not kidding! I felt like an Eskimo. DO NOT GO to this place when it’s cold outside, or else request seats further in the room. BRRRRR~~~
The hygiene leaves much to be desired – I’d like to point out that one toilet in the Ladies was out of order, and the other was clogged, too. Certainly not the most pleasant place to be. Not to mention my friend’s spoon on the table was already dirty.

Tried this place for the first time the other day although I’ve been living down the street from it for the past 9 months.
There was a group of 8 of us, and while we were understanding that that could lead to the food being a bit delayed, we all got too uncomfortable waiting after 30+ minutes. I asked about our starters twice, and some woman who I assume to be the owner immediately came over, sincerely apologized, and offered us free bowls of prawn crackers and peanuts+anchovies while we waited. Potato cakes are good for starters, but the traditional malay bread+curry not so much.
The main courses were really good, LARGE, and all around £7−10. I had the fish head curry with aubergines, which was awesome. Dabbled in everyone else’s lamb curries and noodles and rice dishes as well, and they were delish.
They also have an interesting selection of tropical-​themed drinks that are virgin and alcoholic. The lychee juice was bombbbb diggity.
Thought about giving it 3 stars, but the owner was really cool about the whole thing and the food is worth the price. Maybe neighboring on 3.5.

My sister had gotten a 2−4−1 Time Out offer that was valid for their ‘Cheap Eat’ restaurants so we decided to check out Melur on the Edgeware Road.
Melur is a Malaysian restaurant and so sticks out a little, thematically if not literally, amongst the largely Lebanese restaurants on the Edgeware Road. Melur is quite far up the road and is down a set of stairs from street level. The inside is decorated simply but with consideration.
We went quite late on a Monday night and, whilst there weren’t that many other people around, there was a constant trade.
They sell a range of traditional Malay dishes. We had the Chicken Satay and Gado Gado (salad) to start. Both of which were well done. The satay sauce had a good texture and subtly of flavour. For main course I had the prawn fried in batter. The prawns had been cooked for just the right length of time and the batter was nice and light. I had rice as well was fine, as rice is. To drink we had Teh Tarik, a Malaysian sweet tea, which was very comforting.
The staff were nice and gave recommendations. It made for a nice dinner. The only downside about the place was that there were a few things on the menu that weren’t available. Also, whilst nice for two, the dishes suit sharing so a group of at least four would be best.