Expat Comfort Spots for Food and Beverage

This is part two in a series dedicated to helping our newbie expat friends settle into their new homes. Part one highlighted some experiences as an introduction to some must do touristy things, which could also be used as your Places to Take Overseas Guests to Eat list, and this post highlights where to find some food and beverage from home that might be missed. When the excitement of new delicacies wears off here’s our list of:

Expat Comfort Spots for a Little Piece of Home

(Click on the title links for full details, menu, prices and a map)
Comfort Food
Miss Ellie Tea House – for real scones, great comfort lunches, cold drip coffee and delicious desserts. It’s just down the road from the ISKL Melawati campus.
best scones in kl
Miss Ellie Tea House
Craft Beer
Missing your favourite craft beer? Hunt down Ales and Lagers in Publika to find an ever changing range of boutique beers. It’s a little tricky to find the first time, but once you do, you’ll feel like you’ve discovered your very own speakeasy. For some of these delicious brews on tap, head a little further afield to PJ to The Great Beer Bar.
best beer in kl
Ales and Lagers
Mexican
La Mexicana – Authentic Mexican cuisine prepared by not one but two Mexican chefs! Everything is made from scratch. This is not Tex Mex (which I love also, but be excited as this food is from the heart of Mexico). Oh… and also… I must mention that they serve the BEST Margaritas in the city. La Mexicana has recently opened a Bangsar branch too in Jalan Telawi 5. (Tip: 2 for 1 Margaritas can be had 5-7pm, Monday to Thursday)
best restaurant in kl
La Mexicana
Pizza
Mikey’s Original New York Pizza – the name discloses all and… wait until you meet head pizza man, Andrew Bellucci
expat restaurants in kl
Mikey’s Original New York Pizza
Supermarket
Jaya Grocer at the Intermark – clean, fresh and management who are willing to listen to your requests. Easy parking and loads of expat items at more reasonable prices than Cold Storage and the few other expat targeted supermarkets around the city. I’m a fan of the organic aisle while hubby drools over the cold cuts. Look out for the fridge of Bella and Luca Pasta Fresca for fresh handmade pasta. There’s something for everyone – even wine tastings and cooking classes too.
expat supermarkets in kl
Jaya Grocer Organic Aisle
Modern Australian
Drift Dining – Contemporary cuisine made with the freshest ingredients, and run by a truly dedicated team of passionate Aussies.
Drift Dining

 

Wine Delivery
Wine Talk – Wine. What you like. Selected by a professional sommelier. Delivered to your doorstep. Yes. Please.While on the topic of delivery, you should know that you can have just about anything delivered these days in KL: coffee; cocktails; cold cuts, cheeses and Italian specialties; and there’s  a whole host of healthy meal delivery services too.

wine in kl
Wine Talk with Room Service
Healthy
Healthy restaurants in Kuala Lumpur are hard to find so here I list my favourites:
Ashley’s by Living Food – Ashley’s by Living Food: Those looking for restaurants that cater to a variety of dietary plans and healthy eating in general will love Ashley’s. They serve up everything from raw, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free and even have organic grass fed meat options.
The Daily Habit, Bangsar Shopping Centre – don’t miss their Quinoa Parfait or the Mango Chia Pudding!
Salad Bars are popping up all over the city too: Chai BarSalad Atelier, and Simply Green Salad are three beloved.
Ashley’s by Living Food

Vegetarian

Organica Lifestyle, WTF and The Origin are great vegetarian options: western, Indian and Chinese in that order.
vegetarian ampang
The Origin

 

Coffee
Despite the number of coffee places popping up around the city it’s still not so obvious where to find a great cup in the city centre. So here… I’ve hunted them down for you. Take your pick of:
Eight Ounce Coffee Co. – conveniently located in KLCC and accompanied by decadent chocolate desserts
La Boca Cafe – a good standard cup of Illy coffee in a funky Latin American environment
VCR – a great little find on the other side of Jalan Pudu serving excellent coffee, and some yum cakes too
FEEKA – not only serving fantastic coffee but a great pastry and breakfast menu as well. Great to visit for brunch on the weekends when there’s little traffic and you can enjoy the green courtyard.
RGB at the Bean Hive – these specialty coffee roasters take their brew very seriously and offer a great vegetarian menu too.For serious coffee aficionados you’ll be happy to know that there’s quite a scene for locals roasting specialty beans. Check out our list of Specialty Coffee Roasters in Kuala Lumpur.

 

best coffee kl
RGB at the Bean Hive

‘Real’ Bread
Kenny Hills Bakers has some deliciously crusty breads and other scrumptious treats (don’t miss their Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake. Over at Huckleberry Food and Fare, the team has a wonderful French baker, Christophe. Making his own fruit yeasts and insisting on doing everything from scratch, anything coming out of his oven is sure to delight.

expat restaurants
Kenny Hills Bakers
Huckleberry Food and Fare

 

Welcome newbies! Wishing you much success in your new stations. Do leave your comments alerting us to what you need/ are looking for and we’ll do our best to guide you.

15 Comments

  1. Interesting summation.
    I, not being an expert critic of restaurants like you with your eye for detail
    and training, judge restaurants on the following:
    1.Cleanliness ( and that means also TOILETS!!!)
    2. Value for money
    3.Presentation
    4.The service of staff ( and that means a smile and the ability to answer my questions)
    5.Excellent food fresh, with no gravy over vegetables (sauce on the side), rare to medium steaks
    and under no circumstances chips,if on the selected course, under the meat getting sloppy.

    Needless to say – when I visited the USA – I had a great deal of trouble with the above criteria!!
    And thus my absolute loathing also of fast food outlets! I think if push came to shove, I'd prefer to starve!
    I found the French by far to be the best on all the above points, VERYclosely followed by the Danes,
    the Norwegians and the Swiss.

    With my group of eating friends and also family, they hand me the menu well before we
    even get to the table and say – "For Christsake start selecting" and I'm still last to make my
    mind up!! ha ha. Thus restaurants with very small, select menus are usually the venue – ha ha.

    Last night on SBS Food and cooking the venue was – Wait for it – Broome,WA.
    Descendants of the Malay and Japanese pearlers.
    The Malay /Australian lady cooked mud craps and lobsters in different ways
    and the Japanese /Australian lady cooked – cheese cakes!!!!! With various tropical
    toppings – a real eye opener and maybe for you and T.O.H and co, a trip to the
    Cable Beach area for reviews???????
    I let Margaret know by e-mail – now swanning around in the Top End of this last night as Broome
    is on the route of her massive "get away from the cold" adventure.
    Cheers
    Colin
    PS: Strange normal winter conditions here again – wind has gone but that bloody drizzle rain
    has replaced the winds!!!

    • Toilets are important for me too – I figure if this is the "behind the scenes" they willingly show to customers, it's a reflection of what might be happening in the kitchen. Fresh quality ingredients are held in great esteem too – if you have the base product right, you just have to try not to mess it up too much 😉 Service too – many things can be forgiven if service is friendly, attentive and try to correct any misunderstandings. There are numerous studies on this showing that service is the number one determining factor (in western countries at least) as to whether or not a client will return. I prefer concise menus too – focus on what you do well – you can't possibly do 100 things with perfection.

      Ooh yes, I know some Malaysian/ Singaporeans who are experts in cooking crabs! The Japanese make a light cheesecake – a bit too light for my personal preferences – I like them dense and rich.

      We would LOVE to visit Broome and the surrounding areas. You must keep a list for us if you come across restaurants/ hotels that look worthy of some articles (if you don't mind of course). 😉

  2. The last photo makes me wanna jump into the blog and have a quick bite into the bread!

  3. Very nice!!!

  4. I didn't get to go to Miss Ellie. Gave the voucher that I won to a friend – not sure if they went or not. 🙁

  5. Whenever I'm at Intermark, I always drop by Jaya Grocer too….wonderful variety and love the fresh fish cuts there. Thanks for the list….now La Mexicana, Drift Dining & RGB are top on my 'radar'! ;D

    • They'll all conveniently located not too far from my home – mmm…. you can begin to see how this list was formed. 😉

  6. >The Origin

    Isn't that "mee rebus"? He he… My favourite!
    I miss it so much. 😉

  7. All looks good, not a Pizza fan so would leave that…
    Cable Beach, as Colin said…can't wait to watch the aunt there…

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