The Malaya restaurant has fed Sydney under the watch of the same family for 62 years, but on Thursday, April 17, the venue will serve its first prawn laksa at a new location at Grosvenor Place, near Circular Quay.

When Wong Tai See opened The Malaya at the south end of George Street, near Chinatown, in 1963, everyday ingredients you find today on supermarket shelves often weren’t available. Coconut milk was one such example, so the laksa was made with cow’s milk. It became such a favourite with The Malaya’s clientele that Wong Tai See’s grandchildren, Duan and Isabella Wong, don’t dare change it.

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The restaurant’s third-generation operators don’t remember much about the stalwart restaurant’s 2001 relocation from George Street to King Street Wharf, where The Malaya was a mainstay for 24 years until its closure last month. “I was 12 and Isabella was eight,” Duan Wong said of the previous move. Isabella Wong has vague memories of the purple walls at the George Street restaurant, and Duan remembers the opening night at the wharf.

Their recollection is understandably stronger about the final night at King Street a few weeks ago; a welcome ovation from the dining room for staff, many of whom have been with the restaurant for decades. And regulars, who politely asked if they could take mementos of the restaurant, such as candles, as keepsakes.

“Our parents never put any pressure on us to follow them into the business,” Duan Wong said. He studied in Italy, focused on slow food and importing wine. Isabella Wong started to forge a career in psychology. “Then Dad got sick,” she said.

Lance Wong died in 2018. He and his wife, Givie, had taken the restaurant to a new generation of more educated Sydney diners, updating the menu as fresh Asian ingredients such as lemongrass and galangal became available, and modernising the restaurant’s design. Now the next gen has taken over.

The Malaya’s current operators still bounce ideas off their mother, and Lance’s wine collection has followed the restaurant across town. “We still have some Leewin Estate back to 2009, and Hill of Grace, 2002 and 2007 vintages,” Duan Wong said.

A mid-century floor light and some repurposed pendant lights have also made the trip from King Street Wharf to the Harry Seidler-designed site at Grosvenor Place. They also reordered the original Finnish-designed chairs, which are still in production, used when The Malaya opened at King Street Wharf in 2001.

While the new restaurant is larger, its multi-level configuration means it will have fewer seats, with 180 seated inside and 60 on the terrace.

When you have clientele as loyal as The Malaya’s – where two old school friends lunch most Tuesdays and regulars who first visited as university students in the 1970s now arrive with their extended families – any alteration to the menu has to be carefully considered.

Isabella Wong, who runs floor operations at the restaurant, said most regulars head straight to their favourite dishes. That’s good news for fans of the kapitan prawns, coconut beef rendang and Sichuan eggplant. They have all gone straight to the new menu.

There are a couple of new dish arrivals. The cold beef salad, which went on the menu last year, has stayed, as has a new pork belly dish with glass noodles.

The duo promise seafood will play a more central role at the restaurant, with mud crab and XO pipis featured, and a dessert of Penang gelato. The lemongrass, makrut lime and mint creation was developed in collaboration with Redfern gelataria Ciccone & Sons.

Drinks consultant Ed Loveday has updated The Malaya’s cocktails, and expanded the line-up.

The relocation isn’t without risk. The Grosvenor Place restaurant site has chewed through some seasoned operations, with Fratelli Fresh and the Neil Perry-steered Rosetta both opening and closing there. But the incoming team is bullish on the timing on the site, with light rail works and nearby developments such as Sydney Place still unfinished when those restaurants operated there.

“We’re surrounded by some of the city’s best hotels, and there’s a steady stream of foot traffic from Circular Quay down George Street,” Duan Wong said. The Malaya was lucky to have a rusted-on clientele at King Street Wharf, but Wong previously noted its streets have been quieter in recent times.

“We wanted to bring elements [furnishings and the colours] of the old restaurant across,” Isabella Wong said. “This new space gives Duan and me the chance to bring a few touches of our own to the restaurant, without changing what The Malaya has always been.”

Open lunch and dinner Mon-Sat

Grosvenor Place, 255 George Street, Sydney, themalaya.com.au