I’ve written before about the somewhat chaotic information I try to glean about restaurants from my overly expansive Google Maps lists. A few months ago, frustrated after a few too many visits to restaurants that I couldn’t remember saving in the first place, I resolved to start using Maps’ notes feature to help track not just where to eat, but why.
This has helped… to a point. Take last week’s visit to Raya, in Walthamstow. I was meeting Vivian and a friend after a show at the newly opened, and confusingly named, Soho Theatre Walthamstow, and we needed somewhere quick, open late, and friendly enough for a gluten intolerance. Raya, saved on my ‘Want to go’ list on Google Maps, seemed to fit the bill.
So I checked what I’d written down whenever I’d first found it, a memento to guide me through its sprawling Malaysian menu: “Lucky Yu likes it, good curry puffs.”
It’s not a whole lot to go on. Once upon a time I must have stumbled across Raya on Lucky Yu baker Hai Lin Leung’s Instagram, and taken her recommendation to heart. Well, for the curry puffs at least. More than that, I can’t say.
In vindication for my system, the curry puffs really are good. By the time we arrived, about 15 minutes before Raya closed up for the night, I was limited to a choice of chicken or fish — so naturally tried both. Golden pastry — rich, flaky, and soft — arrived densely packed, still moist even by the end of the day. The turmeric-heavy chicken, deep yellow and pungent, packs a little chilli heat behind the other spices; the sardines are subtler and sweeter, slow-warming rather than a fiery front. At a couple quid for a pair, I fear I’d be dropping in every time I walked by if Raya was closer to my neck of the woods.
This isn’t my bit of London, which is why I’d had to turn to my map in the first place. Turning north, rather than south, out of Walthamstow Central, I found myself facing a part of town I simply don’t know at all, and not sure where to go. Without that pin, and its accompanying little note, Raya might not have been my first choice. Its is an unassuming storefront that could belong to any of the countless takeaways across the city, a few sparse wooden tables at the back once you squeeze past the counter. A sink in the corner of the dining room, for tap water and handwashing, is the only real giveaway that this might be something a little special, a spot that caters for northeast London’s southeast Asians more than it does confused Caucasians looking for a stir-fry.
The menu is of the expansive sort that conventional wisdom tells you to distrust, running from roti canai to beef rendang, nasi goreng to grilled chicken legs and chips. I can’t promise it’s all good — in fact I bet it’s probably not — but it does mean you’re likely to find most Malaysian dishes you can name. Or at least most of the ones I can name, your mileage may vary.
Char kway teow arrive in a glistening heap, slick with oil and scattered with crisp shards of fried onion. I’d had a few that night, which might be why I fell into my own cliché of ordering a stir-fry, but it proved the right pick. Char kway teow is a dish that’s often indifferent, good enough rather than actually good, but here the bouncy, chewy noodles were made deeply moreish, savoury with the lingering hint of the smoke of a truly hot wok.
A seafood laksa was less of a standout — I’ve definitely had better in London, though I’m happy to contend that I’m no expert here — but still offered plenty of comforts. Set at a spice level I’d call ‘firm’, its heat was offset only by ample fillings, an enormous bowl bursting to the brim with silky noodles, crunchy bean sprouts, and fat, wobbly slabs of tofu.
Truth be told, Raya isn’t a spot I’d have likely stumbled in without that chance pin on my app, instead writing it off as just one more takeaway among the many studding Walthamstow High Street. Which isn’t to be a snob, but there are an awful lot of takeaways out there, and the law of averages dictates most of them aren’t up to much. Sadly, I don’t yet trust that I’ve developed Jonathan Nunn’s instinct for rooting out the great ones, like a truffle pig for takeout.
So I would never have known that Raya was worth my time if it wasn’t for spotting it on Leung’s Instagram stories, for adding it to my map, for noting down that I should go and eat the curry puffs. But I’m glad that I did, and maybe now, after reading this, someone out there is making their own helpful note.
“Braise likes it, good curry puffs.”