Jom Makan

Fairly decent Southeast Asian food fare. We’ve tried the satay, char kway teow, and beef rendang, all of which aren’t so bad. Although, the serving portion isn’t a strong suit of the resto.

From the outside this place is impressive and occupies a great location near Trafalgar Square. However, it is the inside that is now letting this place down.
The restaurant was pretty empty but getting service was difficult. It seemed the two girls on the floor preferred to clean glasses while chatting at the till rather than serve my friend and I. We got halfway through the menu and noticied there are no alcoholic drinks on the menu, after querying (as it didn’t used to be like this — I’d been two years before) we were told the Manager didn’t want to serve alcohol anymore.
Wasn’t making money? Religious? I have no idea, but it would have been nice to be told before we went in. Their website still shows alcohol, (wine /​beer /​etc).
Anyway, food was pretty dire, nothing different to what people have written above, so I won’t bore the review with it. What a shame, I love Malysian.
In my view this has gone downhill since those years ago, and not just because of the alcohol incident! We won’t be coming back and that is a pity, for such a good location to have a poor restaurant there is shocking.

I think this is a 1 star first for me. I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying malaysian food in the UK and the motherland itself and unfortunately this place didn’t do it for me in general as well as meeting my needs for malaysian food. I had the curry platter and it was disappointing but for those of you who love big portions should go for it. To their credit, it is relatively inexpensive but I suppose you get what you pay for. I was most disappointed with the sambal.

I am Malaysian and my husband and I love Malaysian food. We went in expecting that there would at least be one person there who knew about Malaysian foodnone of the waitresses/​waiters or chef’s were Malaysian and didn’t really know what we were asking them. I was disappointed with this.
We ordered the kuripuffs and were told by the waitress that they didn’t look like what was on the menu, it was actually Jalapenos with cream cheese (chilli poppers) I don’t know if they have ever been to Malaysia but chilli poppers are NOT Malaysian. I then said to her so you are telling me you actually don’t have kuripuffs at all, instead of what you have doesn’t look like that?! And she was quite snappy and they weren’t even busy.
That was our cue to leave and go to C&R where we know the food is good and you get what you pay for. Is this place actually sponsored by the Malaysian governmentare they mad??? What bad PR! The Malaysian government should re-​think this strategyand they spelt Ais-​Krim as Ais Kerim (not Malay!!!)

Jom Makan is not a place I’d recommend. Ever.
I honestly can’t believe this place is sponsored by the Malaysian government. They should be ashamed! The quality of the food is very poor, the portions small, and, when I tried the food some time back, the ingredients used weren’t correct. In fact, instead of the traditional vegetables that were meant to accompany my dish, I got lettuce. Lettuce!
There are many other Malaysian restaurants around which serve far better food at just as decent prices. Do yourself a favour and give this a miss. It’s not worth it, no matter how open a mind you have.

This place was ok. Our waitress was medicore but our hostess was so much better. The best part of the meal was the satay that we ordered as a side

Only got a minute to write this: food wasn’t as good as I hoped it might be. Didn’t taste that much of Malaysia. Mee goreng was lukewarm and limp. Kari ayam tasted strangely a little tart? Beef satays were good on the other hand as were the rotis which were hot, puffy and flaky. The peanut sauce which came with the satays was nothing I have come across before? Didn’t taste good or right.
The bill was quite reasonable. Pity that I had looked forward to a real taste of Malaysia but came away disappointed.

Jom Makan is bit of a strange restaurant. It looks quite imposing from the outside in its high-​profile location right next to Trafalgar Square, yet inside it feels very much like a casual restaurant. There’s just something about it which doesn’t feel quite right, and the lack of background music made the atmosphere rather cold.
The menu is pretty vast and not exactly easy to navigate (not helped by the handwritten amendments on them), but when we asked for guidance our waitress was extremely helpful.
We tried to order wine but were told that they’re not selling alcohol ‘at the moment’, which hints at some potential licensing issues perhaps?
Having said all of that, the food was delicious and the portions were generous. Combined with the really friendly service and the fact that we got 50% off our food bill with taste London, I think it just about justifies a 3 star rating. Not sure I’ll be back in a hurry though.

I was at first excited at the sight of a Malaysian restaurant however our experience was less than palatable.
We ordered the beef satay as main because it came highly recommended. The satay was dry and a little on the cold side. It lacked the greasiness that is expected of a Malaysian satay. They could have provided us with the watered down version of the satay peanut sauce.
We ordered the gado-​gado and surprise surprise the same sad sad sauce was provided. Approximately 2 tablespoons of sauce was provided with the sad sad looking plate of vegetables. The deep fried tofu were hard and came fresh out of the fridge. Instead of boiled potatoes, fried potatoes were used and they were fresh out of the fridge as well. No keropok (crackers) were served with this dish. The plate was just a plate of the cold tofu (4 pieces to be exact), some over blanched and watery bean sprouts.
You would have to use a lot of imagination to believe that there was some coconut milk used to cook the rice. The rendang and the prawn sambal was very watered down and would have great flavour potential if cooked properly. Again, they could have been more generous with the portions given the price tag.
I would never go back to this restaurant. It would be a great introduction to Malay food but not for those who search for authenticity because you will not find it here.

This was my first venture into Malaysian food in London after moving from Singapore, when the craving for Malay spices got the better of me. Swanky location for an ethnic restaurant, for sure, a clean environment, well-​done décor and warm service — these are hardly known to be hallmarks of an affordable ethnic-​themed restaurant, and that should have triggered the alarms in my head!
Jom Makan is an OK restaurant on its own merit — it has decent food and reasonable prices if matched with their frequent offers or TasteLondon discounts. They make an honest effort to present a side of Malaysian culture with the food, with table mats explaining phrases and names and proper spelling of the dishes on the menu. But it is certainly not a good /​Malaysian food/​restaurant. The Beef Rendang, while quite close to the real thing, had clearly not gone through the same gruelling slow-​cooking as the authentic dish would be subjected to. The spices had been toned down somewhat to accommodate for more touristy palates. The Gado-​gado salad was tragically off the mark, to say the least. The Satays were nice. The Bandung drink was alright, hard to get wrong, really, and Teh Tarik was meh, at best. They are quite meagre with sambal chill servings!
That said, I might still go back to the restaurant if I am in the area and can knock the prices off by a significant fraction — paying in the range of 8quid for Roti Canai, what is street food in Malaysia, is unimaginable.

Nothing warms up the salivary glands of a Malaysian more than the prospect of a new Malaysian restaurant to try and nothing annoys a Malaysian more than being let down by a new Malaysian restaurant!
After having heard mixed reviews of this place, I went to try it out for myself for lunch today. They’ve created a very modern dining space with high ceilings, sleek clean lines and décor and funky large round lampshades.
I tried to peep into the open plan kitchen to see how many Malaysian chefs I could see — not many.
I like their insistence on using Malaysian spelling of words like restoran (restaurant) but the technical Malaysian food terms were explained at the back of the menu. It was a worrying sign when the menu had dishes crossed off which were no longer available. Cutbacks tend to follow a law of diminishing returns.
My sirap limau (lime juice) arrived as a bright pink concoction — I understand this to an extent as some low-​class syrups in Malaysia can be quite lurid in colour but charging £2 for the drink, they could have aimed a little higher!
When I tried to order begedil (fried potato cake) as a starter, I was told by the waitress that it wasn’t a starter but a side dish. It does say that on the menu too but a little tip to the restaurant — bring the dish before the main meal and tada, it becomes a starter!
The begedil was nicely spiced but a bit wet. The chilli sauce tasted like it came out of a bottle
For main course, I chose my favourite char koay teow (fried broad rice sticks with seafood and chicken). My heart sank when the dish arrived with a wedge of lime and obvious big pieces of white cabbage. Seriously, guys, you have obviously never seen char koay teow before. Taste was OK but it wasn’t char koay teow
Only thing saving this place from a one star review is the charming and attentive service I received
Mediocre Malaysian Makan

As a Malaysian, I personally think the food at this restaurant is pretty bad! When it first started, I was impressed with the authenticity of the food, the satay was good. But the second time i went with a friend, about one year later since its opening, I was quite disappointed with the mee goreng! Such a basic dish, yet it taste nothing like the real mee goreng, the noodles were soaked in a pool of dark soy sauce. and tasteless. Mee goreng, malay style should be dry!

Jom Makan, SW1Y, has a little bit of a café feel about it. The portions were very generous but I don’t think I’ll be eating there again. My Nasi Goreng Kampung was just over poweringly fishy and the desserts were a real let down.
Still, it was very reasonably priced, food arrived quickly, and the service was pleasant if not quite sharp enough.
Spring rolls and chicken satay were the evening’s highlights.

I sampled the Jom Makan menu recently and wasn’t disappointed. The food though not as spicy as I would like was very tasty. Celebrating their first anniversary this year one can’t help but see how they have lasted despite the economic downturn — the staff are genuinely friendly and the food is good.
I’m sure there are more authentic malay restaurants in London but for an initial try this holds its own!

3.5 stars.
I’m basing this on the Jom Makan £1 and £2 specials that they have.
Went there for £1 Valentines day special, where every single thing on the specified menu was £1. I think me and 3 other friends ordered 15 dishes amongst ourselves.
Right now Jom Makan is running weekly £2 specials on specific days if you sign up ahead of time.
Apart from the price (how the hell do you beat £2/​dish?), the food is quite good, and the portions are fair. The flat bread and curry is amazing, and everything else I’ve had there is good, but the hainan chicken is far from impressive… actually, probably the worst I’ve ever had. The staff are nice, the place is clean and cute. I had expected rather crappy service on Valentines day considering the ridiculous queu and the budget menu. but it was awesome. I’m going back this week.

If it looks like Wagamama, and it smells like Wagamama, and they draw on your menu like its Wagamama, is it Wagamama? It seems that Jom Makan, a new entry to the London and Malaysian food scene in 2008, is trying to capitalise on the popularity of Wagamama style of cooking which ensures a quick turnover of patrons yet delivering decent quality food. In this case the restaurant, apparently backed by the Malaysian government in a bid to promote Malaysian cuisine, unfortunately does not deliver.
The menu is promising offering a wide variety of typical Malaysian dishes. Food is cooked fresh and to order (though really I hope that every restaurant does that) hence the no guarantee about food coming out in the right timing. Given this we expected that food would be piping hot when we received it. To our dismay no dish was hot — in fact no dish was even close to hot and, to make matters worse, I think the hottest thing on our table was my iced tea!
The one redeeming factor at this restaurant. The service. It was superb and though wait staff are distinctly not Malaysian that didn’t really matter — service was present without being intrusive, very responsive and super friendly.
Would I go back? Well I love Malaysian food enough to maybe give it a second chance but the jury is still out.

Jom Makan wasn’t bad — the prices are fairly decent, at around £8−9 for an entrée. I had the Mee Kari. The menu had two spiciness icons next to it, but it barely tasted medium. The noodles themselves weren’t that bad and the soup base tasted all right, but I think I was disappointed at the disproportionately high ratio of soup to noodles, in favour of the soup. Service was also a bit slow, and we had to pointedly ask our waitress to give us the bill at the end. I feel like I could have gotten a bit more flavour and a bit more of a filling dish elsewhere for £8.
Not a place I would go for fancy dinner, but it was an acceptable place to take an out-​of-​towner (who was vegetarian and benefited from the menu) and I suppose it would make for decent take away.

Before arriving at this place, I had expected quite a lot. The restaurant looked roomy, bright and yet seemed just a little bit too empty for a Friday night near busy Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately it is just too out of the way of the tourist eyes to really catch that much attention. My biggest surprise about this restaurant is how it follows the quick service style made popular by Wagamama’s. As our waitress put it, There are no starters, only sides. Even just like Wagamama’s, they print the desserts on the paper placement, writing the item numbers to remind them who ordered what.
Our waitress asked us if we had been before, and answering no, she gave us the grand tour of the menu, highlighting how it had been split up and what dishes needed additional sides. We decided to order the Rendang Tok, Mee Goreng, Tauhu Sayur, and satay skewers. Combined with the dessert, service and a couple of non alcoholic drinks, our total bill just reached £40 for two. Prices are reasonable with each dish hovering around £8.
The food arrived in different bursts, and although beautifully presented on bright white crockery, ended up overwhelmingly ordinary. Perhaps it was the fact that no dish actually came hot, or even warm, with all the dishes (with the exception of the satay) arriving at room temperature. To be honest, I just didn’t really know how to take that. I mean, either the kitchen doesn’t cook a lot of their dishes fresh (which I could believe), or the quick service is not really as ‘quick’ as they advertise. Either way, the result was the same for what should have been steaming white rice, or steaming freshly cooked noodles. The mee goreng honestly disappointed, mainly because it just tasted like a whole lot of vegetables quickly mixed with some egg noodles and none of the slightly charring I associate with this dish. The beef, as flavourful as it was, just didn’t melt in the mouth as it really should have and the tauhu wasn’t really anything special.
Surprisingly it was actually the desserts of the evening that ended up as the stars. A seriously creamy crème caramel in a dark treacle-​like syrup and a sago pudding infused with palm sugar and coconut cream. I doubt I’ll be going back anytime soon, although it’s a passable choice if you have a craving for Malaysian food and happen to be in the area.