Food Hunting In Kuching, Sarawak

Food hunting in Kuching, Sarawak. The cat city! meowww!

Prior to my first visit to Kuching, I PRESUMED that Kuching must be a boring place with nothing much to food hunt. Somebody, please whack me for this ignorance!

After making a trip there, OH BOY! How wrong was I?? This place is food heaven!! Food everywhere. Kuching, a city so rich in its culture and history. AND FOOD!
I had very limited time in the city itself, so I tried hunting as much as I could.

Oriental Park Kolo Mee
What's Sarawak without its Kolo Mee? There are many famous stalls/restaurants selling Kolo Mee. We chose to have ours at Oriental Park. Soft homemade noodles served with pork lard and sliced pork. It was too good! It's served with chili soaked in vinegar. It added a perfect twist to the mee.  Didn’t have the time to try at other places, but this one left me wanting more.

Hiap Yiak Butter Coffee
A little humble old school coffee shop on Kai Joo Lane. It's called the Hiap Yiak coffee shop. It doesn’t have any fancy board or whatsoever. You can walk to this place after having from oriental park kolo mee. Managed by an old Chinese couple, this place is famous for its butter coffee and simple roti kahwin with half boiled eggs.  At only RM2, you can get yourself a hot cup of delicious butter coffee that tastes much better than any hipster cafes!

Aladin chicken rice
This place is famous for its chicken rice among the locals. I went there the day I landed in Kuching, it was closed. I went there a day later, and they were sold out. Someday I shall give it a try. But judging from the smell and the crowd, I bet it must be special. It was also recommended by the receptionist of the hotel I stayed in.

Kueh Chap, Lau Ya Keng
This place, well known for their kueh chap. Pork offals, lean meat, eggs, and tofu in herbal soup. It was a perfect meal to have it after a rainy evening that day. We also ordered one pork roll, which crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  They are open for both lunch and dinner.
You can also try the Lau Ya Keng Pork Satay. We went hunting for this for two days in a row, but the stall was closed. Maybe the next time around.

Lepau Restaurant
Indigenous food anyone?? Authentic Kayan/Dayak cuisine!  We ordered ayam pansuh, prawns umami,  fiona fish, brinjal asam with belacan and wrapped rice. It costs us around RM70.  There’s absolutely nothing to complain about this place. Good service, great ambiance and fantastic food. The one place you should not miss whilst you are in Kuching.

Blackbean Coffee Shop
I personally texted a food blogger on Instagram beforehand to ask for her best recommendations.  One of the many places she recommended was this. It’s a small coffee shop with limited chairs and tables. What was so special about this place you may ask? It is definitely the coffee beans. Freshly ground and prepared coffee served with brown sugar.  And what's even better was that they have locally grown Liberica coffee beans. We even bought some back home at RM27 for 200gm.

I loved the cookie that was served with the coffee. Had to buy back some. Bought two packs of it. Chocolate and peanut flavored cookies, at RM 2.50 each.

Ah Yong ABC
This place is definitely a treat for the hot tropical weather.  ABC stands for Ais Batu Campur. It’s a mixture of shaved ice with corn, wheatgrass jelly, nuts with coconut milk and some melted brown sugar. I really liked this ABC. Unlike many other places, it was not too sweet with a generous amount of ingredients at only RM2.50.  This tiny stall at the roadside is not too hard to locate. I walked to this place from Lau Ya Keng restaurant.

The Fig Tree Restaurant.
It was just a random restaurant I went into that I do not regret. This is a vegetarian & vegan restaurant. A cute little restaurant with earthy decoration. I tried their pineapple fried rice. To be very honest, it’s the BEST pineapple fried rice I had in my life so far. At only RM7.50, the generous portion of fried rice came with tempeh, pine nuts, tofu, and so many other ingredients. I'm not a vegetarian but I loved this place. There are a wide variety of choices to choose from here.

Aiskrim Gula Apong, Open Air Market
We asked our grab driver to drop us at the open air market, hoping that we could get something for our late dinner. But the only stall that was opened at that time was this place. We ordered one for the fun of it only to find out later, that it's famous! Made of flavored ice cream with gooey melted palm sugar. Had mine with corn flakes toppings. Even though it was a tad bit sweet for my liking, I still enjoyed the simple dessert.

Oh Chien, Topshot 
When we say oh chien, you will only remember the oyster scrambled with eggs. But Sarawak’s oh chien is nothing like that. It’s a huge crispy and crunchy layer, in the shape of the huge wok that was used to fry and it has big juicy pieces of oysters in it. Its savored with some soy sauce.  It was a bit too oily for me, but it was good! Priced at RM20 for each, can be shared with 2 people or more for sure.

Topspot is on the 6th floor of the UTC building and it has many food stalls selling fresh seafood. A tad bit touristy, but we still had our dinner here. We also ordered steam fish, mixed vegetables and rice to go with it. Nothing much to shout about. Just another tourist dinner spot.

Sugar cane and coconut water, Song Kheng Hai Food Centre.
A drink to cool down after roaming around in the crazy hot weather.  The stall is being operated for generations, even before the Malaysian Independence. They use the short sugar cane, which tastes much sweeter and mixes it with the coconut water and flesh.  It was a refreshing drink and nothing more. If you happened to be here, try the Keuh Teow in tomato gravy at the other stall nearby. It was closed when we were there. So I can't say much about it.

Laksa Sarawak, Choon Hui Café
The most famous spot for laksa which was recommended by Anthony Bourdin. Did it live up to the hype? YES!! It was so different from any other laksa I had in my life. It is nothing like the laksa in peninsular Malaysia. A generous portion of laksa consisted of rice noodles, bean sprouts,  chicken strips, juicy prawns and egg in spicy laksa broth. I added in the chili paste and lime, the taste was perfect!  Did I mention that even their chicken strips were flavourful??

If you happened to pay a visit here, try their Popiah as well. It is one of the best popiahs I've had in my life. Wished I had more space in my tummy to try the porridge as well. It looked and smelled great!

Bako Seafood Restaurant
We went here right after our stay at Bako National Park. It is a seafood restaurant. The food is really nice and cheap! We ordered steamed prawns, Homemade signature fish tofu, midin vegetable, rice and two drinks at RM43. Friendly service and great food. Totally recommended.

EscoBar
If you happened to be in Santubong, and looking for some western meal, this is it! The food served in great portion and taste wise, it was the best I have had in awhile now. We had our dinner here during our stay at The Culvert. We ordered grilled salmon and grilled chicken, both lived up to the expectations! The meals here are not cheap, but considering the huge portion, I can say it's justified.

Another place that I really wanted to but I missed out was the Drunk Monkey Old Street Bar at the Carpenter Street. We passed the street whilst finding for dinner. It looked so calm and beautiful. I don’t mind having a drink or two here. The next time, I shall.

I had many more places in mind that I really wished to try, but with such limited time and space in my tummy, this is all I could do in my trip. Till the next time, Kuching!