A hungry Kingston student can savour an assortment of International cuisines if he so chooses to tear himself away from the pizzas and pasties at Penrhyn road campus.

From paninis to jalfrezis, kebabs to pastries. There are foods to tease your taste buds just minutes from campus … and there’s a chip shop.

Now Malaysian food can be added to that complex conundrum when one feels the stirrings of hunger.

Located at 15 Penrhyn Road, Kampung Kitchen claims to offer fresh and authentic Malaysian food. Twenty nine year old May Leng Kwok, kitchen manager and chef at Kampung explains that although her family has been in the restaurant business for decades, this is the family’s first foray into providing solely Malaysian style food.  She smiles and explains that this initial outing goes someway to explain the name of the restaurant, “Kampung means home in Malaysian.”

I am invited into her home, sit at one of her 12 tables and relax amid the clean and simple décor. Bright and vibrant paintings adorn each wall, and soft Malaysian music plays in the background. 

As May brings my Mee Goreng, she explains how she intends to “bring a bit of Malaysia into Kingston.” Well, she certainly brings a lot of Malaysian food to this one Kingston student; I stare at the mound of egg noodles with prawns, chicken, fish cake, squid and bean sprouts. She also informs me that all of the meat is halal and that “Malaysian food is a mixture of rich flavours that takes influence from China, India and Malay food.”

I conquer the delicious mountain very quickly; maybe too quickly as the dish’s generous helping of home made chilli oil reduces me to a slight coughing fit. Sensing this, May brings my desert; Goreng Pisang which is a Malaysian sweet delicacy.

It is a half side of fried banana and half side of grilled caramelised banana with a serving of chilli fighting ice cream. This was wonderful and not only neutralised my specified buds but doused them in sweetness that is only paralled by May’s smile.

Down to business, what with Kampung Kitchen’s close proximity to Kingston University, it would be unthinkable to not attempt to market itself to students and Kampung kitchen does so by offering a        10 % discount to all students every day!  The £3 lunch deal which includes rice or noodles and one dish, from an assortment of dishes of the day, is proving “very popular with everybody, including students. It’s great value food.”