New restaurant set to WAU Newbury today

Owners are promising authentic Malaysian food

A NEW restaurant serving authentic Malaysian street food will open its doors in Newbury today.

The restaurant, called WAU, will be based in the building formerly occupied by K’s Café in Cheap Street.

Promising ‘casual dining’ with an open-plan kitchen, diners will be able to see their food being cooked in front of them.

On the menu will be classic dishes such as Malaysian curry, beef rendang, barbecue pork bun, dim sum, satay lamb, satay prawn and coconut rice made with coconut milk and the blue pea flower from Malaysia.

WAU is the brainchild of Emmy Ooi, who originally lived in George Town, Malaysia, but moved to Newbury five years ago and previously worked at Chenz Chinese restaurant on Bartholomew Street.

She will look after the front of house, while her brother, Jason Ooi, will run the kitchen.

The restaurant is named after the famous Malaysian wau bulan, or moon kite, that is one of the country’s national symbols.

Traditionally, the moon kites are uniqely designed and richly decorated with colourful patterns of flowers and leaves.

Miss Ooi said that she chose WAU instead “as it sounds like the English word ‘wow’ and is something people would remember”.

She said: “I don’t think there is anywhere in Berkshire where you can get freshly-cooked authentic Malaysian street food, so it is very exciting to be bringing this to Newbury. You usually have to go to Chinatown or to Birmingham.”

She added: “I started cooking Malay food for my friends and regular customers and they liked it, so I thought why not open a restaurant.”

Look out for the Malaysian rickshaw that will be pedalled through Newbury in the coming weeks to hand out food samples and promote the opening of the restaurant.