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Dining Briefs | Checking In

Hiding Behind Its Menu

Laut
Asian
$$
15 East 17th Street, Union Square
212-206-8989

Laut

15 East 17th Street,

(212) 206-8989, lautnyc.com.

Some New York restaurants hide behind unmarked entrances and velvet ropes. Laut hides behind its menu: a pan-Asian thicket of sushi, Thai soups and Chinese noodles.

Lurking in all the fusion in this restaurant near Union Square is some of the best Malaysian food in Manhattan. Laut is more expensive than the others, but the ingredients are fresher, the sauces brighter and the room — though clamorously loud — more elegant and welcoming. Laut is well worth a visit.

There are rare sightings like pasembur ($7), a super-charged salad with shrimp fritters, slivered cucumbers, jicama, chopped peanuts and a pungent tamarind dressing. Then there is roti telur ($6), a floppy golden pancake stuffed with onions and peppers, to dip in a cup of thick coconut curry; and achar ($5), lightly pickled vegetables with cracked spices and a turmeric dressing.

Wok-fried noodle dishes like char kway teow ($9), with Chinese chives and a touch of sweet chili sauce, are really seared, not just tossed around in a pot: it makes all the difference.

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FROM THE WOK Laut serves noodle dishes and Malaysian street snacks.Credit...Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

The owners, Kathy Wong and Michael Bong, grew up in Malaysia, a culinary crossroads where coconut milk, soy sauce, lemon grass, pineapple, long beans and cinnamon have met and married for generations.

Hainanese chicken ($11), a Malaysian staple of Chinese origin, is made here with roasted chicken, not the usual poached: the bird is even more savory that way, with better contrast to the crunchy cucumbers and sweet coconut-infused rice.

A couple of other classics didn’t show as well: beef rendang ($15) can be tough, and chicken curry laksa ($11) much too tame.

Laut is a fine venue for Malaysia’s street-food addictions: a springy rice crepe ($6) rolled around sweet shrimp, with crunchy onions, sweet plum sauce and chopped peanuts; roti canai ($4), a tender flatbread that drapes like a handkerchief; and mee hoon goreng with shrimp ($11), thin rice noodles in a savory sauce flavored with fried shallots and dried shrimp.

The cooks at Laut usually tame the intense fishiness of Malaysian dishes; this one, however, tastes fully of oceanic funk.

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