Damansara, the first restaurant from Malaysian chef Tracy Goh, is opening in San Francisco

Damansara will, of course, serve laksa, but Goh hopes diners will share many of the small plates on the menu as if they were going out for dim sum. Those deep-fried curry puffs are painstakingly laminated by hand into a spiral shape and filled with chicken, potato, egg and Goh’s own curry spice blend. Otak-otak is a sausage-like coconut fish cake wrapped in banana leaves and then grilled. A steamed taro cake is rich with umami from fermented black beans, salt-preserved radishes and shiitake mushrooms. Goh’s take on fried chicken gets tossed in a salted egg yolk cream and then breaded in a spiced cereal.

Customers will also be able to order a chef-recommended selection of small plates, one for meat-eaters and another for vegetarians. There will be a snack-sized version of nasi lemak, another famous Malaysian dish: a scoop of fragrant coconut rice tucked into a banana leaf with egg, pickles, peanuts, anchovies and sambal. (It’s also available as a full-size entree with fried chicken, with sambal calamari or stewed beef rendang on the side.)

Customers will sometimes get to try special ingredients Goh imports from Malaysia, such as torch ginger, a vivid pink flower that’s essential in Malaysian cooking but is incredibly hard to find in the U.S. outside of Hawaii, she said. It’s often used in salads or soups.

For laksa fans, Goh starts her version with an anchovy and chicken bone stock. It gets amped up with a 20-plus ingredient spice paste that includes lemongrass, galangal, coriander, ginger, shallots and fermented shrimp. The bowl is filled with rice noodles and finished with shrimp, chicken and puffed tofu, plus sambal on the side. Damansara will also serve a vegan laksa made from kelp and shiitake, with fermented bean paste subbing in for the fermented shrimp. 

Desserts will include another famous Malaysian dish that’s relatively rare in the Bay Area: white toast spread with house-made kaya (pandan-coconut jam) and butter.

For drinks, expect beer, wine, sake and soju cocktails and nonalcoholic options.

Goh largely kept the space, a former pizzeria, the same, but added dark green, cream and red patterns in homage to the design of tiles in postcolonial Malaysian buildings — the same tiles in her childhood home. With skylights and lots of windows, the 48-seat dining room feels bright and airy. Bar seats look directly into the open kitchen.

Goh, who gained a following by hosting pop-up dinners in her San Francisco apartment, said it feels like the Bay Area’s Malaysian food scene has ebbed and flowed over the years without ever fully catching on. Her theory: Malaysian food is “so diverse and blended,” with multicultural influences from China, India and Portugal, that “it’s extremely hard to describe our dishes to people, our food culture.” Goh, a native of Damansara Utama, came to the U.S. in 2012 and later joined nonprofit La Cocina’s kitchen incubator program.

Another La Cocina chef, Azalina Eusope closed her two San Francisco Malaysian restaurants, Azalina’s and Mahila, during the pandemic, but is set to reopen Azalina’s soon in a new location.

“I really hope one day to see five or more Malaysian restaurants in San Francisco,” Goh said.

Damansara. Opening Oct. 19. 5-10 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. 1781 Church St., San Francisco. damansarasf.com

Elena Kadvany (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ekadvany