Chinatown Restaurants

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

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

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

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

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

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.
Cuisine: Chee cheong fun, Hokkien fried noodles
Location: 49-51 Jalan Petaling (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’)
Tel: (603) 2032 4984
Opening Hours: Daily, 07:00 – 16:00 (chee cheong fun), 17:00 – 05:00 (Hokkien fried noodles). Closed on Wednesdays.

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

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

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

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.
Cuisine: Assam laksa
Location: Madras Lane, near the entrance of Petaling Street wet market.
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.

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