Six weeks after opening, Kawan, the first UK restaurant from Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng, better known as Uncle Roger, is largely deserted on a Thursday lunchtime. Despite Ng's 10 million YouTube subscribers, the restaurant in London's Chinatown has failed to attract crowds, with staff described as having the air of stewards rearranging the Titanic's sun loungers.
Empty restaurant and lackluster food
Kawan's menu features dishes like the £15.90 Chinatown fried rice, which comes with crispy XO chilli and Cantonese lap cheong. While the fried rice is noted as very nice, London's Chinatown already offers plenty of great fried rice. Other dishes include choco-orange ribs glazed with orange and chocolate, described as hideous, and a £28.90 Chinese wellington that is called peculiar, consisting of pastry-wrapped chicken with cheap coleslaw and pale-brown gravy.
The restaurant's design is also criticized: a small, 1970s-style single loo with a Tesco Value toilet duck, stairs wallpapered with comic book pages that already feel dated, and a cold, stark ambiance that encourages diners to leave quickly.
In-jokes and memes that miss the mark
Kawan's concept relies on Uncle Roger's online in-jokes, but the result is like being handed a succession of phones showing memes you don't understand. The menu includes references to Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, but the dishes fail to deliver. The golden parcel wontons reminded one diner of Marks & Spencer party food, and the sizzling blue milo dumplings prompted a woman across the room to poke them with a face resembling Edvard Munch's scream.
According to the review, the restaurant's staff are pleasant but repeatedly warn diners not to grab a bowl by its handle, as it may come off and spill food. The reviewer questions why bowls that don't come apart aren't used instead.
Price and verdict
Kawan is open all week from noon to 10.30pm, with meals costing about £40 a head plus drinks and service. The review concludes that the food is hideous, the experience unenjoyable, and the restaurant a novelty that has failed to deliver on the promise of Uncle Roger's massive online following.
