Laksa Laksa
Uncle Lim's Kitchen

Uncle Lim's Kitchen

1123-1124 Whitgift Centre, Croydon, United Kingdom

Meat • Cafés • Curry • Kitchen


"I was with my Malay wife in Croydon to visit the UK govt visa/residency offices. Afterwards we strolled about to look for somewhere to have lunch and were really surprised to find this place in the Whitgift Centre. It 's laid out like a genuine Malay/Singapore food court/coffee-shop. A counter area and then tables and chairs in front. I had a fried chicken kuay teow and my wife fried prawn mee siam. She also had a freshly made hot lemongrass drink which was nice a refreshing. All very authentic indeed and good amounts of chicken, prawns, tofu and so on so filling. They weren 't serving from pre-cooked tureens at the counter but instead cooking to order. So the counter looks pretty bare. Also, not serving on plates within the premises but take away and also served up in the same containers to diners at the 6 or so tables in front on the quiet shopping centre walkway. My wife knows the cuisine inside-out and I lived out there for years too and I can say the cooking is very well done. We 'd ordered 'spicy ' dishes and it enough spice for us both for lunchtime. Another nice point, it was cooked to be quite low-salt. Salt can always be added so low-salt is a better starting point in these most health conscious days. They also do fresh made 'cook in ' sauces to take home. We bought three, 1) curry, for the classic Malay chicken curry with potato. 2) rendang (for beef or chicken) and 3) sambal (chicken mostly IME, but fish etc also, it 's versatile). We ordered those while having lunch and they were ready and packed within 10 or so minutes. ps. You might want to take some bag/container to carry the packs upright as they were in lidded plastic tubs, not screw-cap or similarly secure. Friendly service. Quite quiet while there at c2.30pm. The shopping centre was so much quieter than I recall from years ago but this retaurant deserves to fully re-open and thrive again as it 's the real deal and with each main about £7-7.50 good value as the portions were deceptively big in their tubs! I suprised myself my totally cleaning up with hardly a pause. Point#2 re: healthier style it was nice to see there was zero sign of any residual frying oil in the pot. I nearly bought the laksa noodle soup, another favourite. I saw a bowl being taken to the adjacent table and that looked spot on, from the big bowl used to the chunks of tofu and garnish on top. Almost worth visiting again from central London just to give that one a go."