OK, so Kuala Lumpur is not exactly a place you go for adventure, but there is plenty to do here, with the Jalan Alor Food Street being a must when you are in KL.
And this is because whenever you talk about the best street food in not just South-East Asia, but also Asia in general then Malaysian street food is always there is a contender. Is is the best in the continent? No, but it does rank extremely highly.
Street food markets in KL
In fact street food markets and indeed street food vendors are all over Kuala Lumpur, with famous markets such as those of Chinatown always offering street food and cool hidden restaurants.
And while Jalan Alor Food Street is probably not the best one in the capital, nor the most authentic, it is lights years ahead the most well known in the city.
Getting to Jalan Alor Food Street
Coming from Chinatown or the Hilton will take about 20 minutes, while coming from the Petronas Twin Towers will run about the same. In fact visiting the later at night is probably the best time to come, so combining it with Jalan Alor Food Street
Is not just what I did, but a fabulous combo.
Amusingly the street directly before this is “massage street Kuala Lumpur”. This sees women from throughout the region (mostly China), as well as effeminate men offering massages to men. Now I am no expert on this, but I feel this ladies may just be prostates. And no I did not get a quote….
Jalan Alor Food Street address;
亚罗街, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The food at Jalan Alor Food Street
This is a big, but not huge street that is extremely popular. Therefore it is generally packed like a tin of sardines as people by and large walk north to south.
I thus made the conscious decision to stop and eat small things as I went along. This started with a mixture of shrimp and squid at the top of the road. This was some of the best squid I have had of late, and was fairly comparable to what I had recently had in Haikou. A form and string start to things.
Most of what was on offer down the street was seafood and meat based BBQ options, not to mention satay, the national BBQ dish of Malaysia. My second go was to some garlic and pork sausages with sweet chili sauce. These were not only pretty good, but show another important part of the Jalan Alor Food Street and that is that it is for the most part not Muslim – this means pork freedom…..
This was followed by something I have not seen since my Xian street food days. Remember toffee apples? Well in Asia they do this with a big stick of rodent fruits which included strawberries, oranges and even guava fully caramelized. This is and was a truly unique and this quenching snack. I also had marshmallows coated by a chocolate fountain, something not all that cultural, but pretty good.
Next stop was some high grade, but not all that cheap lamb. This was excellently cooked and presented. This was to such a degree that “influencers” were even filing here!
Towards the end of the market the muslim Malays were back on the scene offering classic Chinese Muslim style BBQ meat on a stick, This was decent and reminded me of the Dandong street food.
Drinks wise there were beers about, as well as manor of smoothies, sift drinks and the weird phenomenon that is bubble tea in Asia.
Restaurants at Jalan Alor Food Street
I’m not sure what it surprised me, bit being called Jalan Alor Food Street implied not just street food, but a street with food. This was evidenced by the fact that half of the street was largely taken up by Chinese restaurants catering to the visitors. For the most part they seemed to be selling classic Chinese seafood BBQ, with bad beers and bai jiu optional.
Alas I did not have the time nor inclination to stop at one of them, but they sure did look the part.
Is Jalan Alor Food Street too touristy?
As we pulled in with our Grab the driver happily decided to tell us that “no locals would go here, it is all tourists” and he was not wrong, but that is not to say it was a bad thing. Jalan Alor Food Street has been set up for visitors to try clean well done street food.
Yet while it is indeed very good and well worth visiting for a night you still need to further explore the wonder that is street food in Kuala Lumpur.