Serai

I went to this spot after seeing that there was a new Malaysian restaurant in Logan Square. After showing the web site link to a Malaysian friend in DC, he confirmed that I was going to get authentic Malaysian food. When he read my review I posted on my blog, he was rather bitter because the only time he gets Malaysian food is when he goes back home.
Teh tarik. Roti Pratha. Satay Chicken. Char Koay Teow. Pulut Hitam.
I’ve given up coffee for the teh tarik (milk tea). I devoured the roti pratha without use of a fork or spoon. The satay chicken left me wanting more. Having not been a fan of Asian noodle dishes, I will have teh char koay teow again, for true. And the pulut hitam desset is nothing short of love in a cup.
The restaurant is new, but you’d think they had been in Logan Square for quite some time. There was no working out kinks while I was there and the service was top. I need to go back soon.

Ate here with a large group. Victor, our waiter took the time to explain a majority of the menu items to us, including what his personal favorites were. He was trying to encourage us to order family style, but we were all set on what we wanted. We shared some appetizers, which were all very flavorful and interesting, and seemed to all enjoy what we ordered. I would definitely dine here again… bonus — walking distance from my house!

A thoroughly enjoyable Malaysian dinner experience!
The food… very good! I was brought here by a Malaysian friend of mine, so unfortunately I won’t remember all the dish names, but I’ll try my best, since we had a designated orderer! We started with some Satay Chicken and followed it with the Beef Rendang, Pork Chop, Beef Chow Fun, and a fried rice. The food was extremely good and we demolished all of it. I do need to return to try the hainan chicken and the claypot tofu at the other table looked really good.
The drinks… no liquor license yet. They do have a posted limit of one bottle for every two customers. If you arrive when it’s busy, you can ask them to open your bottle while you wait. If you have the time and don’t have any alcohol, there’s a walgreens about two blocks south east.
The venue… a tight interior, but the night I went they had a party which took up the entire bar area seating. On a regular night, hopefully it’s a little bit more free flowing. Parking isn’t much of a problem either, you’ll find street parking within a block of the restaurant.
Overall… a definite must try for Malaysian food!

LEGIT! I can’t begin to tell you how ecstatic I am to have an authentic Malaysian restaurant down the street from my apartment! The service here has mom & pop vibes, everyone is super friendly and courteous.
Food:
Roti Pratha — the roti bread was perfectly fried and not too oily. the dipping sauce was flavorful with bits of meat and potato in it. my only complaint is that i wish it was a little richer
Curry Laksa — great flavor and huge portion! and soooo much meat
Cumin Lamb — this tastes exactly how it sounds, it is lamby and it is cumin-​y. It was cooked well but I can see how it would taste a little intense if you’re not into cumin all up in your mouth (which I am)
Three Pepper Fish — ERMAGAWD. I would come back for this dish alone, slightly sweet, slighty salty, all delicious.
The bar side was closed when we went, but I can imagine it getting packed on the weekends while people are waiting for a table. I am literally counting down the days until I go back!

Came in during the first week it opened and was hoping for some authentic malaysian dishes…
Perhaps they needed more times to work out some kinks… service was slow and the server kinda didn’t seem to be confused with the orders and dishes…
The hainan chicken was mediocre at best. A good hainan chicken should have a burst of flavour that come through the meat itself. I felt like I was eating a dish filled with gigantic pieces of dry flavourless chicken breast. The thought of having to finish the leftover was daunting — i ended up taking most of the whole dish home and made chicken rice soup since i didn’t want to just throw it away.
The watercress with shrimp paste was really greasy… it was one of my childhood favourite since my mom used to make that all the time before she stopped using shrimp paste in her dishes…
My fiancé ordered a malaysian dish that a piece of fried chicken topped with some sauces… it came with some other fixings and rice… but honestly, this dish tasted just like how I described here… i bet you could get that sauce at some asian grocery store and put it on any fried chicken.

The food: 3.5. We started with Roti Pratha, which was really good, but our serving only had one tiny piece of chicken in it. I would’ve paid for a larger portion if it actually had chicken and not all potatoes in it. Steam pork sticker wasn’t great, very greasy and the meat wasn’t seasoned properly. I had the Char Koay Teow, which was very tasty, but skimpy on the seafood and again very greasy. While I understand it’s cooked in a wok, it doesn’t need to be floating in oil. The pineapple fried rice was fairly basic, but the presentation was a little bizarre. Why was there a layer of shredded iceberg lettuce under the pineapple?
The service: 3.5. The service wasn’t bad per se, but it seems the owner was frantically running around the floor only getting in the way of the servers.
Overall: 3.5. The food was tasty, but fairly greasy. A good spot to get a quick dinner or a take out, but I don’t see myself craving their food to become a regular.

My new favorite restaurant in Chicago. Best Asian food I’ve had in Chicago since I moved here 2 and half years ago. The char kuay teow is spot on, and the laksa was comforting on a cold winter evening. The gado gado was disappointing, but most place’s gado gado is, so I knew that going in.
Can’t wait to come back and try the hokkein mee and nasi lemak— I swear I’m bringing every one of my friends here and I will become a regular!
The servers were all really friendly, and who I assume is the owner or manager was very nice, explaining that they just opened up 5 weeks ago. As the only Malaysian restaurant in Chicago, I hope they last because I NEED this kind of comfort food!!!

I took my bodyguards, who are also both outspoken Asian food aficionados and Asian food critics to Serai. There is a woeful lack of authentic southeast Asian, focus on Malay cuisine, in Chicago so we were all excited and anxious to try it. I spent a lot of time in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and had my own standards and expectations going in as well so the bar was set high for this upstart restaurant!
Well, despite the swirling madness inside, a large private event taking up half the restaurant and swelling crowd pouring in, (no reservations) Kelly, their rock star hostess, was cool, poised and miraculously got us seated quickly. Mwah!
In addition to managing the kitchen, private event, front door and the swelling crowd waiting to be seated, Victor the owner was gracious enough to introduce himself and check in on us throughout the evening. We told him that we all know what this food is supposed to taste like and with confidence he assured us We would not be disappointed… And we were not!
The choice of dishes, taste and flavors, while not what I would characterize as «home cooked» were in fact representative of what one will find in a traditional «peoples restaurant» in any of the countries mentioned above.
We were warned that the service may be slower tonight cause the kitchen was slammed with the private event but it was fine. Their team hustled including Victor who we saw running large trays of food for the party between schmoozing and other duties.
Being that One of me bodyguards is vegetarian, we did not eat many meat dishes but did enjoy everything we tried which included:
1. Char KoayTeow, a classic
2. Serai Curry Laksa. I love and have been looking for a nice Laksa and am happy to have found one.
3. Shrimp Rendang
4. Satay tofu
5. A bunch of other stuff.
Despite a worthy meal on a crazy night, I think the best is yet to come for Serai (I’d like to see more Peranakan flavors and influences come through in their cuisine) will be frequenting it more often for a great bowl of Laksa etc.
BYOB for now.

Came here on a Friday night and it was packed to the brim with people waiting at the door. We were seated within 30min and ordered lots of food — roti paratha, Indonesian salad, chicken satay, char koay Teow, laksa, beef rendang, sambal eggplant & nasi lemak ayam merah (fried chicken). We were quite pleased with everything except the Indonesian salad which was way overpriced for what you get. The Roti paratha could also use more roti for the amount of curry that was supplied.
Service was attentive but rather slow. They are definitely understaffed for the space. But the owners/​servers were very apologetic and eager to please. Very excited to finally have a good Malaysian place in the city and hope they can smooth out the service kinks soon. I can’t wait to go back!

What a delightful taste of Malaysian at this new restaurant, Serai. I came here one evening with my daughter after the holidays and it was a busy evening for them. There was 3 servers for the restaurant and all 3 were very friendly.
It is a large place, but the one side was closed for the evening. We were seated by the windows and unfortunately a very cold draft stayed with me throughout the dinner so I ate with my coat on, but the food was delicious.
I had the Nasi Lemak with Ayam Merah, chicken dish that is definitely a must to order. The Rendang Shrimp was good, but the chicken dish was better.
My daughter ordered the wonton soup, but I don’t recommend it as it was rather bland.
My favorite part was dessert. The coconut pudding was definitely a must share item because they fill a young fresh coconut with a luscious pudding… so good that I ordered another one to take home to the boys.

My first attempt at eating Malaysia cuisine in Chicago. Apparently the place opened up a month ago. Walked in with a Malaysian friend (and I myself have stayed in Malaysia entire), hence I think I know the food quite well. And I do think they did a pretty good job.
Service ⁴⁄₅. No reservations. Waited 5 – 10 mins to get a table but that’s understandable as the place was packed.
Ambience 3.5÷5 can get noisy. No background music. A family/​business hangout kinda place.
Food 4.5÷5 this food tastes like it’s cooked by a Malaysian (and it was confirmed by the owner who met us at the table and is from KL himself)
Price ⁴⁄₅ price is reasonable. About 70 usd for a 5 course meal shared between two.
Portions ³⁄₅ portions are definitely sized smaller than standard American. But the quality of food easily makes up for it.

If you’ve read some of my other reviews, you’ll know how much I love Malaysian food. Unfortunately, it’s not common in the US even though it’s known as one of the best cuisines in the entire world. I have many Malaysian friends who have cooked for me, and fell even more in love with the food after spending a few weeks there. I always tell some friends in Chicago they have no idea what they’re missing out on and they remain kind of clueless about it.
There used to be a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown, but it burned down something like 8 years ago. There are a few restaurants in Chicago here and there serving a Malaysian dish or two, but almost none of them (except one) was doing it very well. There are only a few full on Malaysian restaurants in the suburbs and that’s the only way to get it, unless you find yourself at a friend’s place or a Merdeka Day celebration.
You can understand the excitement I had when I found out the city was getting a legitimate Malaysian restaurant and I wouldn’t have to go to the suburbs to find such an establishment. I actually went opening day, but only had a few things to eat. I came back with more people so we could have more.
Everything was very good there. The Roti Paratha (canai) was great. The roti is pretty obviously homemade and better than any I’ve had in the US yet. The char koay teow was very good with a nice char flavor. The chicken satay is awesome and yet again probably the best I’ve had in the US. Might not be for everyone, but it has a nice lemongrass flavor. Might not be for everyone, but it was awesome. The dipping sauce is good enough to eat straight up. Both the Sambal Shrimp and Beef Rendang were really good too. Coconut pudding was great too.
The space itself is nice and clean and they’ll be opening up the other half (with a bar) soon enough. They also told me they’re going to have a patio in the summer — can’t wait for that! Service wise, it was very good. The owners are really nice and cool and legitimately want you to pick the right dishes and have the best food.
They have food from other Asian countries as well like Thailand and China, but you could say this is primarily a Malaysian restaurant that has some other dishes from some other countries in the region too.
I recommend this restaurant for anyone who loves food in general. I have eaten at a handful of Malaysian restaurants in NYC and Philadelphia, as well as the suburbs of Chicago, and I think this place takes the cake out of any I’ve tried (including Nyonya in Manhattan).

OMG. a Malaysian restaurant in Logan square. What? We originally planned to go to wasabi tonight but there was an hour wait so we just walked down a couple blocks to serai. The entrance is barely recognizable — there’s only a camouflaged sign on the door that isn’t clear in the dark. The restaurant only has a few tables and they plan to open it up further in the next month or so. We didn’t have reservations so we had to wait 15 mins which wasn’t a big deal. They seated us even though our entire party hadn’t arrived. The owners/​managers were very polite and helpful during our wait.
In terms of the food, we ordered the crowd favorite chicken pratha (other Malaysian places call this roti canai) as our appetizer — almost all other tables were ordering this one. I got the Malaysian shrimp for my main course. When I tasted it, I realized that it was the elusive fried rice I had been searching for in Chicago all along! I tasted a few other dishes that others in our group had ordered and everything was really good. Everyone was happy with their orders.
I’m really excited for serai and I’m sure it will be a neighborhood favorite of mine. I’ve already planned out how I’m going to get take-​out from here after work enroute my way home. Thanks Serai!

Serai is a delicious Malaysian restaurant just opened this month in Logan Square! It adds exactly what the area has been needing to our dining scene. Admittedly I am not very familiar with Malaysian food but my friend informed me it’s a bit of a conglomerate of other countries’ cuisines — China, India, Thailand, all of EurAsia, as well as some things indigenous to Malaysia.
The space is huge but it seems they usually keep just half of the restaurant open. Service was fabulous with the owner explaining every dish we were interested in and various ingredients. It was clear the staff is very passionate about what they are serving here.
Now that is all well and good but what’s most important here is the food is so friggin good!
Roti Pratha (印度面包) $ 5.95 — Indian bread served with a curry chicken and potatoes dipping sauce — I was surprised that I absolutely loved this dish! It was a tad spicy but the portion was insanely huge for an appetizer. And the flavor was just delectable. the spices were well balanced for great taste. The only thing was we finished wit the roti (Indian flat bread) and still had so much curry left! We wished they had given us more roti so we could soak in all that curry-​goodness.
Green Curry Chicken (青咖喱鸡) $ 11.95 –Served with green bean, eggplant, broccoli, onion, baby corn and a green coconut broth — My friend’s dish had even more spice than our app! I tried it and thought it was really good but couldn’t eat more than a few bites due to my weak tastebuds. If you can handle the heat, this dish is a real winner.
Drunken Noodles (泰式炒河粉) $ 10.95 –Thai style fried flat noodles with chicken, basil, carrot, string bean, mushroom and peanut — Not your run of the mill Chinese joint drunken noodles. Again, the portion was HUGE! This dish had deep fried basil leaves on top which made the dish that much more tasty but also aesthetically pleasing when it arrived at the table. The chicken was perfectly done, the thick noodles were well cooked, flavoring of the sauce was great — really loved this dish!
My friends and I were all really happy with Serai’s service and menu. We left stuffed to the brims, completely satisfied and loving this new addition to our ‘hood!

I grew up in Singapore, and am constantly on the hunt for Singapore and Malaysian meals wherever I stay and travel. I couldn’t be more excited to discover this wonderfully authentic Malaysian restaurant that just soft-​opened in Chicago. The chef and crew are all Malaysian, and the lovely food reflects much of their heritage and warmth.
The appetizer of satay chicken was juicy, and was accompanied well with the satay sauce. Char Koay Teow, with its strong «wok hei», was the highlight for me. The Kangkong Belachan was good but could do with a heavier dose of spice!
A calming bowl of Pulut Hitam (a black rice dessert with coconut milk) rounded up the meal. Perfect for the winter!
I’ll be back to try out their other dishes!

Increasingly we are getting Asian restaurants around here that are authentic (this place and JJ Thai come to mind), so no crab rangoons with a $ 10 order, folks. This place is the real Malaysian deal.
The preparation and flavors reminded me of those found in small stalls in Southeast Asia.
For our first visit, we ordered the standard dishes: Hainanese Chicken, Beef Rendang, Roti Pratha, and Nasi Goreng. All were good to great. And feel free to laugh at my crab rangoon comment earlier, since I believe they have them, as well as pot stickers. We ordered the latter, and these are not your grandma’s pot stickers. Pan fried, they had a nice crunch and the meat inside was seasoned perfectly.
Next time, I look forward to trying different items, but I will definitely be back to this place.
The staff gets a shout out too — they’re a hard working and hospitable bunch — I really hope this restaurant brings them lots of success!

Come one, come all! New hot establishment in the heart of Logan square. They are having a soft opening right now so hours are kind of odd. Open 3pm-​10pm except Monday I believe. After a long day out, my friend and I were really craving Asian food. Some authentic tasting good quality Asian food you know? I think that’s hard to find in the city these days. Was really excited to see that a Malaysian restaurant had opened right around the corner from our houses.
Upon entering, you notice that the space is huge. A bar/​dining area to the right which was still blocked off and closed for the soft opening. To the left was where we sat and dined. Sing, the owner, introduced himself right away and was very amiable and helpful. I got to briefly speak to him about the establishment and his background in the industry.
Nonetheless, Sing and Michelle, our server and host, made us feel right at home. We even found ourselves speaking mandarin to each other.
Enough of that, onto the food. Between the 2 of us we shared 4 dishes which was the perfect amount for us. Two appetizers and two main entrees.
1. Chicken satay
2. Roti
3. Lamb rendang
4. Laksa
The dishes were all delicious. For us though, the star of the meal was the chicken satay. Comes with 3 skewers which Sing said were slow grilled dark meat. Perfect amount of char on the edges with a juicy tender inside. The peanut dipping sauce complimented the chicken perfectly. Don’t forget to skewer a piece of onion and cucumber with each bite. Make sure not to put too much onion or else it will overpower the flavors.
Roti was so light and crispy! The sauce/​curry that came with it was full of flavor.
Lamb rendang– nice tender pieces of lamb in a beautiful dark caramelized sauce of aromatics like lemon grass and ginger.
Laksa– rich coconut flavored broth with ample amounts of meat. Contained ramen noodles which soaked up the soup very quickly.
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by our choice. What really made it a great experience was the friendliness and kindness that Sing and Michelle displayed. We will definitely be coming back and bringing our friends for an awesome experience.

This is more of a 4.5 stars.
Please keep in mind that this is a review for their soft opening.
Came here with a group of 5 and here’s what we ordered:
–Roti: The magic is in that sauce that you dip the bread in. I can eat a bowl of rice with that sauce alone.
–Chicken satay: I normally never order satay, but someone recommended it to us and it did not disappoint. Juicy and full of awesome char flavor.
–Beef rendang: We chose to order it with the special rice option. The rice stole the show. You mix it up the coconut rice with a fried egg and other toppings. It was so flavorful and full of textures. The beef itself was so tiny. It had like 4 pieces total, but very delicious. Had awesome lemongrass flavors and tender. I think maybe if you don’t order with the rice, it will come with more beef?
–Chicken Rice: A MUST get. The star of the entire meal. Huge portion and SUPER tender. The skin was so delicious. A big plate of chicken. Comes with a bowl of the most amazing rice and chili sauce. The rice was so flavorful, we had to order a second bowl. My favorite from tonight’s meal.
–Vegetable curry pot: This was okay. Not amazing, but not bad either. Nothing special.
–Laksa: Loaded bowl of noodles. I loved the flavor and ingredients, but it was luke warm. We mentioned it to the owner (?) and he took note of it.
Service was great. Super friendly and not pretentious. Sing (whom I think is the owner) was very informational and gave us recommendations, explanation of dishes, etc. One of the friends that we were dining with is actually Malaysian and he liked the food so that’s a good sign. The chef and owner is Malaysian which is another good sign. Adding this to my local favs list.

Amazing and authentic food. I was born and raised in Penang Malaysia and the food tastes like home. The chef actually went to the same high school as me. Anyway, I came here on their soft launch opening day. My group ordered the satay, gado-​gado, char koay teow, Hokkien char mee, Hokkien Ee mee, hainanese chicken, Nasi Lemak with ayam merah, curry lemak. The food was spot on, and reminds me of home. The portions were big, definitely great for family-​style sharing. The price was really affordable, considering we ordered way more food than we can finish (enough for another meal for each person), each person still only paid ~$ 20. Nevertheless, being a new restaurant, there were some kinks to be ironed out.
Overall, I’m really excited for this restaurant and can’t wait for their official opening day and for their full menu to come out.

Yayyyyy there’s a Malaysian restaurant in Chicago now! All of the cooks are from Penang and other parts of Malaysia, and our host is from Terengganu. We were there for the first day of their soft opening and they have some great offerings from Malaysia. Although also offering the typical Chinese fare, the bulk of the menu is specific to the Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Nyonya dishes found only in that part of the world.
I have high hopes Serai becomes a staple for Logan Square.