Guide to eating, drinking in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian capital offers thriving street food scene
For years, Kuala Lumpur’s rundown Chinatown was defined by its prime attraction, Jalan Petaling, the seething main street piled high with every counterfeit imaginable, from fake Lacoste T-shirts and Hermes handbags to Rolex watches and Ray Ban shades.
Heritage Chinese shophouses were left to crumble or had been converted into scruffy backpacker hostels, gambling dens and secretive mahjong clubs.
Not today, though. In just a few years, the neighborhood has been transformed into arguably the most innovative part of the Malaysian capital.
Walking through Chinatown’s maze of narrow streets, the shophouses may still look half abandoned — paint peeling, facades overrun by tropical vegetation — but it is a different story inside, where strippedback industrial interiors have been turned into cutting-edge spaces for coffee bars, speakeasies, restaurants and boutique hotels.
“We now have a really supportive community of sustainable entrepreneurs showcasing local arts and culture, promoting local musicians, using local produce in our restaurants, everyone working closely together to make this neighborhood the new face of Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur,” says architect and Chinatown conservationist Shin Chang.
As the sun sets and hawker kitchens start setting up on the pavement, a stroll through the neighborhood reveals a thriving street food scene, a cornucopia of Malaysian-Chinese specialties.
Along Jalan Sultan, one stall squeezed next to the other, it is difficult to choose between succulent Hainanese chicken rice, Hong Kee’s sticky claypot rice and Lai Fong’s Michelin-recommended lala noodles: plump clams simmered in a savory broth of wine and ginger.
Then there are the seductive aromas of bak kut teh bubbling up from a huge cauldron filled with fragrant herbal soup containing tender pork ribs and intestines, and the classic Kuala Lumpur favorite, Hokkien black mee: flat egg noodles charcoal-fried wok hei in a thick black sauce with prawns, pig’s liver and crunchy pork fat. One stall, Kim Lan Kee, has been serving it for more than a century.
Malaysians’ passion for food
Chinatown has been famous for its street food since its earliest days, but now there is a whole new world of daring fine dining for foodies who explore its narrow backstreets to discover.
Lee Zhan Tee opened Small Shifting Space at the age of 23, at the beginning of the Covid shutdown.
“I just had a passion for food and decided to rent this dilapidated 19th-century house and began by serving wine and coffee,” he says.
“Chinatown has really taken off since we opened but I never expected how this space could evolve from a run-down hole-inthe-wall that used to be a coffin makers downstairs and a brothel upstairs.”
SSS, as it is known, is packed every night, with Lee keeping his customers on their toes by changing chef and menu every few months.
Serving creative comfort food, he uses quality ingredients for fun dishes such as rock oysters with a lemon and sherry vinaigrette, a succulent duck corndog and sourdough toast with foie gras and fig jam.
The latest hot venue to open is Pickle Dining, hidden down a murky side alley. Steep steps lead up into a minimalist dining room with a smoky open fire over which the dishes are flame-cooked in front of diners.
“We are all about preserving our ingredients for as long as possible, a real Malaysian tradition, be it by pickling, smoking, salting, lactic fermentation or dry aging, which are perfect for vegetarian dishes like beetroot labneh, charred pickled carrots or heirloom leeks with a horseradish remoulade,” explains chef Danial Thorlby.
A tour of Chinatown’s famous speakeasies certainly illustrates how once-empty, shabby houses that date back to the early days of Kuala Lumpur have been reborn as cutting-edge designer bars.
PS150 is hidden behind the entrance of what was once a retro toyshop, with a long corridor leading to an overgrown jungle courtyard and then the dimly lit lounge bar. Barmen shake cocktails such as Jungle Bird, a lethal mix of pandan-infused rum, campari, pineapple, lime and Gula Melaka syrup.
Concubine, another decadent, graffiti-covered bar, lies up a stairway past
Instagrammers snapping away at graphic murals evoking daily Chinatown life painted across the narrow-walled Kwai Chai Hong lane.
There are a dozen other watering holes nearby but many bar-hoppers finish the night at the recently opened Penrose KL, where mixologist Jon Lee features just 15 experimental cocktails on the bar list. Be prepared for a queue outside, though, as the capacity is limited to 25 customers.