Kampung Ali

If you want to find the best Malaysian restaurant in Edinburgh, this has to be by far the best. Fine, it’s not authentic as you can get in Malaysia but there are only a 3 Malaysian restaurants in Edinburgh and this is the best. Bear in mind that Kampung Ah Lee is also under the owner of Kampung Ali so technically there are actually only 2. The other one being Nanyang Restaurant. The establishment is much bigger than its current old branch and much more space. The menu here is extensive so I suggest you go in a group and share the food here. 3 of us came here one afternoon and we ordered quite a lot of food. Do look at the pictures I have taken. The weirdest thing is that the hot and sour soup here is the best I have ever eaten. It has a very authentic southeast Asian type of aroma and flavour to it. So do try the hot and sour soup. Do try the nasi lemak, chicken rice, char koay tiau and beef rendang as well.

I’m constantly on the search for good Malaysian restaurants, and this is definitely one of the best I’ve come across in London/​Edinburgh! Buttery and crispy roti canai with a spicy and rich seafood laksa, would highly recommend this to anyone looking for great tasty food for good value!
Décor wise it’s quite basic and the staff were friendly if a little slow. Still, for the quality of the food I would come back here on a regular basis if I could! Kampung Ali — you should open up a branch in London!

My fourteen (!) colleagues and I got there nice and early for dinner when it was quiet, because hey, it’s the polite thing to do when you’re a big group. The décor looked straight from a street bazaar in Malaysia. Definitely not the place for fancy dress.
There were no coat hooks or places to leave bags, etc. so we had to hang our coats over our chairs and pile our bags under the table.
However, the food made up for the low glamour factor. My fellow veggie and I shared coconut rice, garlicky tofu, and spicy aubergine that all rocked our world. Even after snorking a few glasses of their house white, our bill still clocked in around £30.
I’ll definitely be going back for more of that.

Oh… Yeah this is real good food. My wife is Malaysian and she love this place. Real authentic Chinese Malay restaurant run by Malaysian family. Highly recommend the Roti, kapitan wings, satay chicken, laksa soup noodle, and golden chicken.
The menu have a wide range, main course or £6.80. We recently have a baby so find it difficult to go there but miss kampung Ali food by writing this review. Omg my mouth is drizzling.

Been here about 4 days, and this is the best meal we’ve had so far. We’re definitely taking friends and family here when they visit. Reasonably priced. Good seating. Free Wifi. Wife had the beef rendang with coconut rice for £6.50, and I had the roti with curry chicken for £6.80. Both were excellent. Nice, hot, and fresh roti. Excellent coconut rice. Solid beef and chicken curries. This place would get 5-​stars if it were a little cheaper and maybe a little less salty. Will definitely be eating here regularly, though.

I was visiting from San Francisco and this was a great place to get asian food. The satay skewers were fantastic. The wonton noodle soup had very large wontons and tasted great. The pork belly with the eggplant in the claypot was tasty as well.

We are from malaysia. Came to this restaurant twice during our trip in Edinburgh. Delicious food. We ordered prawn noodle. Very reasonable price. Will definitely come back again if we are in Edinburgh again.

being in edinburgh means having a whole variety of international cuisine on offer. having not yet tried malaysian i was very much looking forward to my friend’s birthday dinner that was being held at Kampung Ali.
the first thing about this place that i liked was the fact that they didn’t even blink an eye when my friend booked a table for 22 people. it seems like a lot, but the restaurant easily accomodated our party and two other very large parties that were celebrating birthdays. and there was still room for other diners, so a very spacious restaurant which is great for a group outing.
the second thing i really liked about this place was the prices. let’s face it, edinburgh is an expensive city to eat out in. my bank balance can attest to this so seeing mains starting at £7 was a welcome greeting. even my king prawns in malaysian curry were only £11.50 which is a fairly good price for the amount of prawns i got and compared to a similar dish in other restaurants. when the final bill came, the total was a very reasonable £23.50 each including all starters, mains, and corkage fees. so excellent value for a night out!
and of course the third i really liked was the food. from the mix of starters i really like the roti even with the dipping sauce that had a serious kick. my king prawns were massive and well cook mixing well with the coconut rice. there were a lot of options on the menu so i definitely need to make it back at some point to try some more. although when they say things are spicy, they mean it. even my mildly spiced curry had a rather serious kick that had me refilling my wine glass a few times. however still definitely a place i’d head back to!

It was surprising to find a Malaysian restaurant in Edinburgh, especially one that has seemed to have gained a fairly good following.
The restaurant is sort of an odd mix décor wise. There are various maps, pictures and figurines of Malaysia, however there is also paintings on the ceiling, fairly reminiscent to the Sistine Chapel.
Service is friendly, although somewhat slow. They are not proactive with their customers. Rather than greeting you when you first sit down and asking if you would like a drink, it almost seems like the staff waits until you are ready to order before approaching you.
The Roti Cani consist of round pieces of flat bread, vaguely resembling a flour tortilla for those not familiar, with a curry dipping sauce. The dipping sauce has a strong curry flavor, with lots of warming spices and a nice spicy finish that tingles the back of your tongue.
The Malaysian Curry Prawns, one of the signature dishes, consists of head on peeled shrimp in a spicy curry soup. The prawns were slightly overcooked and mealy, but heads and shells added a depth of flavor to the broth. There is a slight kick to the dish, but nothing that will set your mouth on fire. Overall, a somewhat disappointing dish due to the overcooking of the prawns.
The Singapore Noodles is a type of chow mein, with thin egg noodles. The shrimp and chicken were cooked slightly overcooked and mealy, but heads and shells added a depth of flavor to the broth. For some reason, the dish seemed «overly dry»
Although the Roti Cani was flavorful, the rest of the dishes seemed to be lacking in seasoning. One thing I noticed in the UK, is that restaurants seem to be afraid of using salt to enhance the flavor of their food. I am not sure if this is a cultural thing, or whether they are trying to be on the safe side in order not to offend the many different visitors they get throughout the world.

This was a very easy 5 stars to give!
The food here was incredible! I went with a small group of friends and we shared 2 starters and 5 mains between us and each one was absolutely delicious!
The food feels very authentic and the flavours are genuinely magnificent. To begin with we had satay and roti with a spicy dip that all of us agreed we would happily drink as soup it was so scrummy! For the mains we had crispy shredding beef, two duck dishes, a squid and a chicken — each one very different but very tasty! The portions were sizeable (perfect for sharing) and the service was quick and friendly.
The restaurant was buzzing too, so the atmosphere was great!
In terms of pricing, though this place isn’t cheap, it’s also not expensive, with mains falling around the £9 mark in general.
As far as Malaysian cuisine goes this felt very authentic and was really very tasty! Absolutely worth a visit if you’re ever in Edinburgh!

Pretty big fan of Malaysian food so we stopped by Kampung Ali for the first time. Easy location and nice interior. Who doesnt love a giant, flashing wall mural of Kuala Lumpur? Service was friendly.
CONS:
* Curry laksa wasnt the greatest. I thought the curry broth was a bit weak and some of the seafood wasnt of the greatest quality, but overall it was totally decent
* At over 3 quid I thought the boba tea was overpriced and a very small portion. Dont get me wrong, Im supper happy to find bubble/​boba tea somewhere in this town, but the price is very high for what you get
PROS:
*Overall the prices are very reasonable and the service and food quality is good
* Their starters are real winners. Boyfriend loved the roti and the honey chicken wings were great. Sometimes chicken wings end up sort of small and dry, but these were huge and juicy and a large portion (five) for the price
Kampung Ali has a ton of great looking food options. Seems like a great place for big groups to sample tons of different things. Love that this is a place you can really get something hot and spicy if thats what you crave. Look forward to trying more.

Tasty, well-​priced Malaysian cuisine unfussily presented and served in next to no time.

Really good food… we’ve not long ago just spent a couple of months in SE Asia — the food here is genuine.
Friendly staff.

Great Malaysian food here which I really enjoyed. I came here with a big group of people and the service was good. We were all happy with our food choices, though it was hard to pick what to have as there was so much choice. It just means I’ll have to go back again. You can bring your own booze but the corkage charge seemed very pricey. I believe it was £4 for a bottle of wine and £1.50 per bottle of beer which I think is a bit much.

It’s Malaysia food and they do it well! I’m sure that anyone with a fondness of spicy food or knows what sambal is will enjoy this place.
It is an unassuming set up. A big hall with some square and some round tables. Many Indonesian and Malaysian references on the wall (not on the ceiling though, that is done with mock Raphaelite like paintings).
I will not (as I can’t) explain the dishes, but do go for the roti as a starter!
Main courses are individually indicated with a chili score between none to 4.
I took a sambal chicken and it was good, no additional spices required.
Service is fast, courteous and unobtrusive.
I will definitely be visiting again very soon.

yum, yum, yum.
Essentially for me, there’s only one word that describes this place: yummy.
I’ve been here many times but I need to go more! Kampung Ali serves delicious and according to my Malaysian work colleague, very authentic Malaysian food.
Some tips:
Number 1: When you come opt for the roti canai. It’s like a crispy pancake that melts in your mouth and it comes with a slightly spicy peanut curry sauce. It’s the beez kneez. (If you don’t get this, you are definitely missing out)
Number 2: Order a style of chicken wings, you can’t go to wrong with the chicken wings here.
Number 3: Rendang chicken. This is so flavourful. I love it.
Number 4: Lemon chicken. You know how sometimes you can order lemon chicken and it’s over cooked and dry? Yeah, that doesn’t happen here. The lemon chicken was so moist and it was a fairly large portion!
Number 5: Get some duck and coconut rice!
I think that Kampung Ali is a great when you come with a group of people — so you can sample many things off the menu. Wine is also very reasonably priced. A good bottle of South African wine is 13 pounds.
The service is impeccable. I’ve had the same server the last few times I’ve been and he has been very attentive and funny!
Kampung Ali is good times & high fives.

My friend and I went here for lunch the other day. I was keen to try this place out as I love Malaysian food.
Kampung Ali didn’t disappoint. I chose Nasi Lemak and it was lovely. Just the right amount of spiciness and bite sized chunks of chicken thigh. Yummy comfort food.
My friend went for a bowl of prawn noodles and it was well on flavour.
We also shared a dish of prawn sambal malaysian style. Vegetables in this dish were aubergine, green beans and okra. I have been suspicious of okra. mainly as it has a bit of a ‘slimey reputation’. Perhaps it depends on the way it’s cooked, go figure. Anyway when my friend who is actually Chinese Malaysian, casually remarked that okra is good for collagen I grabbed a piece and it was just fine. I later googled more about this superfood and indeed okra contains a lot of C-​vitamin which is good for collagen production.
Besides of okra, I also tried another new thing: teh tarik, which is known as ‘pulled tea’. So basically it’s black tea and condensed milk. Personally I found it too sweet but I was glad to have had sampled this.
I will definitely go back to Kampung Ali. The food is delicious, spicy and very good value.

This place is great!
The food is tasty, well priced and served by interested staff, they always recommend wonderful things to try.
Their soups are HUGE! You can have it as a main course or to share as a starter but they are very filling as only £6! Great value! :)
I love this new restaurant that they’ve opened as they have another branch on Clerk Street.
Definitely worth a visit! :)

Cheap and cheerful. This place has good food and is good value for money.
Full review with photos please visit my blog which can be found on my profile.

Delicious, authentic Malaysian cuisine with friendly and attentive staff at the ready.
If you enjoy laksa, fried koew teow (my personal fav), satay, roti canai, crispy pork with fermented bean curd noodle, rendang, sambal prawn or nasi lemak to name just a few dishes, then this is your place!
Oh yeah, did I also mention that it’s cheap???