Kedai Makan Belltown

We totally enjoyed our meal here! Everything was delicious and the service was fast and great! The pork ribs are tender and juicy, the chili pan mee and fried rice with prawn are super flavorful and the dessert is very unique and tasty. Not sure how busy the restaurant usually gets but there seems to be a good amount of seats on a weekday afternoon.

My husband and I came at 3PM on a Sunday afternoon and got seated straight away. Andy was our server and he was so nice!! Very attentive and took good care of us. We’re loyal patrons of the Capitol Hill location and this was our first time trying the new location in Belltown. The food was consistent and as always, comes out super quick! Just a note to management: I would have to agree with 90% of the reviews that mention the auto gratuity or mandated service charge. It’s never a good feeling to be forced into something you don’t consent to. We normally tip 20% anyway, but when it’s warranted. In this case, Andy was a fantastic server and well worth the 20%, but in general, we would normally opt for a place that does not charge an auto gratuity. Please consider removing that in the future, especially because so many patrons have expressed distaste in it. Thank you for your consideration!

This was my first time trying Malaysian food and this place did not disappoint. The Nasi Lemak is their signature dish and includes curry chicken with coconut rice and some sides. You also order it vegetarian or with beef. I also recommend their roti and the pan mee. Everything is amazing tender and gives a feeling of freshness with the perfect amount of spice. I also tried their Kedai Sling cocktail which was amazing. My only gripe about the experience is that they include the tip in the price of your meal. Let customers decide how good the service and experience is…

We had the chicken wings and they were phenomenal! Those along with the cucumber salad were a perfect match. Tried the passion fruit tea old fashion and ended up having 2 of them. Highly recommend!

We liked the Nasi goreng, Roti jala and Pana cotta dessert. Overpriced for the portions. (and 20% service fee gets auto applied for dine in)

Average food but shady business practice around tipping. Warning: If you pay via their digital method by scanning a QR code, it automatically asks you to tip additional 22% on top of the 20% mandatory service fee! The interface makes it look like as if it will replace the 20% flat fee. But no - you’ll have to choose to tip 0% in order to really pay for the original 20% service charge. We played with it a few times to just make sure but we would have paid 42% for tips for a simple meal with basic services! Imagine how many customers didn’t know and paid 42% and above for the services. We don’t mind paying 20% for service fee - this is Seattle. But you can’t deliberately trick people into paying 42% while you say it on your menu that tipping is not accepted after the 20%. We ordered the Nasi Lemak and Laksa Lemak. The Laksa was so salty and thick that it was one of the worst we’ve had.

Not exactly thrilled about being charged such a high minimum gratuity charge when my service was borderline ok/good. At least The food to price ratio was the opposite… now I know this review is critical, but I don’t want anyone to think the food wasn’t good enough because it was plenty delicious. Take away the high gratuity and bland service and you have yourself a 5 star experience for the price point. I tried two dishes and a drink. The drink was a passion fruit tea which was very delicious and almost tasted like lychee. For food I ordered the nasi lemak and the spicy fried chicken…. Saya something Let’s start with the fried chicken. It was tasty, extremely large, and juicy. The crust however looked a lot cooler than the actual experience trying to eat it actually was. It crumbled and fell apart everywhere and was kind of dry to the taste. I think it was supposed to have all the spice/seasoning flavor which probably explains why it wasn’t very spicy. I didn’t taste any spice until half way through my second wing. Still delicious. Especially the sweet side toppings the chicken came with. The toppings were a bit odd trying to use but tasted amazing when I turned my brain off and just ate. The nasi lemak was just yummy. I thought it had too much rice but for some reason it was just right. I even wished the fried chicken had came with some rice. I guess the only thing I wanted from the nasi lemak was maybe one more item on the plate. The other dishes I’ve had like this had a bit more to it. Either way I’d for sure eat it again. The spice it came with was so darn spicy and addicting I used almost all of it. Should I even talk about the parking? Well it’s belltown so expect to park about it a block away if you drive. Maybe further depending on what time and day of week. Surprisingly I did do my infamous water test and I had mixed feelings. I for sure had to pause and think about it, but I didn’t see any weird micro floaties swirling around in the glass so I was able to down a few glasses just fine. It’s summer so ice for sure would have helped. Also be ready, all the utensils are stored in bulk at the table. My partial germifobe imagination thought of a few interesting scenarios, but also decided to just go with it. Last but not least, interior design. It was cool. Very belltown but with a Personal touch. Malaysian? Idk I haven’t done enough research and I don’t care to. All in all, I would recommend coming. If you’re still reading this, understand my frustration only gets more interesting and worth your time. During the first part of our meal everything was great, but by the time the last dish came I didn’t see them again until I was almost done eating. While I was dining and wishing the waiters would show us more love on their own, I watched them tend to everyone else multiple times.

great looking food but everything is just too sweet. disclaimer: as a malaysian my standards are set pretty high for any malaysian food had three dishes - roti jala (with chickpea curry). the roti was pretty good but the curry was way too sweet to my liking - nasi lemak (with chicken curry). the first bite was good but it tapered off after that. the coconut rice had the signature fragrant smell and tasted pretty authentic but the bottom half of the rice was too sweet, tasted a bit like a dessert. also some of the rice was a bit clumpy/gummy, probably because of a bit too much coconut milk. the roasted peanuts were good but i’m not a fan of the lemongrass-y flavor. same with the sambal which was good but there was a soury/lime taste to it which i’m also not a fan of. the ikan bills (anchovies) was smaller than what i usually eat with nasi lemak. and the chicken curry was good, tender prices of chicken thigh but… yeah it’s also sweet. - laksa lemak (with prawns). the broth was thick and dense and that went well with the noodles and other toppings. the shrimp was borderline rubbery but still had a nice bite to it. my problem with it is that the more i eat it, the sweeter it felt. overall the food looked the part and it does remind me of malaysia food but the taste is a bit off. primarily just the amount of sugar in the dishes, i know i’ve mentioned it a few times already but it doesn’t reflect authentic malaysian food. it’s never this sweet. at the end of the day, i do understand that the dishes were tweaked to accommodate local tastes, so i kinda see where it comes from. other than that, the service and ambiance was pretty decent. i came during their soft launch so i got seated immediately. they do impose an automatic 20% service charge (in lieu of custom tip amounts) which seems to be a trend these days with seattle restaurants. my only though is that if there’s already charging an automatic service charge, why not just bake the 20% into the price of the food? maybe that’ll just make the food prices look overpriced. but anyway, i’ll come back again to try the other dishes.