Kuala Lumpur food trip

Planning for a short getaway to KL in December. 3-4N, just two of us. Staying at Parkroyal. Only been to KL once and that was more than 10 years ago. Have also been reading up articles written by @klyeoh in here and CH.

No food restrictions and we are fine with dining at back alleys and long queues. Language - any issue if we couldn’t speak Malay at Malay and Indian stalls? Not too worried with Chinese stalls, able to speak Cantonese.

Dishes that we intend to try:

  1. Bak kut teh - worth to travel all the way to Klang? Or is there any difference between KL style and Klang? The husband is hoping to try a different style from the usual peppery ones we could get in Singapore. Am looking at Seng Huat since the location is more easily accessible.
  2. Nasi lemak - Nasi Lemak Tanglin? How about Wanjo Kampung Baru? Am just looking at the number of Google reviews. :joy:
  3. Nasi kandar (or nasi campur) - Sambal Hijau?
  4. Hokkien mee - Kim Lian Kee or outskirts at Ahwa?
  5. Claypot rice - Heun Kee
  6. Beef noodles - Lai Foong or Soong Kee or Yang Kee at OUG?
  7. Roti Canai - Mansion Tea Stall
  8. Curry mee - Alley Curry Mee stall at OUG
  9. Biryani - any good mutton biryani place?
  10. Wantan mee - Koon Kee. More suggestions on WTM places? It’s one of the husband’s favorite foods, SG and in HK too.
  11. Roasts - any good roast stall to check out?
  12. Hainanese pork chops - Yut Kee or Sin Kee
  13. Hainanese coffeeshop - Ho Kow or Ah Weng Koh
  14. Snacks or desserts
  15. Dim sum - any alternatives to Ful Lai? We are alright with expensive ones as well.

Places that we probably would go (mainly for food):

  • Pudu (day) + Wai Sek Kai (night)
  • Petaling Street Market
  • Jalan Alor Night Food Court - anything nice from this place or just a tourist trap?
  • OUG (day)

Any other suggestions are welcome too. Thanks for reading!

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Good to hear from you, thwysg. No problem at all ordering in English at Malay or Indian places. I’m currently in the UK, returning to Penang this weekend - I’ll reply to you in detail on where to eat after this weekend.

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  • BKT - It’s a hike from the Parkroyal, however if your hubs is keen on a superlative BKT experience. It’s worth a trip to Klang. There are several hardcore purist OG no-frills joints - meat, soup, rice and nothing else. The one I go to opens at 6am and is typically sold out by 8am. For the purist locations it’s de rigueur to see the regular clientele showing up with their own heirloom clay teapots & cups and best teas to pair with their meal.
    https://my.openrice.com/en/klangvalley/article/10-best-bak-kut-teh-in-klang-a498

  • Nasi Lemak - I’m partial to Village Park. Get the nasi lemak + fried chicken

  • Nasi Campur - Sambal Hijau is literally my favorite place to dine in KL. First meal off the plane. Best to go during lunch.

  • Hokkien Mee - Ahwa is a good choice, nice smokiness (some find it a tad too smoky). Loads of lard. You’ll need some strong tea to go along with it. Lian Bee in KL is good too, however it’s located in a dimly lit alley - another place to BYOB.

Couple of other suggestions from my recent trip

  • Restaurant “Kow Siew” :joy: in Pandan Indah - for “Sang Har” (freshwater prawn) noodles. Get an order of the hor fun noodles too. Excellent wok hei.

  • Willy’s Satay (Kajang) - not the most hygenic hawker center. Pro-tip: bring your own beverages… Excellent satay though.

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BKT - I’ll leave it to the husband to choose then. Will be taking Grab for places not within reach.

Village Park - Saw some pictures and reviews on Village Park. Looks good. Have you tried its daging rendang and lontong? Doesn’t seem to sell kambing rendang. Is it alright to visit on a weekday morning, say 8-9am? Or would we hit the morning office crowd and not all the dishes are out yet?

Ahwa - Lots of lard? That sounds yummy!

Kow Siew Sang Har Mee - the reviews seem mixed. Inconsistency by the chef. Right down to his mood on that day. :sweat_smile:

Willy Satay - Looks good. Shall see if the husband would be keen.

I’ll add Yong Tau Foo under the list as well. Thinking either Foong Foong, Madras Lane or Yap Hup Kee.

Any recommendations on Peranakan food? Looking for ayam buah keluak. The husband’s craving again. :joy:

  • Bak kut teh - worth to travel all the way to Klang? Or is there any difference between KL style and Klang? The husband is hoping to try a different style from the usual peppery ones we could get in Singapore. Am looking at Seng Huat since the location is more easily accessible.
    Main difference is that KL bak kut teh is soupy, whereas Klang ones are thicker, more stew-like. Mo Sang Kor or Kee Heong are two other good options if you’re taking that long drive to Klang.
    If you do decide to stay in KL, try Sun Fong at Medan Imbi, or Big Mouth in Chinatown

  • Nasi lemak - Nasi Lemak Tanglin? How about Wanjo Kampung Baru? Am just looking at the number of Google reviews. :joy:
    Both are good - Wanjo at Kampung Baru allows you to soak in the atmosphere of a Malay settlement. Nasi Lemak Tanglin is more of a destination dining place.

  • Nasi kandar (or nasi campur) - Sambal Hijau? Definitely

  • Hokkien mee - Kim Lian Kee or outskirts at Ahwa? Both are good. Ahwa has been erratic of late.

  • Claypot rice - Heun Kee Yes, it’s the best for this dish in KL

  • Beef noodles - Lai Foong or Soong Kee or Yang Kee at OUG? All are good. I simply love Soong Kee personally.

  • Roti Canai - Mansion Tea Stall No comments, as I don’t have any specific roti canai stall in KL which I always go for

  • Curry mee - Alley Curry Mee stall at OUG No, go to Madras Lane in Chinatown area instead - there are 3 competing curry mee stalls side-by-side, and they are all pretty good

  • Biryani - any good mutton biryani place? Try Fierce Curry House on Jalan Kemuja, walking distance (5 minutes) from Bangsar LRT station

  • Wantan mee - Koon Kee. More suggestions on WTM places? It’s one of the husband’s favorite foods, SG and in HK too. My personal favourite is Ho Weng Kee at Hutong, Isetan the Japan Store. Knocks Koon Kee for dead, IMO

  • Roasts - any good roast stall to check out?

  • Hainanese pork chops - Yut Kee or Sin Kee Definitely Sin Kee. Yut Kee’s food tastes simply awful these days - still the same owners, but I think the old chefs are gone

  • Hainanese coffeeshop - Ho Kow or Ah Weng Koh Ho Kow, but it’s got a new premise that is perpetually inundated. Go early.

  • Snacks or desserts Traditional Malay kuihs - go to La Cucur in Suria KLCC, or try Nyonya Colours for a richer Nyonya version of the same types of kuihs.

  • Dim sum - any alternatives to Ful Lai? We are alright with expensive ones as well. Ming Room at Bangsar Shopping Centre, or its sister outlet, Han Room at the Gardens Mall in Mid-Valley

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Trip’s booked. 4D3N, pity the mister wasn’t able to get leave for a longer trip.

Some places that I have shortlisted, yet to be approved by the mister. Just trying to squeeze in as much food as
we could, although I do hope we won’t overeat.

  1. Peter’s Pork Noodles (Money’s Corner)
  2. Goreng Pisang + ABC Cendol + Muah Chee
  3. Soong Kee beef noodles + Low Yau Kee porridge with chicken
  4. Nasi Lemak Wanjo Kampung Baru
  5. Sambal Hijau Restaurant
  6. Sin Kee (Teochew mun fan + pork chop)
  7. Restoran Yap Hup Kee @ Pudu (Hakka YTF)
  8. Ah Hei BKT or Sun Fong BKT (near hotel)
  9. Restoran Win Heng Seng (三間庄 pork ball mee + egg tart)
  10. D Heun Kee Claypot Rice
  11. Kei Suk WTM - wanted to try before the old man’s gone
  12. Chun Kei Tai Pu Noodle
  13. Ho Kow Hainam Kopitiam
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Wow, that is one ambitious list. Do report back on your experience when you’re done! :grin:

I think it may be Hainanese mun fan, since the place is Hainanese-run?

Oh yea. Realized it was written wrongly just after I posted haha…

Might have some changes. The mister wants to eat prawn mee - most likely heading to Lim Mee Yoke.

Is it alright to visit Sambal Hijau for early dinner instead for early lunch? I know some dishes might not be available by then. Since these two places are near 1 Utama, thinking of doing all three spots as a day trip.

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Yes, early dinner’s fine, maybe even more pleasant as the temperature’s would’ve cooled down quite a bit. KL’s heat & humidity can be enervating.

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Am back from my trip.

Bad weather conditions. It poured everyday throughout the whole trip, we only managed to reach our hotel slightly before 5pm for our first day with the traffic jams and rain showers.

Only managed to visit 5 stalls out of the above list. We didn’t know we had free breakfast at the hotel - concierge informed us that upon checking in. The mister felt miserable, waking up everyday with the rain pouring - we ended up eating hotel breakfast everyday.

Day 1. Since we only managed to reach close to 5pm, we went to Hutong @ Lot 10. Was thinking of trying the wantan mee suggested by @klyeoh.

Alas, the staff said the wantans were sold out. The mister ordered the noodles with roasts and a duck egg penang char kway tiao (CKT).

The roast noodles were very good, much to the mister’s preference. I found the texture slightly harder than usual though it was extremely thin (that’s good), the dark sauce was a little overwhelming to me. Char siu fared better than siu yok, with half fatty and half meaty. But the meaty portion was slightly harder which meant more chewing.

We liked the CKT - generous amounts of lard, duck egg, lap cheong, cockles and chives. For that amount we paid in a food court, this wins hands down from the many CKT in foodcourts.

Day 2.
Breakfast at the hotel and the mister went back to bed again since it was raining again.

We went to Ho Kow Hainam Kopitiam around noon. Waited close to 50 min. Good thing they have a machine issuing tickets. Get a ticket and wait for the number to be called.

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We ordered 4 dishes and 2 Chams. Think similar to HK yuan yang, or same - coffee mixed with tea? Service was great, the young staff were all polite and the boss was walking around saying hi to customers.

The mister liked his fried chicken nasi lemak - it came with a har cheong gai drumstick. Food wise slightly above, I like the crunchy peanut with kaya butter soft bun. Won’t mind heading back.

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Day 2 (cont’d).
After the meal, we walked around Chinatown. Came across a newly opened Hawker Chan’s nearby Ho Kow - full house during lunch hour. But the rain got heavier and no Grab car was available for the next hour - were stuck at Starbucks in Kotaraya Complex. No choice but to walk all the way to Pasar Seni (thankfully we had hotel umbrellas).

Went to NU Sentral and walked around. Waited until past 6pm and slowly made our way to Sin Kee. Despite the heavy rain showers, the restaurant was 3/4 filled and more came.

Likewise 4 dishes for dinner, dessert was mine and the beer was the mister’s. In fact, we couldn’t finish most of the dishes. Portions were way too big for two of us.

The mun fan (steamed seafood rice) and the Hainanese pork chop were the signatures. Also ordered two dishes with fermented beancurd - yau mak (the mister didn’t like this, so I ate most of it) and the pork ribs which the mister finished.

Among the four, we liked the pork chop most. Totally different from what one would find in Singapore. SG style would be a fried pork cutlet with the ketchup sauce and mixed beans. In Sin Kee, it’s a pan-fried ground pork patty and topped with the sauce. Same concept as a hamburg steak in Japan. Thick and moist pork chop. Yums!

Lots of prawns and squids found in the mun fan, but I think the portion would have been more in the past based on bloggers’ pictures.

The pork ribs had no smell of fermented beancurd since they were probably deep fried.

Day 3.
Rainy day again. Breakfast as usual at the hotel. Made our way down to Nasi Lemak Wanjo Kampung slightly before 11.30am.

We were lucky to come before lunch hours. Big families and office workers came not too long after. Ordered the same for two of us. Begedil (fried mashed potato with spices and herbs), telur goreng (fried egg) and ayam goreng (fried chicken). Plus two teas.

Very spacious and most of the staff are young. There are a few cats roaming around the eatery and little kids either welcomed them with their food or screamed and cried (they probably freaked out with the cat’s tail touching their feet).

The tea - we were shocked to see the amount of condensed milk inside our cups. Way too sweet. Didn’t dare to stir the whole cup as it was.

For the first time, we were very impressed with this nasi lemak. They actually use good rice unlike many stalls in SG, they use rice grains that were very brittle (my mum calls it 碎米). The chili sauce is not too spicy, we would call it sweet and spicy instead. The fried chicken was probably marinated with lots of ginger and cooked in the same way as ayam penyet (from some places that we have ate before). Begedil over here was way bigger portion than what we could find in SG as well. Worth the traveling!

We would probably be back to try other dishes, and skip the drinks.

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Oh dear, what a bummer. KL’s quite a nightmare when it rains. I’m glad you braved it out to get to Hutong, though.

I must confess that I’d never gone back to Ho Kow ever since it “upgraded” itself to its current location - the crowds were too overwhelming. The poached eggs on toast you had looked interesting - they spooned curry sauce over it?

My fave dish at Sin Kee as well - nowhere else in Malaysia does it this way - with minced pork patty - as they do.

Yes, it’s soft boiled eggs over toasts with curry sauce. Was telling the mister it is like eating roti banjir with toasts replacing the prata. We initially wanted the one without the sauce but ordered wrongly with the curry instead.

As for the waiting time, it seems shorter waiting time for smaller groups of 1-2 pax.

And we really didn’t expect KL to rain everyday. So glad that Grab was available everywhere, minus the time when we were stuck in Chinatown for more than an hour with no cars due to heavy rain showers.

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Day 3 (cont’d).
Well it was raining again when we left Wanjo Kampung. Hung out at Pavilion for tea before dinner.

Claypot rice at Heun Kee.

We reached before 7.30pm. There was already a queue waiting for a table just right outside the restaurant. A young Chinese staff took orders from those in the queue. As I did not want to waste food, we ended up ordering lesser items this time. So a small claypot rice with chicken thighs (just do a top-up to one’s desired ingredients), soup of the day which happened to be watercress soup and HK kailan in oyster sauce.

We felt this was way better than what we had eaten in HK. This was cooked with charcoal from the start - water, rice grains and then the ingredients. The rice was fluffy, not so much of the soccarat. Surprisingly the salted fish which we added and mixed with the rice wasn’t that salty too. It was nonetheless a wonderful dish we had eaten.

I would have ordered a pig stomach soup if I knew they served this (saw the pictures on the walls), we only saw soup of the day on the menu given to us. The watercress soup wasn’t bad too, boiled with chicken feet and a small chicken breast and red dates, the soup was already so sweet on its own.

Overall, Heun Kee rated top in the mister’s list. The lady boss and even the foreign cooks were quite friendly. The cooks even bade us goodbyes when we left and told us to come visit them again.

Day 4.
I managed to get the mister to wake up earlier to eat bak kut teh (BKT). Just 5 min walk from our hotel, he decided to try Sun Fong instead of Ah Hei. Surprisingly when we arrived before 8am, only one table was taken up, whereas Ah Hei was slightly more crowded.

Broth is sweet, unlike the peppery ones we find in SG. The staff told us that there’ll be small amounts of intestines and stomach pieces in the soup, which we did find a few small slices of the pig stomach. The mister had rice and I ate with the youtiao (fried fritters). Didn’t look like the soup is refillable. And the staff didn’t seem friendly, was asking questions about the portions and she only mentioned everything in the menu is for single portion except the BKT. Maybe it might be better for us to come with a bigger group and try more dishes instead.

Brought the mister to Win Heng Seng after breakfast to try the porkball noodles, but alas, it started to rain when we made our way there, even though it was less than 5 min walk from Sun Fong. Lots of tables outside but we couldn’t eat outside with the rain. So we headed back to the hotel, had another round of breakfast - fried eggs, fruits and hot tea since we were still in time for its breakfast buffet.

The mister was not too happy with the rain again and he decided not to visit Pudu or Chinatown for the listed stalls so we ended up at Pavilion until it was time to board the bus back to Singapore. And it rained all the way back till we reached the customs. :sweat_smile:

At least we did have some good meals among all, if not for the rain.

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That’s a first for me - must be Ho Kow’s new invention. We don’t see this anywhere else!

That was a real bummer! You could have tried taking the new subway/MRT (Pasar Seni station) that will take you to downtown Bukit Bintang in a few minutes (2 stops away!)

Ah, we did. Waited till past 5pm and the mister decided not to wait for available Grab drivers anymore. Walked all the way to Pasar Seni in the rain (couple of potholes and puddles to walk over) and took the LRT to Sentral for Sin Kee.

I must say that the old Chinatown neighbourhood is perhaps KL’s dingiest. Just as well that you didn’t waste more time on waiting for Grab - the drivers tend to avoid that part of the city if it rains for fear of being stuck in the horrible traffic jams.

The old LRT network is separate from the newer, spankier MRT network, with its larger, faster trains. Pasar Seni is one of the interchange stations where the two rail networks meet - look out for the MRT the next time you’re there. There is a line that brings you straight to Kajang for its famous satay in just a bit more than half an hour - it used to take an hour to drive there. The Stadium Kajang station (not the Kajang terminal station) actually stops right in front of the legendary Haji Samuri satay complex.

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This was divine! You’re right - the KL version delivers a flavour punch compared to its HK counterpart, just as KL’s Cantonese populace, in general, seemed more brusque and assertive compared to their more urbane counterparts in HK.

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Shall save this place for the next trip, the mister seemed quite happy with those few local places. Thanks for the share!

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