Awana’s New Lunchtime Menu

I love Malaysian food, so when I heard that Awana had launched a new takeaway lunchtime menu, I knew I had to try it.

Awana is on King’s Avenue, which is found just off the King’s Road in Chelsea. It’s not the easiest place to get to – sitting midway between South Kensington and Sloane Square tube stops. This problem of being equidistant from these two places might explain why it was empty when I arrived at 1.30pm one Monday afternoon. Devoid of customers, the place looked sparse and office-like with only a few wall adornments. I couldn’t see anyone buying takeaways. Maybe I had missed the rush.

I asked the waiter what he recommended from the new menu. He suggested the ayam roti wrap and the buahan kerabu, a pomelo and green mango salad. He also suggested the Indonesian national dish: nasi goring (fried rice).

Incongruously, I ate the takeaway in the restaurant on a pewter plate, while sipping a pleasant sauvignon blanc.

The wrap and salad arrived first. The salad was in a small Tupperware-type container. It was composed of bits of shredded pomelo sat on a bed of lettuce, drizzled with a tamarind and palm-sugar dressing. You’d have needed a magnifying glass to spot the green mango shreds, but overall, the dish had a lively sweet-astringent tone. The tamarind and pomelo stopped the palm sugar from being too cloying.

The roti canai was an agreeable counter-point to the salad with its heavy peanut sauce and juicy chicken pieces. In addition to all of this, the roti had the perfect consistency.

The nasi goring kampong (shrimp fried rice with onion and sambal sauce) was a disappointment. It was monochrome (brown), bland, and at £5.99, overpriced. But I’d overdone it anyway. The chicken satay wrap was plenty, and at £3.99, reasonably priced. Although I enjoyed the salad, £4.99 is a steep amount to pay for such a simple and insubstantial dish. Then again, if you live in Chelsea, perhaps not.

Awana
85 Sloane Avenue
Chelsea
SW3 3DX

Tel: 020 7584 8880