Malaysian restaurants in Asia
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A
Restoran Sempelang
Eating outside is a Kota Kinabalu tradition and Restoran Sempelang is a great place to do it - right smack in the middle of the colourful Kompleks Sinsuran. There's a lot to like about this bustling Malay eatery: giant fresh fruit juices, English menu, good seafood barbeque (from 18:00 nightly), a canopy to keep off the rain, and friendly staff. As with other restaurants in the complex, your meal will be accompanied by the ubiquitous pro-wrestling videos.
reviewed
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B
Kedai Kopi Lai Foong
Chinatown has a number of informal hawker-style restaurants, with various food stations serving classic Malay Chinese dishes. Almost all offer fried rice, fish curry, rice porridge, mee (thin noodles, fried or in soup) and tofu dishes - a meal should cost less than RM20. Kedai Kopi Lai Foong is recommended.
reviewed
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C
Bonda
Self-styled 'retro' restaurant with a vaguely '60s/'70s décor scheme, including orange plastic chairs and Lonely Planet covers on the walls. Chicken and chips-style dishes are served, alongside the usual rice and noodle options, and there are piles of English magazines to flick through.
reviewed
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D
Restoran Yusoof dan Zakhir
A huge banana-yellow and palm tree-green canteen opposite Central Market serving huge portions of delicious mamak food. Fresh coconuts are chopped open at the entrance to provide a refreshing natural accompaniment to the spicy dishes served inside.
reviewed
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E
Pusat Makanan Majestic
This crowded Chinese food court has a noisy, boisterous atmosphere, and is a good place for a couple of beers.
reviewed
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F
Ipoh Parade Shopping Centre
You'll find some smarter restaurants and a food court in the Ipoh Parade Shopping Centre .
reviewed
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G
Little Penang Kafé
Set meals (RM13.50) let you sample several of the Nonya dishes that Penang is famous for, including lobak (deep-fried tofu-rolled chicken strips) and the spicy Siamese lemak laksa (using coconut milk), only available Friday to Sunday.
reviewed
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H
Teachew Cuisine
We walked past this place for about a week before we realised there was a restaurant here, and yet it's Melaka's claim to haute cuisine. Duck past mum, who washes the dishes on the sidewalk and spends all day chopping veggies and dismembering chickens. Smile at uncle who runs the rickety soup stall that efficiently covers the restaurant's doorway, and then you're in for a surprise.
The secret interior room is air-conditioned, the tables are set with China's finest and the walls are decorated with an impressive collection of hard liquor bottles and odd landscape paintings. There's no menu but everyone knows that you're supposed to order the soft-shell crab or the prawns. T…
reviewed
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I
Night Market
The best and cheapest Malay food in town is in the night market: look for the yellow arch reading ‘Medan Selera MPKB’. The stalls are set up in the evening around 5pm, when the sizzle of oil and heat hits the air and magic ensues. They’re used to foreigners here and stall owners often tone down the heat without you having to ask; the resulting food is sometimes overtly sweet. Say ‘Suka pedas’ (‘I like it hot’) to eat as the locals do. Specialities include ayam percik (marinated chicken on bamboo skewers) and nasi kerabu (rice with coconut, fish and spices), blue rice, squid-on-a-stick and murtabak (pan-fried flat bread filled with everything from minced meat…
reviewed
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J
East Xiamen Delicacies
With tables made from antique sewing-machine stands, ageing tile floors, overhead fans and scrolls for menus, this quaint little café is one of Penang's most atmospheric. The food is equally interesting with tasty homestyle recipes such as teochew lor ark (stewed duck) eaten with rice or congee, mangkuang (vegetarian dumplings stuffed with shredded yam-bean and chives, also known as kuchai kueh) and kuang cheang Teluk Anson (yam blended with groundnuts, wrapped in soya bean skin and deep fried).
reviewed
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K
Tepak Sireh
One of the most atmospheric Malay restaurants in the city, next to the former Sultan’s palace (now Malay Heritage Centre) and inside the former ‘Prime Minister’s’ house. The buffet spread is a virtual encyclopaedia of Malay specialities, though slopped into bain-marie trays it’s not so appealingly presented. Tepak Sireh often caters for functions, so call ahead, or you might get swallowed up by a wedding reception.
reviewed
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L
Malaychan
If you’ve never tried Malaysian cooking, it’s like a mix of Thai and Indonesian with a bit of Indian thrown in, redolent with chilli, lemon grass, garlic and dried prawns. At this cosy, corner, halal eatery at the end of Ikebukuro’s Gourmet Street, start off with spring rolls, chicken satay and murtabak (ground chicken crêpes) then move on to savoury curries and nasi goreng (fried rice).
reviewed
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M
History Restaurant
With dishes from India, Italy, Thailand and Sri Lanka, this place could almost be called ‘Geography’. The food’s OK and there’s a good selection of booze, but the real reason to go are the interesting B&W pics of old Kandy. And no, you’re not required to take notes during the Kandyan history PowerPoint presentation that runs silently in the background. Monkeys look on from outside and already know all the answers.
reviewed
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Kenny's Nonya Delights
It's a hole-in-the-wall café, but this friendly little place, right near the junction of Jln Hang Kasturi, serves up some of the best Nonya food bargains in Melaka. This is an excellent place to have a quick snack of Nonya style laksa, popiah or a nasi lemak breakfast. The restaurant bottles its sauces, which make delicious (albeit heavy) souvenirs.
reviewed
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Yeoh’s Bah Kut Teh
Bah Kut Teh is a soup dish made by boiling Chinese medicinal herbs and spices with pork ribs. Common in Singapore and Malaysia, it’s eaten with chilli peppers over rice. In Hong Kong, Yeoh’s version, served in a claypot with mushrooms and tofu puffs, is the closest you can get to the real thing (bowl small/medium/large $35/70/140).
reviewed
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Yeoh's Bah Kut Teh
Bah Kut Teh is a soup dish made by boiling Chinese medicinal herbs and spices with pork ribs. Common in Singapore and Malaysia, it’s eaten with chilli peppers over rice. In Hong Kong, Yeoh’s version, served in a claypot with mushrooms and tofu puffs, is the closest you can get to the real thing (bowl small/medium/large $35/70/140).
reviewed
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Nancy’s Kitchen
In a town already known for its graciousness, this home-cooking Nonya restaurant is our favourite for friendly service. The server is as chatty as they come, full of suggestions of what to order and will have you making conversation with the other handful of customers in no time. Try the house speciality: chicken candlenut (RM10).
reviewed
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O
Sabah
Sabah in the heart of Wan Chai serves Malaysian food tempered for the Hong Kong palate, though that doesn’t seem to keep the peeps from the Consulate General of Malaysia from coming. The pièce de résistance is the fluffy roti canai ($20), which is tossed, twirled and kneaded before your eyes.
reviewed
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P
Capitol Satay
Famous for its satay celup (a Melaka adaptation of satay steamboat), this place is usually packed to the gills and is one of the cheapest outfits in town. Stainless-steel tables have bubbling vats of soup in the middle where you dunk skewers of okra stuffed with tofu, sausages, chicken, prawns and bok choy.
reviewed
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Q
Restoran Zhing Kong
Chinatown has a number of informal hawker-style restaurants, with various food stations serving classic Malay Chinese dishes. Almost all offer fried rice, fish curry, rice porridge, mee (thin noodles, fried or in soup) and tofu dishes - a meal should cost less than RM20. Restoran Zhing Kong is recommended.
reviewed
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R
Bon Ton
Housed in an atmospheric Malay-style wooden pavilion just east of the Bukit Bintang tourist area, Bon Ton serves excellent Euro-Asian fusion food, plus a series of set menus showcasing cooking from around Malaysia. Sample such unusual dishes as tom yam carbonara, and black pepper and mango chicken.
reviewed
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S
Hoe Kee Chicken Rice
Serving the local speciality of chicken rice ball and Assam fish head (fish heads in a spicy tamarind gravy), you’ll need to arrive outside of peak time or expect to wait for a table. The restaurant’s setting, with wood floors and ceiling fans, seems to further bring out the exotic flavours.
reviewed
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T
Living Room
Living Room completes Kuching’s trendy triumvirate of fusion eats. The menu mixes the top noshes at Junk and Bla Bla Bla and guests dine in breezy open-air salas. You will no doubt find yourself wondering where you are: is this Borneo, Bali or Barcelona?
reviewed
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U
Restoran de Lisbon
On Friday and Saturday evenings, head to Restoran de Lisbon, where you can sample Malay-Portuguese dishes at outdoor tables. Try the delicious local specialities of chilli crabs (RM20) or the distinctly Eurasian devil curry (RM10).
reviewed
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V
Sing Seng Nam
KL is fast filling up with new ‘old-style’ kopitiam, but this is the genuine object, busy with lawyers from the nearby courts enjoying breakfast of kaya toast and runny boiled egg or a kopi peng (iced coffee with milk).
reviewed
