Layang Layang

oOoooOoo! I really enjoyed this Malaysian restaurant. I went with my Malaysian client and I asked her to order for the group (do I have more credibility now?) ;)
Tom yum soup came with our dishes — it was good, more sour than sweet. It was good, no complaints except there weren’t much inside the soup. I like mine with lots of mushrooms and stuff!
So the veggie dishes are amazing. They use a fish sauce and make sure you try this with rice. It’s amazingly good!

The food here is pretty good — flavorful and well-​made, but the price is a bit on the steep side for the portion sizes. Overall, a great Malaysian meal and I would recommend giving it a shot if you’ve never tried it before.
RECOMMENDED DISHES:
— Roti Canai: flaky pancakes with curry dipping sauce. Some people don’t like the curry sauce, which is more savory with a hint of spicy, but I enjoyed it. The pancakes are soft and crispy — delicious with or without the dipping sauce. Definitely worth getting it, but each order only comes with one «pancake», which you can rip into pieces to share (or just order multiple orders: P). Each order is $ 3.25.
— Sarang Seafood: taro fried nest with some seafood and lots of bell peppers. I’m personally a big fan of bell peppers, so I was excited for that, but the amount of seafood in the dish was a bit meager given that this dish was $ 13.95. There were some scallops, a few shrimp and not much else seafood as far as I could tell. But for vegetables, they had a ton of bell peppers, corn and mushrooms. Overall, this best part of this dish was the taro nest on the outside, which looked beautiful and intricately crafted.
— Satay Tofu: fried tofu stuffed with some lettuce, cucumbers and rice noodles (as far as I could tell) with a peanut sauce. Pretty good and came with 4 pieces for $ 6.95. I wouldn’t get this every time, but worth a try if you haven’t tried it before. The sauce is lightly sweet and a perfect fit for the tofu.
OTHER DISHES (that were good, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend):
— Sizzling Beef: which was solid, a tiny bit spicy, with a good cut of beef and plentiful bell peppers. The only reason I’m not recommending it is because it was quite pricy. There wasn’t that much content in this dish for $ 13.95, but it was definitely one of my favorite dishes. So, on occasion, I would definitely get the Sizzling Beef, but I can definitely find places that serve the same dish for cheaper. Layang Layang’s version, however, does have that spicy kick to it, with a stronger sauce, so if that’s your cup of tea, go for it!
— Kangkung Belacan: stir fried water spinach. This dish was actually really good. The spinach was tender and not difficult to chew and the chili with shrimp paste was on point. But, the portion size was meager for $ 9.95. This dish is good, but expensive.
Overall, I enjoyed every dish so this was a great lunch at Layang Layang. We came around noon and the restaurant had not filled up yet, so we were seated right away, but it filled up quickly thereafter and there was a waiting line when we left. Come early, or order take out and definitely get some of their signature dishes! :)

Layang Layang does not disappoint. Started the night off with some delicious appetizers, ordered some Roti Canai and some Tom Yum soupsies. The roti came out to an excellent crisp with a perfect dipping curry sauce. Tom Yum was pretty damn good, it has the right amount of flavor to elevate your senses. As for my starter entrees we ordered the Pineapple fried rice and Sarang Burung, which might have changed my life. The crispy taro and mango are impeccable and unbelievable combination. Not to mention topping it off with your pineapple fried rice, it’s a fruit infused Asian heaven of perfection. I would definitely come back and honestly one of the best southeastern Asian foods to offer in San Jose.

I come back here every time for their Roti Canai. It’s think, flaky, crispy and delicious. The curry dipping sauce that it comes with is so perfect and honestly, I could just order a million of these and not get sick of it. I’ve tried their other dishes like Pineapple Fried Rice and different curries and thought they were all standard good dishes. The service can be a little slow at times and the waiters aren’t the most polite but overall the food is good enough.

Always worth a stop when I’m in the Los Gatos area, Layang Layang never disappoints in their authentic Malaysian cuisine.
Roti Canai — crispy, flaky and airy and paired with a curry dipping sauce — this is a great starter to heighten your senses. I do wish their pancakes were a bit more doughy like Lime Tree and their curry sauce a bit more sweet though.
Princess Tofu — we always get this. The tofu is just so incredibly soft. almost like custard. It’s perfect with coconut rice as it’s served with a sweet/​sour sauce along with seafood.
Iced Coffee — theirs is made with roasted butter coffee beans, which give the coffee a roasted, burnt milk flavor that is unique to the region. Its called kopi in Malaysia/​Singapore and they make a pretty good version here.
Peanut Pancake with Ice Cream — Basically a roti canai with a crunchy, sweet peanut filling garnished with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream — this is one of our favorite desserts. You can’t not like this. It’s totally amazeballs.

This restaurant has a great mix of Thai/​Singaporean/​Malaysian comfort food. I’ve been here several times, and I’ve never been disappointed. The food comes out looking just like they do in the picture menu.
I especially like the Princess Tofu, Roti Canai, and various seafood with vegetable dishes. You really can’t go wrong with anything here.

My first time eating Malaysian food! Not bad. I had the seafood sayang. Enjoyed the variety of seafood and the crispy taro bowl-​was just disappointed to find bell peppers in it since I don’t remember seeing them listed on the menu. I try to be careful and avoid them because they give me a belly ache and would have ordered the dish without them if possible. The other veggies seemed like the standard stuff you’d find in a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Not awesome but ok.
Restaurant is easy to miss in the dark and if you do, there no street parking and you get stuck in a State Farm parking lot. I had to make two u-​turns to get back for a second shot at the entrance and teensy lot.
Décor is a little cheesy and grandma style but somehow charming. Service was very attentive and polite.

There’s a reason why mango garden has 4 stars and this place has 3.5. We ordered the roti (plain), seafood curry noodles and Hainan chicken for takeout.
With two sides of Hainan seasoned rice, total for two entrees and one app was about $ 28.
My biggest gripe is that honestly the Hainan chicken was so dry, I thought I was eating goose. I don’t mind dark meat, but the meat was so tough I just wanted to throw it into soup. Also where’s my ginger sauce?
The seafood curry noodles was smaller than I expected, and all of the seafood (squid and shrimp) were overcooked, despite the soup being packed separately.
We came straight at 5 on a Sunday, and only waited 10 min for takeout.
Tl;dr don’t bother even getting takeout here if you’re craving seafood curry noodles or Hainan chicken and rice, I definitely was underwhelmed with my fav mango garden just around the corner.

My family has been coming here for years, and everything we’ve ordered has never disappointed. I won’t spend too much time talking about specific dishes (because this list would be pages and pages long), but rather, I want to highlight how freakin’ consistent these guys are! I love coming here because I know I’ll get exactly what I’m craving.
I took off one star because I feel that the service could be a little better, and because the space is pretty small, so come early or be prepared to wait!

Layang Layang is one of the best Asian restaurants in the Cupertino area! (There are surprisingly few…)
I agree with everyone here on Unilocal.Try the Roti Canai!!! It’s basically a crispy pancake that comes with a really yummy curry sauce. It makes a great appetizer. Basically everything I’ve tried here has been tasty, though on the heavier side.
The décor is pretty old-​fashioned. People definitely come here for the food, not the ambiance. It can get crowded during rush times, so come early!

Coming back from Mission Peak, my Mom and I were starved. As we wandered down De Anza, searching for a place to to eat at 9:30pm, Layang Layang was an Oasis in a food desert.
Walked in it was apparent that we were going to be the last to be served that night, as staff gave us the «damn-​it-​another-​one» look.
However, we ordered, and within 7 minutes we had our food. We ordered:
Mango Salad
Seafood Broth
Sea food taro crips thingy (a must get!)
Guava juice
Coconut rice
EVERYTHING was ⁵⁄₅! Mango salad was beautiful and delicious, seafood broth was flavorful, light, and not too salty. Sea food taro crisp thingy was totally unique, and as a huge taro lover, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
However, a peeve of mine is when staff at a restaurant cleans/​mops the floors and counters when customers are still eating. Food is Flavor. Flavor is Smell. I dont want to taste pine-​sol when I am eating. Unfortunately, in the middle of our meal, staff began mopping the floors. Now, I have worked in food service before, so I understand the desire to leave on time. However, just dont with customers still eating their food.
This would usually drop a star (or two) from my review. However, the 5 star is a testament to how much I enjoyed the food here!

Was pretty excited to try this place out based on reviews like «this is the best Malaysian food in the Bay», but I thought it was just OK. The restaurant looks small, but you’ll be surprised by how large the inside really is.
I came here pretty hungry so I was really excited by everything on the menu! We ended up ordering the Roti Canai, the Princess Sizzling Tofu and the Chow Kueh Teow noodles. The Roti Canai was great but honestly how can you go wrong with this classic Malaysian dip? The sizzling tofu was pretty bland but when you added a little hot sauce to it, it because better. The plate literally came out sizzling and everything was burning hot. The veggies in this dish were pretty fresh and the tofu had a great texture. My least favorite dish was the noodles. They were very salty and didn’t have much other flavor — I don’t recommend getting these. We ordered the veggie version and I feel like the only vegetables in this dish were green beans.
Overall, it was an ok experience. They have a giant menu so maybe I’ll be back to try some other stuff when I’m in the area, but I definitely think there’s better Malaysian restaurants in the area!

As a Malaysian, trying this restaurant was approached with skepticism because lets just say most Malaysian are expert of their food and were serious about it. It was quite a challenge and confusion driving to find this place to be honest, because it was this random little shop on the side of a major road, I missed it the first time because I thought my GPS was going crazy and directing me to an auto shop, because it does look tacky on the outside, but need not worry it looks better inside.
To be frank I was not blown away but it satisfied my cravings, lets just say if this restaurant was in Malaysia, I won’t be a regular because there are better places to eat, but for something in the United States and in desperate measures this place did give me a reminiscent feeling of true authentic Malaysian food, and gave me that exact intense flavor that I yearned from Malaysia. Although I must say the service here is really lacking Malaysian Hospitality, I do however love the attire that they wear, the kebaya, a true Malaysian attire. The interior itself is not amazing yet was not too tacky, but I do love the batik art used in the restaurant as table cloths.
The highlight of my experience was the kankung belacan $ 8.95, was very generously portioned. The taste was very authentic. It has the intense aroma of the belacan (fermented shrimp paste), mildly salty and the vegetable was perfectly seasoned and cooked to perfection and had a nice spicy and sweet taste. The sarang seafood $ 12.85 was also very delicious. Yet the yam basket was not impressive as it would taste in Malaysia, it was probably lacking flavor and crispness, it was slightly on the soggy side, but the seafood filling was delicious, its definitely worth a try for you americans. Finally the fish head in claypot for $ 14.95 was my least favorite, the curry was authentic tasting but didn’t have the right flavors that I like about this dish.
The service was ok, but not impressive. Very unfriendly in my opinion and wait staff are very gloomy and smiling was too intense for them so they didn’t even try. Tables and restaurant was clean. Overall was a good restaurant and good place to fulfill malaysian food cravings. Is it the best impression of Malaysian food? Absolutely not. Real Malaysian food is a whole other level of good and its really hard to get everything right, since Malaysian food is so diverse, but this is a good start for any american to be exposed to the taste and try some of the key dishes.

We got curious about this place with the numerous reviews on Unilocal.
Glad we got there early for dinner. We didn’t have to wait or line up. We also got seated at a table that’s away from the crowd. When you have 2 toddlers, you try to stay away from the main or. busy areas in the resto to avoid any possible accidents or disruptions with the servers when my kids walk around the dining area.
We started our meal with Roti. Their tofu was crispier than what I was used to in other Malaysian restos. We all loved it! My 2yr old son was so afraid he’d run out of the Roti, so he hoarded ¼ of it on his own plate. And refused to share it with anyone on the table.
Our waiter recommended the Ikan Bakar for our fish entrée. The fish was juicy and was complimented with a sweet-​based topping/​sauce. The banana leaf added a touch of charm to this ‘exotic dish’
The Princess Tofu was highly recommended, so we tried it, as well. Their homemade tofu was excellent. The tofu was smooth and creamy inaide and was golden and crispy on the outside. The gravy sauce went well with the tofu and the seafood and veggie ingredients.
The Bak kut Teh was a git with the kids. The pork was not tender. But we were more particular with the soup, which we all thought was great.
Hokkien Mee was good. The noodle was still firm. But it was overtaken by the other dishes that we ordered in terms of our preference.
We ended the meal with their peanut pancake, which we all loved. The peanut pancake was still warm. The peanut had a hint of sweetness that went well with the warm CRISPY pancake. This was topped with vanilla ice cream.

I think it’s a 3.5 but Ir ate it 4 becuase It’s not common to find good Malay food around here.
Colorful and flavorful food! I have been living 10 years in Asia and spent some time in Malaysia, lot of times in Singapore where I ate Malay food…
This place is nice, even with a bit on the old side decoration (and somehow dirty walls).
Roti Canai is light and crispy, the curry sauce that goes with it is delicious.
I didn’t like the lunch «free soup» because it was terribly over-salted…but…it was still tasty.
So…I ordered a traditional Nasi Lemak and then… I found the authentic taste of what I had in Malaysia. lot of flavor, dry anchovies… perfectly cooked coconut rice. Loved it.
No American Express.

Looks run down from the outside because of the building and retrofitted parking lot, but it’s actually pretty nice inside. Service is great here! Never had to ask for a water refill once, got checked up on just the right amount, waiter was really attentive. Now onto the food.
Roti Canai: Indian bread with curry sauce. It’s prepared very well and you can tell by the texture of the bread! It’s balanced very well with a humble amount of the curry sauce, which was also prepared well. Great appetizer to start with. 1 serving is a good amount of 2 people.
Beef Rendang: I don’t know why theres a chili pepper icon next to this item, it’s not really spicy! This is coming from someone who can’t handle too much spice. The beef was very tender and moist
Hainan Chicken: Not that good, chicken itself was a bit overdone and too rough. The ginger sauce that went with it good have been stronger.
Chicken rice: A more flavorful alternative to white rice.
Overall a solid place to eat, but pretty expensive for what you get. 35 bucks for the items above and was barely enough to feed 2 guys. That, along with the non-​impressive hainan chicken gets this place an ok 3 stars.

I was looking to be impressed. Unfortunately, only the service was excellent. The restaurant’s décor is similar to that of Hawaiian café’ ambiance. The seating is in close proximity. So one party might inadvertently be dining with another.
Our party of three ordered Satay Tofu for starters. It was an interesting combination of bean sprouts and slivers of cucumber lodged in the pockets of fried tofu with some peanut sauce. I enjoyed it.
Our entrees consisted of the following:
Fish Head in clay pot– This was okay but not real impressive. It swims in Indian Red Curry Sauce– spicy and sour tamarind. You would expect a punch in nuances of flavors, but it was just more or less an average curry.
We ordered some chicken dish I can’t remember what it was called. It was just pieces of chicken cut up with a cleaver on a plate– very similar to what you’d find in a Chinese restaurant. The flavor was good, and the chicken was juicy but nothing to rave about.
The biggest disappointment was the Prawn Mee or Udang Mee. How do you call it Malaysia’s famous noodle soup with chef’s special broth and completely F that up? The worst ramen I’ve eaten was better than this combo of fat and skinny rice noodles in bland broth. The egg was present as described. Look at the photo on their website:
I got 3 shrimp, 3 slices of pork and even less spinach. I don’t even remember bean sprouts. The verdict? It’s a bowl of noodles that looks nothing like the photo or tastes better than a pack of Top Ramen.
I went out of my way to come here. It probably won’t happen again. They are famous for their Malaysian sub par noodle soup.

Went here for the first time with my cousins and his family. Ordered too many stuff that I don’t remember but good enough for me to come back again. Came back for the second time with my family and we ordered the sizzling beef, ikan bakar, and sarang seafood.
The ikan bakar was okay, very interesting since it was served in banana lead which I thought was pretty neat. The grilled bass in the ikan is soft. Doesn’t taste fishy at all but I wasn’t a fan of the sauce on top of it.
The sarang seafood (fried taro nest with shrimp, scallop, squid, corn snow peas, black mushroom, and cashew nuts) was something I enjoyed. My parents loved the fried taro nest. If you love seafood, definitely a must!
My favorite is the roti canai! It’s an appetizer but I could honestly just eat that for dinner. Roti canai is a flatbread that you eat dipped in the Malaysian curry! IT’S SERIOUSLY HITS THE SPOT!

Highlights
— No wait during a weekend evening dinner for 4 and we were immediately seated.
— Tropical décor with floral table cloths, palm trees, spacious, and plenty of seating if you have a larger party that requires a circular table.
— Basil chicken: I didn’t really know what to expect since this one didn’t have any photos, but I really liked this dish as it came with large pieces of tender chicken, basil, carrots, snow peas, corn, and mushrooms.
— Okra sautéed with garlic: Cooked perfectly with a slight crunch and not too soggy.
— Singapore Mee Hoon: Thin glass noodle with dark sauce and topped with cabbage and bell peppers. This was flavored well and tasted delicious.
Improvements
— Layang Layang Combo: Fried tofu, vegetable egg rolls, fish balls, fried dough, and papaya salad. This appetizer wasn’t anything special, everything was fried and a-​okay at most. Everything tasted better dipped in the sweet and spicy chili sauce that came with this dish.
— Pineapple fried rice: Maybe it was because I sampled the other dishes first and they bursted with flavor so when I ate this it was a bit bland.
— Roti canai: I’ve tasted better elsewhere, but this one is a good alternative that will satisfy your craving for this appetizer.
— Beef Rendang: I’ve tasted better elsewhere, skip this one here.
Tips
— Plenty of parking in the parking lot plaza.
— No wait, unless you have a large group.

Layang Layang is one of the Cupertino favorites for some good south east Asian food. I used to live in Singapore so it’s nice seeing some of these long lost dishes that I used to eat. I finally tried this restaurant after many years of living in the area… it was long overdue. I’d say my first experience there was A-​OK, hence the three stars. We tried the Mee– Goreng, Pineapple fried rice, and Pearl Mee noodles.
1)The mee-​goreng was delicious – it’s one of my favorite SE Asian dishes. This one was very flavorful but a bit too oily. You could see the oil it left behind on your plate after you finished, so that was a bummer. But I’d still recommend this dish. Definitely worth trying at least once and make sure you squeeze lemon juice over it before digging in.
2)The pineapple fried rice came in a cored pineapple; love when they present it like that. However, the taste was a bit off… I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It didn’t have that usual sweet/​sour tangy flavor. I’d skip this one if I were you.
3) And finally, the Pearl Mee noodles were kind of flavorless and bland. I hate that they are described as ‘mouse tail’ noodles on their menu. They do look like mouse tails and it’s the last thing you want to think about when you’re trying to eat.
I also had an issue with the «Vegetarian» section of their menu. Some of the dishes under that section still listed fish under the descriptions. Fish is not vegetarian last time I checked. I’m not sure why it says that «Vegetarians go nuts for this spot» under the Unilocal page. Their menu didn’t seem too vegetarian friendly since a lot of things were made with shrimp paste too. Just make sure you specify your needs if you are a strict vegetarian.
Service was alright – we had one nice server and one server who was kind of rude… so I guess that balances out to just alright service. However, our food did come out pretty quickly after we ordered, so that was a plus.
I think I’ll be back to try the infamous roti canai (another one of my favorites and also the main reason why I think this place has 4 stars) and maybe some other dishes that other Unilocalers have raved about before making my final assessment.