I have been to the Malay Peninsula a fair few times and during such visits developed a taste for the food out there, with it very much operating on a fusion basis in a good way (rather than the “throw any old shit in the pot” and viola an Iceland Chicken Tikka Lasagna, whoever came up with that needs stringing up with piano wire and that is just for starters).

Food from there (including Malaysia and Singapore) melds together seamlessly Chinese, Indian, Thai, Indonesian, Nyonya and Eurasian cuisines. A true melting pot of cuisines

Every now and then I get a real yearning for this sort of food (chronically under rated and under represented as against certain other South East Asian cuisines in the UK) and, whilst looking at possible venues for lunch with J (she bailed on me to get her nails – probably not real ones – done), I came across Happy Lok.

Now with my extensive knowledge (not) of the Cardiff food scene, I had no idea it did all manner of Malay dishes from my beloved roti canai to laksas, beef rendang and, off course, nasi goreng and nasi lemak (the latter the country’s national dish).

I have very fond  memories of eating roti canai in Little India in KL, nasi lemak (for brekkie most days) on Redang Island and the nasi goreng in a tin shack type place on the banks of the Sarawak River in Kuching, Borneo (as the heavens opened). Must go back, but have been ruined long haul flight wise by last trip that way being a business class trip to Singapore. Simply can’t bear the thought, on a flight of more than 5 hours, of turning right rather than left at top of stairs to the plane!!

So to Happy Lok, nestled on Crwys Road, in deepest, darkest, Studentlandia aka Cathays. With Cardiff’s substantial South East Asian student population, I imagine in term time it is packed. Even with most students back home, it was fairly busy on my Friday lunchtime visit.

Lots of interesting stuff on the menu  which is Malaysian and Chinese rather than purely Malayasian in nature.

Obviously, with my customary “short” intro, I was going Malay and first up was a roti canai.

Good flake to the exterior of the two rotis, with a nicely layered buttery, elastic, interior.

The accompanying curry sauce had a lovely level of spicing, with a pleasing punch of chilli heat.

Rich creaminess to this, with a real depth of flavour that you get from properly roasted spices.

This was one of the best iterations of this dish I have had outside of Malaysia.

Whilst sorely tempted by the nasi lemak, it is more a breakfast dish and thus I decided on the other ever present rice dish on Malay menus in the form of nasi goreng (translates to fried rice and viewed as more a lunch time dish).

Good sized portion, with well spiced rice and a smokey, caramelised, flavour that is the trademark of this dish. Raw chilli’s added a fair bit of heat, with the cooling cucumber slices operating as a nice counterpoint to that heat.

The chicken was nicely cooked, poached I would say, but I actually don’t think the dish needed it and in hindsight I think I should have gone for the veggie rather than the protein option (with beef or prawns also on offer).

I am a fan of the Indonesian addition of a fried egg atop this dish, but concede we were in Malay territory where that is not so de rigeur.

Drinks wise, I was driving so no booze

The wine selection is predictably awful, Yellowtail truly is an abomination, but bar from a riesling or perhaps a gruner veltliner (there’s hoping) being on the list I would tend to avoid wine with this sort of food in any event. A tiger beer would probably have been my choice if not driving.

Shame not to see teh tarik (sweet pulled tea that goes all frothy due to the pulling process, which is national drink of Malaysia) on the menu or some more ambitious juices (limau asam boi/calamansi and sour plum for instance).

I defaulted to a green tea.

Despite it being from a bag, this was quite refreshing and worked well with the two dishes I had.

The verdict

I know the “hidden gem” monicker is much abused,

but I think this could be validly regarded as a bit of a “forgotten by some, but shouldn’t be” kinda place. Been around for a fair while and I suspect a lot of people have forgotten it is even there.

I alway think you can be assured you are going to get a good meal at a place in the UK with a specific ethnic focus, if the people eating there are predominantly from that ethnicity. Here on a Friday lunchtime time, it was busy with me one of only two Caucasians in the place. Have to say, based on the sheer amount of food people were eating, how Chinese and Malay people are not massively fat is beyond me!!

The Malay food here is rather good and certainly lived up to my expectations based on having been to Malaysia many times.

Price wise, the roti canai was £5.80 and the nasi goreng £8.50.

With the tea, it made for a fine lunch for less that £17

In this day and age, for a hearty two course meal with a drink, that is pretty good value I think.

Their set menu meals look excellent  value too.

Details

Address: 53 Crwys Rd, Cardiff CF24 4ND

Website: https://happy-lok-1.ueniweb.com/

Opening hours are not standard, so have posted below:

Good shout this place for those looking to solve the “Where is open to eat out on a Monday?” conundrum.