Malaysian-Chinese comedian Nigel Ng – better known as Uncle Roger – is to launch his first London restaurant over the Easter weekend: Kawan by Uncle Roger, in Chinatown.
He has joined forces with restaurateur Keng Yew (of YiQi and The Eight) and former Hakkasan chef Daren Liew for Kawan (meaning ‘mate’ or ‘friend’ in Malay), which opens on Sunday and offers pan-Asian dishes with a British twist.
Nigel says: “We’re combining elements from different Asian countries, and we also have some fun little menu items that have a nod to British food. So we have squid ink fish and chips. So it’s something that has some Asian flavour profiles in it, but it’s fish and chips, right? And we have a special take on a beef Wellington dish as well.”
Born in Kuala Lumpur, Nigel went to university in the US, lived in London for eight years and is now based in Los Angeles. No stranger to running restaurants, he has six in Malaysia under the name FUIYOH! It’s Uncle Roger.
His Uncle Roger alter ego, globally famous from live performances and YouTube, is an old-school traditionalist with a strong Cantonese accent and catchphrases like “MSG is king of flavour“. He frequently takes a pop at western chefs cooking Asian dishes – including Martha Stewart, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, the latter of whom may well have an expletive in store for the beef Wellington at Kawan.
“Oh, for sure, they’re going to come for me,” says Nigel, who has invited both Gordon and Jamie to Kawan. “That’s part of the game, right? As a comic, I’ve developed a thick skin over the course of my career. And if you can dish it out, you’d better be able to take it.”
He sounds pretty confident about the new restaurant’s prospects: “Hopefully, when tourists come to London, they’ll stop going to Dishoom and go to my place instead!“
