Kuala Lumpur is typically our, once a year, under <1000 SGD all costs inclusive, budget, long weekend, family vacation destination. Travel from Singapore by luxurious buses, stay in a 4-star hotel in prime Bukit Bintang area for 3 nights and have great food – all in that budget for four pax. Having covered all tourist spots in our previous trips, this Chinese New Year weekend, our target at KL was to sleep without worry and only wake to taste seven cuisines in 70 hours! Malaysia being a Muslim country is a food haven. One global thumb rule is that, when it comes to gastronomical delight, Muslim countries are a league above the rest. Even the local pizzas or burgers will taste better there. These are the seven cuisines we hogged on during our four days stay!

Pakistani Cuisine

Bar B Q Tonight is one of our favourite restaurants in Singapore, and over the years, also in Kuala Lumpur. Pakistani cuisine was our first stop with Chicken Behari Kebab, Kadhai Paneer, Kandahari Naan and Gajar ka Halwa! It’s a very budget-priced restaurant with amazing food. Must visit.

Indian Cuisine

I searched for the cheapest best Indian Cuisine at KL and Tripadvisor threw out a gem in Tg’s Nasi Kandar. Extremely high rated amongst westerners and you could see why – the place had 60% seats filled by western backpackers. The manager Connie appreciated our food exploring agenda and recommended us to have the Lamb Biriyani meal, Kadhai Chicken and Lamb Curry with Naan. The dishes were delicious and at par with the reviews. Do note its a very cheap place so the ambience is budgety! Great place for budget travellers looking for hidden gems.

Syrian Cuisine

Syrian Cuisine was our first-time experience and although Suria Restoran is highly rated, the ambience and costs are budgety. So cheap, that we went on an ordering spree! The four patties times were good, their kebab combo platter was better, the Lamb Mandy was best but the outstanding dish that took the breath away was the Syrian beans dish. This is a dish we were first introduced at Istanbul by our tour guide friend and have loved that dish always. We re-ordered that dish here – it was so good.

Chinese Cuisine

Exploring our #FoodTrip on Chinese New Year vacation meant it would be criminal not to include a Chinese Meal in our itinerary. Restoran Hakka was suggested by our local friend Ashish Bakre and gave us one of the best meal experiences. The Prawns in onions, anchovies and petai was good; the crispy Brinjal fried was better but the outstanding dish was Chinese Grass Carp – a steamed 500g fish in garlic, ginger and spring onions preparation. Fish was fresh and the overall open-air meal experience with Chinese New Year crackers bursting around was memorable. It’s strange that over the last ten years we have visited KL multiple times, stayed around that area and crossed Hakka Restoran many times over; yet never ventured in.

Lebanese Cuisine

Al Habibi to Lebanese food. Shawarmas, Kebabs, Falafels and Kibbehs! We packed all of them and ate in the comforts of our hotel. Halab Restaurant is the outstanding fine dining Lebanese food at KL, but why spend money there when you know Halab has its own take away outlet just 500metres away with same quality food at budget prices.

Sri Lankan Cuisine

Sri Lankan cuisine was first time experience for my family, once again recommended by my same local friend as above. A Li Ya Island Restaurant and Bar is about 15mins drive away from Bukit Bintang and bit on expensive side. The restaurant gives dim light dining experience so that you can concentrate only on the food. The LadyFinger Oli was good, the Fish Pothi (tastes like Kerala Fish Moily) was better, the cutlets platter was best but the outstanding dish was the leaf wrapped Lump Rice. The Lump Rice had fish cutlet and mutton curry and chicken cubes (all in different preparation) mixed with fragrant rice preparation. It’s a special dish made only on sundays – so we were lucky. This dish was enough to ensure I look for Sri Lankan food again.

Malaysian Cuisine

Malaysian cuisine was the last meal of our trip and it was our mandatory trip to Jalan Alor. Since I have blogged on that separately before, won’t detail it all over again. The place was crowded to the brim, 95% tables were full at Meng Kee Restoran (where we eat normally) and dishes left delicious taste and memory. We will come back again to KL and likely will r the peat majority of the places listed in this blog.

Happy Ending

The trip deserved a happy ending so at Jalan Alor I had a coconut ice cream (mixed with a scoop of mango ice-cream) from the stall at the start of the street. The stall is always crowded – so you can’t ever miss it. And the ice-cream I had was as good as it looks.

Hope you enjoyed the blog. Bon Appetit!