Kuala Lumpur Tips #3 - Where for food?

KL is full of restaurants and cafes everywhere, especially at Bukit Bintang where there's one posh restaurant or cafe at every street corner. And most of them are not really much cheaper than what you'll pay for in Singapore.

So where did we go and what did we eat...?

Madam Kwan’s Cafe
There's one at KLCC and another at Midvalley Megamall. We tried the one at megamall for lunch (luckily we did because when we went to KLCC in the evening, that branch had a long queue during dinner time...).

The food is sorta expensive, about RM20 for a plate of nasi lemak. But from a tourist's point of view (aka don't know where to find really good and cheap local food), it's still quite worth it. They're famous for their nasi lemak and nasi bojari, and both are really good. The fried chicken for the bojari was really worth the price. The skin was cripsy, not too dry and over-fried, and the meat was tender. KFC cannot compare man! And the coloured rice, which I don't know what gave its colours, was fragrant and tasty. IMHO, even better than the coconut rice for the nasi lemak!

The Chinese restaurant at Sungei Wang Plaza
There's this chinese restaurant at the first floor of Sungei Wang Plaza, at the main door, that is always super duper crowded. We kinda hestitated to join the long queue but when realised that the queue cleared quite quickly, we stayed. And I was glad that we stayed!

The food is mainly Cantonese style, with roasted duck, dim sums and wanton noodles etc. I ordered roasted duck noodles and found it rather tasty. The duck was not too oily or too dry, and the egg noodles was very Q. Their standard may be one level below Crystal Jade, but hey, they're cheap!

Planet Hollywood
Typical PH food, nothing special to intro. But they serve cheap and good set lunches on weekdays. Good for tourists like us who tour and not work during these times.

Dunkin' Donuts
There's one branch at the basement of KLCC. I'm not sure if it's just me, but for someone who's deprived of good donuts, I really like them for breakfasts or even lunches man! After all, once crossed the causeway, I won't get to see them again!

Restaurants at Starhill Gallery
There're numerous restaurants at the Starhill Gallery basement, serving from Chinese to local to seafood, Western, Thai etc. The whole interior is decorated to look like an international village but... don't even try!

With the amount of ang mohs going in and out of these restaurants, I will bet that the food and service must be superb. But one look at the prices on the menus at the doors, and you'll make a U-turn like we did...

Kuala Lumpur Tips #2 - Don't get ripped at KLCC

We had a long shopping day at the KLCC shops and we were really tired. Since the restaurants were packed, and our hotel at Bukit Bintang was really not that far from the KLCC, we decided that it would be a good idea to have take-aways.

We walked out of the KLCC and saw a queue of cabs. Hmm... since Bukit Bintang is not that far, the fare should be okay right? WRONG! We approached the first cab driver and he said "straight RM20, no meter". What?!? RM20 for a mere 15mins journey? Siao! I asked the second cab, then the third, then... I gave up. All quoted the same RM20! How united right! Malaysia Boleh man!

Pissed, I suggested the LRT. I will rather take the LRT and make changes at busy and crowded stations than to pay RM20! So we went to the LRT station and boy it was really crowded... Then guess what? ALL... yes, ALL ticketing machines were out of order! So EVERYONE queued up to buy tickets manually from a counter of TWO cashiers! And judging from the speed of the tickets purchase, our dinner could easily become breakfast. Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I was about to burst when my friend tried to cool me down, "Hey, take a deep breath! Cool down! Let's forget all these and go back to the road okay? I'll pay for the cab fare, okay?"

Angry that I had no choice, I went back to the road with my friend. Just when I was about to give in to those crappy greedy cab drivers, I saw a bus approaching the nearby bus stop... wait! I thought I saw the route indicator on the bus showing "Bukit Bintang"! Excited, we ran and followed the bus till it stopped. We boarded it and asked the bus driver if that bus really goes to Bukit Bintang. Ha! And sure yes it does! It made a small detour before arriving at our hotel, but still, we reached there fast enough. And the fare... less than RM2 per person! :D