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Lai Foong kopitiam
Photo: Mahen BalaLai Foong Restaurant

The best places to eat in Petaling Street and Old KL

Our list of the best restaurants and cafés in these historical areas
Written by Time Out KL editors
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Looking for places to eat in Petaling Street and Old KL? From a steaming bowl of beef noodles to coffee and cake in trendy cafés, here's our list of the best places to eat and drink in these historical areas in the city. 

Kopitiams and hawkers

Restoran Kim Lian Kee
Restaurants

Restoran Kim Lian Kee

  • price 1 of 4
For more than 80 years, KLites have sought comfort in the city’s best hokkien mee at Kim Lian Kee – how can any noodle stall rival the birthplace...
Lai Foong
Restaurants

Lai Foong

  • price 1 of 4
With a large sign in English that reads ‘Lai Foong Restaurant’ facing the road, you’ll find it hard to miss this decades-old coffee shop....
Lian Bee
Restaurants

Lian Bee

  • price 1 of 4
Hokkien mee is hawker staple where everyone has a firm and personal idea of how it should taste. Do you like it heavily coated in dark soy sauce, springy and...
Onn Loke Kopitiam
Restaurants

Onn Loke Kopitiam

  • price 1 of 4
Hotel Loke Ann and its dearly missed kopitiam has been gone for about three years but Uncle Lee who ran the kopitiam is back in business. The kopitiam is now...
Soong Kee Beef Noodles
Restaurants

Soong Kee Beef Noodles

  • price 1 of 4
Soong Kee is easy to find – spot the tinted glass door and you’ll find crowds crammed together behind the entrance. The slurping sound is unmistakable; Soong...

Cafés and bakeries

Jao Tim
Restaurants

Jao Tim

Like many of the eateries along Petaling Street, Jao Tim – which means ‘hotel’ in Cantonese – is housed on the top floor of a pre-war colonial shop lot; in...
Bunn Choon Petaling Street
Restaurants

Bunn Choon Petaling Street

Imbi Market's Bunn Choon now has a second outlet on Petaling Street, which means you can get the fresh-out-of-the-oven egg tarts with the flaky pastry and...
Coffee Amo
Restaurants

Coffee Amo

Walk into the Petaling Street Art House (first floor) on Jalan Sultan and you’ll find a café next to it with a name more appropriate for an Italian...
Lucy in the Sky
Restaurants

Lucy in the Sky

  • price 2 of 4
Setting up a café in Old KL can only mean one thing: This is a comfy space for vagabond freelancers, students and backpackers. Lucy in the Sky is a rustic,...
Merchant's Lane
Restaurants

Merchant's Lane

  • price 2 of 4
Merchant’s Lane is a cool addition to the Chinatown café scene. This calm little hideaway is located above an old shop next to the Advance...
Chocha Foodstore
Restaurants

Chocha Foodstore

While it’s easy to mourn the gentrification of Petaling Street and the proliferation of ‘hipster’ cafés in Old KL, we’re glad to see Chocha Foodstore setting...
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Banana leaf and Indian restaurants

Bakti Woodlands
Restaurants

Bakti Woodlands

  • price 1 of 4
Come lunchtime, it can be tough finding a seat at this popular Indian vegetarian joint. In the heart of bustling Masjid Jamek, there’s always a lively...
Betel Leaf
Restaurants

Betel Leaf

May 2013 There’s a reason the area around Lebuh Ampang seems like a foreign country to me, and that’s because I have never walked through it. But a recent...
Restoran Bunga Raya Indah
Restaurants

Restoran Bunga Raya Indah

  • price 1 of 4
One of the best banana leaf experiences in the city hides within a dim first-floor lot along Lebuh Ampang. In 1962, the operation moved from Malacca to KL and...
KL City Restaurant
Restaurants

KL City Restaurant

  • price 1 of 4
Forgive the generic name of this 20-year-old Lebuh Ampang gem but we promise you the food here is anything but. The entrance to KL City is not a conspicuous...
Prasad Chetty Nadu Mess
Restaurants

Prasad Chetty Nadu Mess

The stairway leading up to what could be KL’s best banana leaf restaurant is an ominous one. There are signs of abandoned life all around; large pieces of...
Restoran Santa
Restaurants

Restoran Santa

  • price 1 of 4
Kulwant Singh named his business after his father, Santa, and his signature chapattis have grown into the stuff of legends over the last 14 years. Tables spill...

Bars in Chinatown

PS150
Bars and pubs

PS150

Located in Chinatown, what was previously a brothel, house and warehouse (in no particular order), is now PS150, a cocktail bar headed by famed bartender Angel...
The Attic Bar
Bars and pubs

The Attic Bar

While The Attic Bar doesn’t claim to be a speakeasy, it certainly has the attributes of one. It’s located discreetly on the rooftop of the Travel Hub...
The Berlin KL
Bars and pubs

The Berlin KL

  • price 2 of 4
To be a hidden bar (note: not a speakeasy), you need to be a well-kept secret with no ostentatious indication of your whereabouts. Roll in The Berlin KL, the...
Botak Liquor
Bars and pubs

Botak Liquor

The bar above Chocha Foodstore has rebranded itself as Botak Liquor. It was previously Ray, whose selling point was being the first bar in KL to offer...
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