One Half Roastery

Keith Koay, a three-time Malaysian Barista Champion, is well-practiced at opening cafés in Kuala Lumpur. He’s responsible for a few of the city’s cult-favourite coffee spots of the last decade, including Dou Dou Bake and Transparent Coffee. One Half is his first, and longest-running; in 2016, it popped up at BRATS, then at Random Food Store, finally settling in the curated lifestyle store Ilaika in Taman Paramount, where One Half occupies, well, one-half of the space.

Only a ten-minute drive away, One Half Roastery is a new chapter in the One Half story. It’s a specialty coffee hub and roastery focused on accentuating origin character. Keith and his team source coffees that express terroir, showcase variety, and are purposefully processed; the resulting espressos and filters are a celebration of their favorite aspects of specialty coffee: aromatic, clean, sweet, and acidity-forward. Here, a cup of Longboard’s Misty Mountain hand-brew can set you back RM150; pick your jaw up from the floor, that’s the price of award-winning organic luxury coffee. If you’re not quite up for that experience, “default” coffees start from RM10.