Rasa Malaysia is a relatively new restaurant down the Mount Lavinia beach stretch, alongside common beach food names like Steam Boat and Loon Tao. The ambience by the beach is obviously awesome, and the food is alright – but we fell in love with their hot butter cuttlefish.
Service & Ambience
The service here is a bit slow – we waited a little more than half an hour for a plate of Nasi Goreng. Good news is you can always entertain yourself with the restaurant’s ready-made ambience – the sun, waves and sand. You might even meet the man with the monkey and the snake who walks the shore here on weekends for big tips from tourists. The waiters and manager though not punctual were very polite and obliging once they did notice we were sitting there waiting.
We wish they would fix the lighting here though – once the sun starts setting, you can barely see what you’re eating, you just get a teensy candle wick to give you just a slight hint of where you’re poking your cutlery. This can get a bit dodgy also after 7PM, but then it’s a rare quality when a beach restaurant manages not to. The place typically serves lunch and dinner but they’ve also got a bar and two porches if you want to sit up there and tell the seaspray to take it easy.
Food
Rasa Malaysia has a range of Malaysian and Chinese cuisine – they’ve got the typical Chinese rice preps and seafood and Satay kebabs, and then Malay dishes like Nasi Lemak (steamed coconut flavoured rice), Rendang (traditional Malay preparations of beef/chicken) and Malay preps of chicken and prawn curries. It’s also one of the very few Mount-beach places that serve Halal meat.
We ordered Malaysian nasi goreng for two (Rs. 478 each), a plate of hot butter cuttlefish (Rs. 761) and a plate of batter-fried prawns (Rs. 507), with juices (Rs. 317 each). The prices are mid-range and the portions pretty big. The nasi goreng came in a huge plate with big pieces of fried chicken, egg and kebabs. The papadam was a bit meh, the rice itself was just okay – not the best nasi goreng – but the kebabs were super: there was some surprise sweetness at the center of the kebab sticks that made them delicious. We appreciated the little bowl of mayo that came with the dish – it made the rice taste awesome.
The batter-fried prawns looked promising but were just average. Though the presentation was weak, the hot butter cuttlefish surprised us. Served with a side of rice, it just looked very red and oily and deceptively unimpressive – but they were actually extremely delicious and tasted great with the onions, veggies and rice. For just about 700 bucks, this big plate is worth the visit.
Conclusion
Rasa Malaysia is yet another cool beach food place down the Mount Lavinia stretch to hang out at with friends – the food is by no means amazing, but it’s good and in generous quantity, and the hot butter cuttlefish is a very yummy dish to gorge on over lunch, dinner or after a long beach stroll.
