Dapur
Nasi campur means you eat what the kitchen cooked that morning, and Dapur sells it from tiffins until the good dishes run out.
Why go
The counter carries six or seven curries and vegetable dishes at a time, and the lineup changes daily. Jonathan Nunn's picks are the ones London Malaysian menus skip: ayam ros Johor, and steamed tofu dipped in egg, deep-fried, then stirred through sambal (Vittles). The room trades Monday to Friday between 11.30am and 3pm and nothing else, which is about twenty-five hours a week (Dapur). The kitchen is halal, confirmed by Feed the Lion in person and carried as a facet tag by The Infatuation. Hygiene sits at 3 on a Camden inspection from November 2022, with 10 on all three components, and there has been no re-inspection since.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the nasi campur plate, built around ayam ros Johor if it is on, with the fried-tofu sambal and whatever vegetable is running. Nunn:
The unsung heroes of the menu are the vegetables, like stir-fried green beans that still retain a snap, or squash cooked down in coconut milk until it is almost baby food.
1 Beef rendang with coconut rice if you want the version Feed the Lion rated. - Avoid: arriving late in the service.
Get here early, as the best dishes sell out.
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What locals & experts say
- Jonathan Nunn, Vittles (5 September 2025):
A nasi campur specialist and arguably the best Malaysian restaurant in London.
1 - The Infatuation (Jake Missing, 15 July 2022, 8.2): a plate of
fragrant coconut rice and all the trimmings, ayam masak merah and beef rendang
from a daytime cafe,just the ticket for anyone who's looking for a pick-me-up.
2 - Zaleha Kadir Olpin, MasterChef UK contestant, quoted by Feed the Lion (6 September 2018):
They serve delicious authentic Malaysian food in a Malaysian tiffin that's perfectly seasoned and full of flavour.
4 - Feed the Lion's own complaint (6 September 2018):
the anchovies weren't as intensely fishy and salty as we would have preferred.
That is the only criticism on record anywhere.4 - Local rec: Jeff's row records this as a rec from Jonathan. REAL.
Good to know
- Timing: Monday to Friday, 11.30am to 3pm. Closed weekends and every evening.
- Booking: walk-in, counter service.
- Room: a dozen or so seats inside, with more outside in the passage.
- Dietary: halal. Feed the Lion states "Fully Halal" from a visit, and The Infatuation tags the venue halal on its Malaysian guide. The venue publishes no statement of its own, so confirm at the counter if it matters to you. Vegetarian dishes appear on the counter daily but nothing promises them.
- Price: a tiffin plate ran 8.95 in 2018, with teh tarik at 2.80. Treat those as a band, not a current price.
- Hygiene: FSA record 985340, rating 3 under Camden, inspected 28 November 2022, scoring 10 on food handling, structure and management alike.
- Getting there: Lamb's Conduit Passage runs off Red Lion Street, five minutes from Holborn and Chancery Lane.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Rec via: "Jonathan rec" REAL.
- Note: if that is Jonathan Nunn, the Vittles line he wrote in September 2025 is the reason to go, and the instruction that came with it was to get there early.
Verdict
must-visit — Nasi campur means you pick from what was cooked that morning, and Dapur runs that format properly on a Holborn passage for twenty-five hours a week. Jonathan Nunn calls it a nasi campur specialist and arguably the best Malaysian restaurant in London, and the dishes he singles out are the ones you never see on a London Malaysian menu: ayam ros Johor, tofu dipped in egg and deep-fried before it goes into sambal, squash cooked down in coconut milk. The Infatuation scored it 8.2 and a MasterChef contestant vouched for the tiffin. It shuts at three, it shuts all weekend, and the best dishes go first, so this is a plan-your-day place rather than a drop-in.