Pang arrived in the United Kingdom in 2000 with no restaurant of his own and spent years working his way up from kitchen porter to general manager before meeting Koi Lee in 2014 at a Chinese restaurant in London, where the two slowly built up enough trust between them to start talking about something of their own.
“We have a special trust in each other,” Lee told SAYS.
A food truck, a pandemic, and a pivot
In 2019, after more than a decade of working in other people’s kitchens the two friends finally ventured out on their own with a food truck. It lasted four months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down.
Rather than walk away from the idea entirely, they held on. After the lockdown, they opened a food stall in Mayfair selling three-colour nasi lemak. The dish went viral. Londoners who had never heard of nasi lemak were stopping at their stall, drawn in by the colours before the flavour had even convinced them. That was the lesson they took into everything that followed. Without the visual hook, many Londoners would never have taken their first bite of Malaysian food. With it, they had a reason to stop.
The call from Berjaya
A manager from Berjaya Group reached out after seeing the stall’s growing reputation and asked whether they would be interested in operating a restaurant at the company’s hotel.
A Berjaya executive came personally to taste the nasi lemak before making any commitment. He approved it on the spot.
Med Salleh Kopitiam opened at the Berjaya Eden Park Hotel in Bayswater shortly after.
“Of course, yeah! Because it’s very hard to own a restaurant without any credit at the time. So we didn’t think twice and said yes. We are on,” Pang said.
The balancing act that keeps it honest
Running a Malaysian restaurant for a London audience means making adjustments without losing what makes the food worth eating in the first place. Pang and Lee reduced the spiciness for local palates and cooked the Hainanese chicken rice fully through rather than serving it at the 85% doneness common in Malaysia.
They found alternative ingredients when Malaysian supplies ran inconsistent. Their team, 95% Malaysian and led by head chef Faisal, has spent years learning how to replicate familiar flavours in an environment that was not built for them.
The menu that came out of that process is visually striking: glossy Hainanese chicken rice, a nasi ganja platter loaded with sotong, tiger prawn and fried chicken over stingray curry, dishes that look as considered as they taste without sacrificing the soul of what they are.
From Londoners to ministers
Over the years, Med Salleh Kopitiam has served former health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham, both of Malaysia’s current deputy prime ministers, former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, and members of royalty. A day before SAYS interviewed Pang in December 2025, Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu had dined there.
Among all their guests, Datuk Prof Jimmy Choo holds a particular place for the two founders. The luxury shoemaker has consistently championed the restaurant over the years, motivated by his own understanding of what it takes to build something from nothing in London.
“He understands how difficult it is to make a name for yourself in London, having done it himself as a shoemaker,” Pang said.
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‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman
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