If you’re coming to Sepang this weekend for the race, Selamat Datang and Welcome! You came for the F1, but we strongly recommend you stay for the makan.
Malaysia is a small country, but our food scene is quite serious. We have Malay, Chinese, Indian, Peranakan and many other food traditions all living together. And somehow all of us have strong opinions about where to find and what constitutes the best version. 😆
You can makan at a roadside stall, kopitiam, mamak, pasar malam, hawker centre or fancy restaurant. Sometimes the best food is served in a shop that looks like it hasn't changed since 1987. A reliable rule of thumb is if there is queue of locals, that stall is good.
Photo credit: Michelin guide
🍜 So what should you makan?
If this is your first time in Malaysia, start with these:
Nasi Lemak:
Our unofficial national obsession. Coconut rice, sambal, ikan bilis, peanuts and egg. Add ayam goreng (fried chicken) or ayam/daging rendang (chicken/beef rendang) if you're hungry.
Roti Canai:
Flaky, crispy, oily in the best possible way. Eat with dhal or curry. Perfect breakfast. Perfect supper. Actually, perfect anytime.
Try Roti Tissue and Roti Pisang too (variants of Roti Canai). By the way, the pronunciation is char-nai not car-nai.
Satay:
Grilled skewers with peanut sauce. Easy introduction to Malaysian food and dangerously easy to finish 10 sticks without realising.
Char Kway Teow:
Flat rice noodles wok-fried with that smoky wok hei. If you see someone cooking it over a roaring flame, pay attention.
Laksa:
Important: there isn't just ONE laksa. Curry laksa, asam laksa, Sarawak laksa, Laksa Lemak, Laksa Johor and others all taste quite different. Go explore.
Nasi Kandar:
Rice drowning gloriously in different curries. Add your choice of meat and sides. The more kuah, the better.
Banana Leaf Rice:
Rice served on a banana leaf with vegetables, curries and various sides. Eat with your hands if you're comfortable, it's part of the experience (just remember to wash your hands thoroughly beforehand).
Teh Tarik:
Pulled tea, sweet and frothy. Best enjoyed at a mamak while lepak.
Cendol / Ais Kacang:
Because Malaysia is hot and you will probably need something cold after walking around KL. PS: 'ais kacang' is pronounced 'ice car-chang' not 'ice car-kangaroo'
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📍 Where to makan around KL?
Some areas worth checking out:
Kampung Baru: Malay food right in the middle of KL's skyscrapers.
Petaling Street / Chinatown: Lots of Chinese-Malaysian food and old-school kopitiam vibes.
Brickfields: Malaysian Indian food, banana leaf rice, dosa, roti, curries and more.
Pudu: Plenty of old-school hawker and kopitiam food.
Chow Kit: Markets, hawker food and proper local neighbourhood vibes.
Jalan Alor / Bukit Bintang: Touristier, yes, but convenient if you're staying around the city centre and want to see KL at night.
Bangsar: Mix of Malaysian food, cafés, restaurants and nightlife.
And don't be afraid to get out of the tourist areas. Some of the best makan spots are just in ordinary neighbourhoods. Follow the crowd, look for a busy kopitiam, and see what everyone else is ordering.
Please refer to the recommendations by our MalaysianFood sifus in the comments below.
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🗣️ Learn some Malaysian before you makan
While Malaysians are conversant in English, but dropping a few words will definitely earn you some smiles.
“Makan!” : Eat / food. Also used as an invitation: Come, let's eat!
“Sedap!” : Delicious! Your most important word.
“Berapa?” : How much?
“Nak ini.” 👉 : I want this. Very useful when pointing at something delicious.
“Terima Kasih.” : Thank you. (Literally means I receive your love)
"Pedas" means spicy. And yes, sometimes it really means spicy. If you dont want it spicy, say 'Tak nak pedas'.
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🌶️ A few Malaysian food survival tips
If you have dietary restrictions, ask before ordering. Malaysia has halal, non-halal, vegetarian and many other options.
And one important thing:
Don't assume every Malaysian dish is the same everywhere.
Ask Malaysians what the "real" version is and you'll probably get 17 different answers. That's also part of the fun.
Teochew porridge w Golden Pomfret & Creamy & Sweet Chai Poh Omelette (omelette with pickled radish). My perfect meal! Teochew porridge is basically rice cooked in alot of water but unlike Cantonese congee, the grains remains unbroken. I very much prefer it 🤗
this place sells good sibu sarawak dishes, but the attitude of the boss really cannot, initially we tried to order sarawak laksa and red wine chicken noodle, boss say both sold out, then tried to order other noodles, then he said this dish need wait super long cause currently kitchen has more than 10 plates to be cooked, of course I ask how long, he said you count yourself lor, one plate avg 5 minutes. so we were quite surprise how he talk to us like that, so we end up ordering the most basic sibu kampua, also took him 45 minutes to served us… we even heard he argue with other customer due to long waiting
I think that’s the only shop in Kepong sells this, just google, also found out the owner will argue with his review on Google 👀
A spread of deep-fried fish with sauce, tom yum soup, stir-fried vegetables, noodles and rice, plus some refreshing watermelon on the side. Finished off with the legendary mango sticky rice! 🤤🥭
Tried 3 shiopans today from kenny hills rm6.35, sol levante rm3.80 and ferment rm9.
Todays experience reinforced my belief of expensive does not guarantee taste to our liking.
Verdict: kenny hills > sol levante > ferment(seriously the worst ive had so far)
Ive always wanted to try shiobee but their location is not convenient for me. When i decided to go, they closed for renovation or something. Now i herd they set up a booth at lot10 but after circling that area 5+ rounds i still cant find them. Its like im fated to not be able to have their buns.
Hii looking for strong matcha powder recommendations!!
I’ve been using ajisai 2.0 for a while and I acc think it’s not a strong powder and I find myself using like 4-5g with 120ml of milk but the matcha flavour is still not strong enough to my liking
I don’t mind any notes or bitterness from matcha I just want a good strong matcha powder that goes well with full cream milk! Oh and I don’t like my matcha sweet though.
For reference I do enjoy matcha from chagee and zus(sometimes)
I used AI to read Google reviews of Klang Valley mamaks, to see what earns the stars and what loses them. My own project. The dataset includes mamaks and nasi kandar shops.
What I found:
Happy reviews are about the food. 75% of five-star reviews praise it. 10% praise fast service.
In one and two-star reviews, service is the main gripe 45% of the time, and the food 23%.
Mee goreng is the most recommended dish, at 289 of 2,331 mamaks. Each count is mamaks, not reviews or people.
In 99 angry reviews about waiting or wrong orders that say where the time went, 87 lost it between steps: nobody took the order, it got lost, or it was ready and never brought. The cooking was the problem in 10.
12% of reviews with a wait of up to 10 min are one or two stars. With 10 to 30 min, 41%. After 10 minutes, I’d check my order went through.
How I did it: Code counted 843,441 Google reviews of 2,331 mamaks and nasi kandar shops around the Klang Valley (October 2026). AI read 700 random five-star reviews and 400 random one and two-star reviews for their themes. A second AI check agreed on 18 of 20 angry-review reads and 14 of 16 delay-stage reads. The wait chart uses everyone who answered Google’s wait question (28,367 reviews). Those are separate from the AI samples. These patterns go with the stars; they don’t prove what caused them.