I visited the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur from 17 to 19 March with a bunch of friends, and got to sample a handful of really good local food places over the course of the short 3 days, which I will share in chronological order below. Overall, there were a few misses but most of the restaurants we visited were great, partly thanks to the recommendations of one of my friends who was a local.
Our first day was mostly spent indoors. By the time we checked in at our hotel, it was already close to lunch time, so we headed to
Wild Honey at the
Pavilion shopping complex for lunch. The food wasn't that cheap - my share came up to about RM60+, i.e. it's only a tad cheaper than Singapore. I've never tried Wild Honey in Singapore but my experience at the KL branch wouldn't warrant a repeat visit - typical hipster cafe food just isn't my thing. We then headed to
Sunway Pyramid for ice-skating, and had dinner at
Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant inside the mall. Aside from some unique fried mushroom appetizer, the main that I had (black pepper beef with rice) was quite disappointing.
The real food adventures began on the second day with a trip to
Yut Kee Restaurant for some traditional Hainanese breakfast. It was a Saturday morning, so the restaurant was really crowded by the time we arrived at about 9am. We eventually had to split up because there just wasn't a big enough table at the time. The ambience was one of a typical Chinese coffee house (they were established in 1928), with traditional furniture and a nostalgic, old-school charm about it.
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| Yut Kee Restaurant |
We tried several of their signature dishes - Hainanese Chicken Chop and Kaya Rolls, as well as some traditional breakfast items like bread with kaya (the toasted and steamed ones were equally good) and half-boiled eggs (as you would also find in Singapore). Everything tasted amazing, and my table of 4 ended up paying only RM52 in total for a super hearty breakfast.
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| Hainanese Chicken Chop |
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| Kaya Rolls |
After a good cardiac workout at the
Batu Caves, we headed to
Restoran Kin Kin for some chili pan mee. Even without the chili I thought that the dish packed lots of punch. Definitely one of the most flavourful handmade noodle dishes that I have ever tasted. The portion isn't very big but we had some other dishes to share, so the meal was perfectly satisfying. Once again, we didn't have to pay more than RM15 per person for this.
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| Kin Kin's Chilli Pan Mee |
We then spent the rest of the day chilling out at the hotel before heading out again for a late dinner at
Mun Wah Hokkien Mee. The KL Hokkien Mee here was top-notch - sinful but oh so delicious. The fried chicken wings here were also pretty good. A unique dish they served was a stir-fried nian gao, which was done in a way I've never seen before.
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| Mun Wah Hokkien Mee |
While most of my friends stayed out late on Saturday night, I headed back early to rest, and so I managed to wake up pretty early the next morning, and headed out to
Mansion Tea Stall (on the ground floor of the Selangor Mansion) on my own. The signature dish here is the
Roti Canai Banjir Special - 2 slices of roti prata (as we know it in Singapore) doused in dahl and spicy sambal, topped with 2 half-boiled eggs. Surprisingly, the flavours worked magically together. Along with a glass of Teh Tarik, I only paid RM5 for the meal. What a steal!
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| Roti Canai |
We later had
Nasi Kandar for lunch at
Restoran Kudu bin Abdul, as recommended by one of our Grab drivers. It appears to be very popular among locals. There was quite a long line when we got there. Overall, I thought it was a good meal but not particularly memorable either. Perhaps one of the famous Nasi Lemak places would have been a better choice for our last proper meal of the trip.
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| Nasi Kandar |
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| Restoran Kudu bin Abdul |
A summary of the places I visited is as follows:
- Wild Honey (B-) - Pavilion #06-645, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur 55100
- Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant (C) - LG1.43A, Lower Ground 1, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall, No. 3, Jalan PJS 11/15, Bandar Sunway
- Yut Kee Restaurant (A+) - 1, Jalan Kamunting, Chow Kit, 50300 Kuala Lumpur
- Restoran Kin Kin (A) - 40, Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman, Kampung Baru, 50300 Kuala Lumpur
- Mun Wah Hokkien Mee (A+) - 155, Jalan Maharajalela, Kampung Attap, 50150 Kuala Lumpur
- Mansion Tea Stall (A-) - Selangor Mansion, Lorong Bunus Satu
- Restoran Kudu bin Abdul (B+) - 335, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Chow Kit
