Chinatown Restaurants

Where and What to Eat in Chinatown

Chinatown is practically filled with Chinese restaurants and hawker stalls selling all sorts of delicacies from steamed buns to seafood. Almost everywhere you look, a Chinese restaurant greets your eyes, the glorious smells wafting from its kitchen beckoning you to come inside and sample what’s cooking. Chinatown is also a popular place for ‘daging salai’ or smoked meat; people have been known to come here just to stock up on them or bring them home as gifts.

But those are not the only things you can find here; there are many more popular delicacies that are unique to Chinatown and can’t be found anywhere else in the city. What’s best about these places is that they are all open until late at night, well into the wee hours of the morning. Finding a worthwhile place to eat at in Chinatown is no easy feat, as every corner, street and lane is teemed with hawker stalls and restaurants, but the ones that are listed below are the pick of the crop and come highly recommended (for Muslims, please note that most of the Chinese restaurants and stalls here sell non-Halal food, so be sure to ask first before ordering

Chinatown Pavillion

With a bright yellow and red exterior that is hard to miss as you enter Petaling Street market area from Jalan Sultan, Chinatown Pavillion beckons hungry visitors into its enclosures with an eye-catching signboard and a tempting aroma. Serving kopitiam favourites such as curry and prawn noodles, char kuay teow, wantan noodles, fried rice and beef noodles, this restaurant’s strategic location and affordable prices prove to be a great pulling factor.

Opening Hours: Daily, 08:00 – 00:00
Address: 27 Jalan Hang Lekir (adjacent to Jalan Petaling)
Cuisine: Local kopitiam (coffeeshop) favourites

Jalan Hang Lekir Beef Noodles

Like most hawker stalls around this area, this beef noodle stall has been around for years. Offering an inexpensive and fulfilling meal, this stall uses flat rice noodles instead of egg noodles, tossed with oil and light soy sauce instead of dark soy sauce, creating a simple yet tasty treat.

Opening Hours: Daily, 20:00 – 03:00
Address: Along Jalan Hang Lekir, Kuala Lumpur (next to Hong Leong Bank)
Cuisine: Beef noodles

Yook Woo Hin

Having been around for a long time, Yook Woo Hin’s longevity can be attributed to the quality of its food, which is so good that it’s still popular with the masses even after all these years. Its famous dim sum is served only in the mornings, while their live prawn noodles and deep-fried chicken remain firm favourites.

Opening Hours: Daily, 05:00 – 15:00
Address: 100 Jalan Petaling
Tel: (603) 2078 4681
Cuisine: Chinese, dim sum

Hong Kong Mee

Despite its hidden location behind a wet market, Hong Kong Mee enjoys a brisk business due to its delicious claypot noodles. Its specialty, however, is the wok chai mee, which is noodles served in a tiny black wok atop a mini burner, ensuring that the noodles stay hot.

Opening Hours: Daily, 09:00 – 15:00
Location: near Jalan Tun H. S. Lee, behind the wet market near Chinatown Pavillion
Address: 9 Lorong Drury, Jalan Bandar
Tel: (603) 2078 9296
Cuisine: Claypot noodles, wok chai noodles

Maybank Tong Sui

If you’re in the mood for some good, old homemade tong sui (porridge), then look no further than the stall situated at the corner of Jalan Panggung and Jalan Sultan. Offering green bean porridge, hak loh mai (black glutinous rice porridge), noodles and yong tau foo, this stall has been in operation for more than 20 years. These cheap treats come with a rich taste, as the stalls’ many customers would testify to.

Opening Hours: Daily, 14:00 – 22:00
Location: Corner of Jalan Panggong and Jalan Sultan (right outside Maybank, hence the name)
Cuisine: Tong sui (green bean porridge & black glutinous rice porridge)

Kim Lian Kee

One of the most popular eateries in Chinatown, Kim Lian Kee serves good, old-fashioned chee cheong fun (rice-flour noodles) - served the traditional way with just sweet and spicy sauce and sprinklings of sesame seed. What’s unique about this restaurant is that it serves a dual role – a chee cheong fun stall by day and a Hokkien fried noodle stall by night, reputedly the best in town.

Opening Hours: Daily, 07:00 – 16:00 (chee cheong fun), 17:00 – 05:00 (Hokkien fried noodles). Closed on Wednesdays.
Location: at the corner where Petaling Street meets Jalan Hang Lekir – usually opposite a Longan drink stall – you can’t miss its big red signboard saying ‘Restoran Kim Lean Kee’
Address: 49-51 Jalan Petaling
Tel: (603) 2032 4984
Cuisine: Chee cheong fun, Hokkien fried noodles

Beef Brisket Noodle Stall (Ngau Lam Meen)

Sold by a husband-and-wife team, the beef brisket noodle stall (ngau lam meen) has gained itself a steady stream of customers who are willing to wait patiently for their delicious noodles. Situated just off the corner of Petaling Street, this stall is only open for business at night.

Opening Hours: Evenings only, usually from 19:00 onwards
Location: Near the corner of Petaling Street, where it meets Jalan Sultan
Cuisine: Beef brisket noodles

Syarikat Makanan Salai Kiew Brothers

Daging salai or smoked, dried meat (sometimes referred to as ‘barbequed meat’ here) can be found in abundance around Chinatown, particularly along Jalan Sultan. The Kiew Brothers’ outlet reputedly sells the best smoked meat in town, a family-owned business which has been passed on from generation to generation, specialising in all types of smoked meat from pork to prawn

Location: On Jalan Sultan, next to Kong Wooi Fong Tea Merchants

China Town Seng Kee Restaurant

Famous for their claypot lou shu fan (rat-tail noodles) and siew yuk (BBQ pork) noodles, China Town Seng Kee Restaurant serves delicious Cantonese dishes, some of which only available at night.

Opening Hours: Daily, 07:00 – 04:00
Location: opposite Bangunan Ka Yin Fui Kon & The Shanghai Bookstore
Address: 52 Jalan Sultan
Tel: (603) 2072 5950
Cuisine: Cantonese, claypot lou shu fan, siew yuk noodles

Nam Heong Hainanese Chicken Rice

Well-known for its Hainanese Chicken Rice, sworn by some to be the best in town, Nam Heong Chicken Rice’s main dish is reportedly so good that some customers refuse to have their chicken rice anywhere else but here. Aside from chicken rice, they are also well-known for their fook chow fishball soup and roast pork.

Opening Hours: Daily, 10:00 – late
Location: opposite 5 Element Hotel and down the road from Swiss-Inn Hotel
Address: 56 Jalan Sultan
Tel: (603) 2078 5879
Cuisine: Hainanese chicken rice, roast pork, fook chow fishball soup

Assam Laksa Stall

Served with shredded cucumber and thick mackerel chunks, the assam laksa in Petaling Street is quite legendary, at once sweet, sour and spicy. The stalls selling this dish at Madras Lane have been in the business for more than 30 years, and has just the right balance of flavours to make their assam laksa’s popularity last throughout the decades.

Opening Hours: Differ from stall to stall – some are open in the morning and some only open in the afternoon, and some are closed on certain days of the week.
Location: Madras Lane, near the entrance of Petaling Street wet market.
Cuisine: Assam laksa

Portuguese Grilled Fish

A stall located in the alleyway in front of Hong Leong Bank serves a unique culinary experience: charcoal-grilled fish, Portuguese style. The fish is smeared all over with their specially-made chilli sauce and wrapped in aluminium foil, before grilled to perfection. Once the fish is cooked, the aroma that rises as you peel back the aluminium foil is quite out of this world.

Opening Hours: Daily, 17:00 – 23:00; closed on Mondays
Location: On Jalan Hang Lekir, in the alleyway in front of Hong Leong Bank
Cuisine: Spicy grilled fish wrapped in aluminium foil, Portuguese style

More Restaurants in Asia

Thailand Restaurants: Bangkok Restaurants, Pattaya Restaurants, Hua Hin Restaurants, Chiang Mai Restaurants, Phuket Restaurants, Koh Samui Restaurants, Krabi Restaurants.

Malaysia Restaurants: Kuala Lumpur Restaurants, Penang Restaurants, Langkawi Restaurants, Malacca Restaurants.

Indonesia Restaurants: Jakarta Restaurants, Bali Restaurants, Bintan Island Restaurants.

India Restaurants: Mumbai Restaurants, New Delhi Restaurants .

More Restaurants in Asia: Beijing Restaurants, Shanghai Restaurants, Hong Kong Restaurants, Singapore Restaurants, Ho Chi Minh Restaurants, Hanoi Restaurants, Siem Reap Restaurants.

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