Little Malaysia Restaurant

Food is good, but really bad service. I visited this place twice and i was hope this is will my spot but when I came back at the third time, I order the same food like how I had before but tasted different, they add more pork, I asked waiter she said «it usually have pork in the menu «…I can’t eat pork because allergy. If I knew it had pork I never order it which is the same meal I order before and it was really good without pork, don’t know why waiter said it really mean! dissapoint for the third time visited and never come back

Very authentic and tasty Malaysia food at a reasonable price — one of our favorite restaurants to visit when we are in LA!

I have been coming to this restaurant for years. But, I do not come often. Although the food is good, there are many cons:
(1) it takes a long time for the food to come to the table (2) small amount of food (much less than the past); (3) high price of food and drinks; and (4) they accept only cash.

Talk about home made food… SUPER DELICIOUS!!! Lots of variety. MBrought different friends and never disappoint!!! Very reasonable and Highly recommend!!!

Take forever to cook because this place serve me frozen crispy beef. Nasty after taste. Yuck

Recent trip to Kuala Lumpur brought me here for a few dishes I enjoyed in Malaysia. Overall good selection of home style dishes. Staff was great and helpful in helping us decide on what to choose.

I love this place! The food was fresh and vibrant. The flavors were perfectly married providing a cacophony of interesting notes. I can’t wait to try all their offerings.

Not bad on food.
Horrible service. Rude cashier.
I would recommend to go else where in the same «mall».

4 stars for the authentic tasty food and cute little restaurant, but being a little family owned shop, the service and wait can be a bit slow. We usually order take out or go knowing it will not be a quick dinner spot. Faves include the lemon grass chicken, sambal tofu, Penang laksa, roti appetizer, and hokien mee noodle soup. I’ve been to Singapore and Malaysia before so the flavored are pretty spot on and delicious.

Came here around 6:15pm on a Saturday night. The place gets pretty popular, and the tables fill up quickly after 6:30; however, there were no lines. The restaurant isn’t the best smelling place, but it’s not a bad scent (think stinking tofu, but wayyyy milder).
There was only one waitress, so service was a bit slow. I got the Curry Laksa, which was oh so delicious. While it was spicy, I could still taste the flavor. The best part is that they let you get half rice noodles and half egg noodles so you can try and see what you like better.
Lastly, the thing that impressed me the most was that the server separated the noodles and the soup into two to go boxes. Most places just give you one to go box or make you box your food yourself. Just make sure you ask.

Ordered: Char kway teow, Har Mee
–Wait: none
–Service: normal asian kind
–Food: Char kway teow: a little sweet and well cooked. Good but not superb.
Har Mee was a little sweet and spicy level could be more. Personally I like to the saltier version.
Review: great Malaysian food after shopping around and found that is place worth it’s weight
Overall: ⁸⁄₁₀. Recommend: Yes

I have seen this place around for years and finally I have visisted. I don’t know too much about Malaysian food but the style of cooking and things on the menu were unfamiliar to me but nothing too fancy.
The server was friendly and helpful in helping me decide what to get based on what I was looking for. Since it was my first time, I stuck with the chef’s noodle special which was pretty yummy.
The dishes resemble family style dishes and can feed 2 comfortably. 3 people with 2 dishes would be good if you don’t want left overs.
The place is quite small and cozy. Nothing intensely decorative and honestly it’s like you’re walking into someone’s mom’s house and she just wants to cook for you!
I went here for a late lunch (close to their mid-​day close) so there were only two other tables filled.
They do have those mid-​day closing hours. Bummer.
I may consider coming back. Not for negative reasons other than I love eating at other places more.

Qualification — My family is from Singapore/​Malaysia and I eat Southeast Asian cuisine regularly (home cooked and store bought), so I have an idea of decent examples of the dishes I’ve tried at Little Malaysia.
I’ve dined at Little Malaysia for years with family, friends, ex’s and colleagues. Probably more than 30 times at a conservative estimate.
Char Kway Teow: When the old man makes it, this dish is great. The noodles have a lot of «wok hei», which in Cantonese loosely translates to «breath of the wok» (combination of aroma and charred taste that can only be accomplished with big flames). In Singapore, they add «see-​ham» (ark clams) to their kway teow, but it’s not present here. I order this dish extra spicy because I’m Yen and doggone it I’m worth it! (⁵⁄₅ stars)
Mee Goreng: Nice bold flavors and good taste. I like tomato based anything which is why I like this dish. The rehydrated cuttlefish adds an authentic touch. (⁴⁄₅ stars)
Lobak: Good appetizer and easy to share. (3.5÷5 stars)
Assam Laksa: Too sweet and not enough fish. Good description Jessica O (6÷10÷2015).
The Tai Lok Mee is worth a try if you go back for seconds.
Most of the time, home cooked food is the best, but Little Malaysia does a great job on a commercial level. Also, cash only.

Normally service is good and prompt… Today was the exception, had to wait 20 min for my one dish lunch. I ordered the fish cakes w choy, mostly Chinese greens.
Food good, service slow.
Oh yea make sure you ask for soy sauce, they don’t include any unless you ask for it.

Came here with a high expectation, but ended up a little disappointed. We ordered the Assam Laksa, Mee Goreng and Roti Canai.
Mee Goreng: too tomato based, but has that smoky flavor. Creamy, quite a big portion
Assam Laksa: it has the right amount of sourness but too sweet. Also, it only has a tiny bit of the fish.
Roti Canai: it has the texture that I remembered having back in the days but the curry vegetable dip was cold. It tasted like it was microwaved right before being served and the veggies were mushy.
Overall, it was only decent. I might come back but only when I am in the neighborhood, hangry, and there’s no any other good places to eat.

I stumbled upon Little Malaysia while looking for a tea house that happened to be in the same shopping center as this restaurant. Since I was hungry and had never had Malaysian before, I decided to check it out… what a wonderful decision! I had a difficult time choosing what to get, but settled for the seafood curry laksa, and it was so good, I’ll be going back for more (and also to try more of their dishes)!
Tip: Make sure to take some cash with you, as it’s «cash only.»

You’ll be surprised at how good this little restaurant located at El Monte is. We had Hainanese chicken rice, Bak kut teh (pork ribs in herb broth), Curry Laksa and Pineapple fried rice. Everything was delicious! I was never into any coconut style curry but I found myself grabbing a second bowl of Laksa. By the end of the meal, not a single thing was left on our plates!

I love this place because it has authentic Malaysian cuisine! So far we’ve tried the Seafood Curry Laksa (a curry stew with noodles and seafood), Hokkien Fried Noodles (similar to chow mein), Char Kway Teow (similar to beef chow fun), Pineapple Fried Rice, and the Nasi Lemak (coconut rice dish). We also usually get the Malaysian Iced Tea (which is like boba milk tea) and Iced Barley with Lime.
My favorites are: Char Kway Teow, Pineapple Fried Rice, and Iced Barley with Lime.
The only downsides are the wait and the fact that it is cash only. We love the food and its authentic flavor, the ambiance, and the excellent service.

Ok so after seeing all the reviews on Unilocal and since I was looking for a new lunch spot around work, I decided to try Little Malaysia. What a gem! It was a good sign to see 3 tables of coworkers right when I walked in.
Some of the reviews mentioned rude and slow service… definitely not the case for me. Greeted and seated right away. Ordered 3 popular items.
CURRY LAKSA — oh my god this noodle soup was flavorful and had a slight spice kick to it. Ordered it with half egg noodle half rice noodle, comes with shrimp, egg and tofu. SO good. Just for this alone I’ll come back. Curry and coconut milk broth… totally hit the spot.
CHAR KWAY TEOW — yum! Full of a mix of flavors, it was a party in my mouth. Reminded me slightly of pad see ew but better… shrimp, taiwanese sausage, bean sprouts and flat noodles. Super tasty and a good complement to the noodle soup entrée we ordered. Don’t forget to tell them to make it spicy!
BARLEY LIME DRINK — ok wow. Just as refreshing as everyone on here said it to be. Very light and the barley is nice and chewy, like a healthy alternative to boba. YUM. I would want this every day.
Overalla very pleasant experience. So glad to have found this place so close to work. :)

This place is clean and decorated as if it’s a popular chain restaurant, BUT their food tastes as if it was made in the small kitchen of a mom-​and-​pop restaurant.
SETTING
The venue is pretty small, and when I went, it wasn’t too crowded. When I first walked in, it was eerily quiet and everyone stared at me as I walked toward my friends’ table. I thought I had accidentally walked into a family gathering or something. I guess that’s what I get for getting to the restaurant late. This was my first time eating Malaysian food, and, being the indecisive person that I am, I took a long time to decide what to eat. The server was super patient. He answered all of my random questions about the menu.
FOOD
* Curry Laksa (⁵⁄₅) So… friggin…good! The soup is perfectly balanced. There is just enough coconut milk and spices. There are egg noodles AND vermicelli in the dish. The tofu just soaks up all of the flavors of the soup. So perfect! I slurped up the soup like it was air.
* Penang Char Kway Teow (⁴⁄₅) This reminded me of Pad See Ew. I made the mistake of getting the mild, cause I know at a lot of Asian restaurants have super duper spicy foods and consider it «mild.» If this dish isn’t spicy enough for you, make sure you ask for hot sauce! There is shrimp and Taiwanese sausage in this dish. Yum!
* Rendang Beef (³⁄₅) This was good, but it was a bit salty for me. Even though the dish came with rice, it was just too salty for me.
DRINKS
* Iced Barley Tea with Lime. Get this!!! Super refreshing, and you get a nice portion of healthy barley.
* Iced Milo Drink. My friend got this, and it tasted like YooHoo! It was really good because it didn’t taste too sweet, but it was chocolatey enough. :)
I had a really great first experience eating Malaysian food here. My tummy is super satisfied. :)