Hawker restaurants in Malaysia
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Kampung Baru Hawker Stalls
Saturday evening is the best time to eat in Kampung Baru, when dozens of hawker stalls set up around Jalan Raja Muda Musa for the weekly pasar malam, which rolls through till early Sunday morning. You can find all sorts of Malay specialities here, from ikan panggang (grilled skate) to rojak (spicy fruit-and-vegetable salad), and the night market positively crackles with energy.
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Jln Alor
KL's biggest collection of roadside restaurants sprawls along Jln Alor, just north of Jln Bukit Bintang. From around 17:00 till late every evening, the street transforms into a continuous open-air restaurant, with hundreds of plastic tables and chairs and rival caterers shouting out to passers-by to drum up business.
Most places serve alcohol and you can sample pretty much every Malay Chinese dish imaginable, from grilled fish and satay to kai-lan (Chinese greens) in oyster sauce and fried noodles with frogs' legs. The best way to experience the food street is to stroll along looking at the signs and the dishes on the tables to see what takes your fancy.
Stalls to look out…
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Hawker Stalls in Chinatown
Chinatown has some of the best street food in KL. From late afternoon the pavements along Jln Sultan and Jln Tun HS Lee fill with plastic chairs and tables, and mobile kitchens are set up in the street, serving an astonishing array of Malay and Chinese dishes. Many of the food stalls stay open till midnight or later and you can get a filling meal of rice and spicy stir-fried beef with a cold beer for as little as around RM20.
Everything is prepared fresh so the food is almost always safe to eat, but stick to stalls with lots of customers.
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Food Stalls at Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman
The best time to visit Little India is during the Saturday pasar malam on Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the alley between Jln TAR and Jln Masjid India. From mid-afternoon, this narrow lane becomes crammed with food stalls serving excellent Malaysian Indian food, as well as favourite dishes of the Chinese and Indian communities.
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Jln Raja Muda Musa
Jln Raja Muda Musa is lined with hawker-style restaurants serving excellent Malay food to hordes of hungry city workers.
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Pusat Makanan Peng Hwa
KL has dozens of intriguing, off-the-beaten-track places to eat - our favourite is the permanent hawker court at Pudu Market, known locally as Pusat Makanan Peng Hwa. This congregation of cooks sprawls beneath a gigantic tin roof behind the wet and dry market. The pavilion is as big as an aircraft hangar - fans on the ceiling whir ineffectually, failing almost completely to drive away the tropical fug. Nevertheless, as the sun sets, this is the place to be.
The hundred or so plastic tables and chairs fill suddenly with locals ordering big bottles of ice-cold Tiger beer and bags of Chinese marinated sunflower seeds. Waitresses in matching T-shirts fight their way through…
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Jea Corner
This tiny stall is literally the only place in Belaga still serving food after 6pm. It serves up a small variety of decent Malaysian rice-based dishes. The friendly proprietor, Albert, will probably find you before you find him. He has a wealth of information about the surrounding area and its people and culture – just don’t get him started on politics!
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Newton Food Court
Serving Chinese food in the main hall and Halal at the back, Newton Food Court, just west of the Mahkota Parade shopping complex, is Melaka’s newest and most attractive hawker centre. It’s under an immense thatched roof and is bordered by palms.
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Blue Boy Vegetarian Food Centre
It’s hard to believe that everything prepared at this spotless place at the base of a backstreet apartment block is vegetarian, but it’s true. The char kway teow (broad noodles fried in chilli and black-bean sauce) is highly recommended.
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Hartamas Square
A huge covered hawker court with sports on big TV screens, cold beers and a mass of hawker stalls serving excellent grilled fish, noodles, fried rice, curries and other Malay Chinese treats. The most fun place to dine in Desa Sri Hartamas.
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Riverside Hawker Centre
Perfectly located right on the river, the small stalls comprising the riverside hawker centre are the best spots in town to have lunch or sip a beer and watch life drift, cruise or amble by.
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Ming Café
Take your pick of Malay, Chinese, Indian and Western food at this ever-busy corner eating emporium. There’s a good drink counter here serving fresh juices and signature tapioca teas.
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Cheong Hua
Brickfields has a number of informal hawker-style restaurants serving tasty Malay Chinese dishes for around RM2 to around RM15. Try Cheong Hua for fish porridge and noodle soups.
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Hawker Centre
The best hawker centre in town, with both Malay and Chinese sections, is in the west end of town near Kuching Mosque (locals sometimes refer to this as the ‘open-air market’).
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Masjid India Hawker Court
A bustling covered hawker court serving all the usual Malay, Indian and Chinese favourites. Good to visit if you can't make it to the Saturday pasar malam.
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Medan Hang Tuah
A Pudu-based re-creation of an old city street, complete with mock shophouses. The food stalls here serve excellent and cheap Malay, Chinese and Indian food.
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Puduraya Hawker Court
The cheapest place for hawker food is this bustling food centre inside the Puduraya Bus Stand. A bowl of spicy tom yam soup will set you back just RM5.
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Malay Hawker Centre - Jln TMR
In the eastern region of this area, in a covered area, the centre serves everything from fresh juices to fish-head curry and Nonya food.
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Riverside Food & Drink Hawker Stalls
What could be better than an evening constitutional along the river followed by a fresh fruit juice and a few sticks of satay?
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West Lake Restoran
Simple eatery known for its yong dou fu (bean curd stuffed with minced fish) and mee (noodle) dishes.
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Evening Food Stalls
For Chinese and Malay snacks, try the evening food stalls that set up in the late afternoon along Jln Market.
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Hang Tuah Mall
Hang Tuah Mall, a pedestrian walk, swarms with open-air food stalls every evening.
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Hawker Centre
Chinese kopitiams line the town square and the hawker centre cranks up in the evening.
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Malay Hawker Centre - Jln Sayed Abdul Aziz
Serves everything from fresh juices to fish-head curry and Nonya food.
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Market
Near the Shell station, the market is the best place to buy fruit etc.
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