Over the past couple of months I have been review­ing Malay­si­an res­taur­ants all around Wel­ling­ton for Malay­sia Kit­chen (full dis­clos­ure – I got refun­ded some of the costs). It’s time to share the reviews!

A freez­ing south­erly was blow­ing around Wel­ling­ton when I met with a group of friends at Rasa Malay­sia on Upper Cuba Street, push­ing all thoughts of try­ing some­thing new out of my mind. The weath­er meant I had to have my favour­ite laksa.

But first, we have starters to try! We order beef satay to com­pare it to Satay Village’s. The pea­nut sauce is less sweet, which we like, but the beef lacks the smokey charred taste. The curry puffs are homemade, stuffed with spiced kumara. The coconut chut­ney with the pop­padoms is tasty, but at $8 for six pop­padoms which nor­mally cost 50 cents each in Indi­an res­taur­ants, this seems over­priced.

entrees at Rasa
Rasa is small, but the ser­vice was excep­tion­al – when it became appar­ent we were all going to taste each other’s dishes, small plates appeared, and my laksa was delivered with a big stack of very neces­sary nap­kins. I had no shame in tuck­ing one into my shirt so I didn’t spill any of the thick yel­low coconuty gravy down my front as I man­euvered slip­pery egg noodles into my mouth.

Laksa at Rasa

I’ve had this laksa a lot, and it can vary in qual­ity, but in this occa­sion it was per­fect, full of veget­ables as well as chick­en and tofu, and loaded with top­pings of bean sprouts, spring onions and fried shal­lots. I was so engrossed in it, I almost for­got I was sup­posed to be try­ing my friends’ food as well. Luck­ily, I was able to sample suc­cu­lent Mut­ton Varuvaal, with meat full of fla­vour that melted in my mouth, and a dense mur­t­abak – a par­cel of lamb curry wrapped in roti served with gravy.

The oth­er high­light, apart from my laksa, was the Lamb Dosai, a crispy pan­cake enclos­ing filling, with a range of dip­ping sauces. Many review­ers rate Rasa’s dosai as the best in town, and you’ll hear no argu­ments from me.

Masala dosai

With mains hov­ring around the $17 mark, Rasa is up there in the price scale when it comes to Malay­si­an res­taur­ants, but it’s worth the trek.