Bukit Bintang is best known as the fashion and entertainment epicentre of Kuala Lumpur, but what do you do when you are all washed out on clubbing and retail therapy? Whether on a short visit or a longer stay, listed below are ten must-visit attractions when you are in Kuala Lumpur.
Explore stunning temples and colourful street markets where you can have a top day out without spending a dime, pick up some culinary tricks at a cooking class or even release our inner child at Asia’s largest indoor amusement park. All these experiences shape and define Bukit Bintang and to help you enjoy all its finest sites we have come up with a top 10 list so you can get out there and enjoy them for yourselves.
Changkat Bukit Bintang has often been likened to London’s Piccadilly Circus and New York City’s Times Square. An avenue on which a large number of KL’s most popular bars and restaurants can be found, it is a trendy place that is great for pub crawling. It is actually located just behind Jalan Bukit Bintang, so it's very easy to get to – particularly if you are staying in the Golden Triangle area. It can get very busy here, especially during the weekends and public holidays.
The buildings are unique because they used to be pre-war, colonial shop-houses that were refurbished and turned into upmarket pubs and restaurants – most of which serve western food. A short walk away is Jalan Alor, another famous KL city avenue, well known for its hawker stalls and Chinese seafood restaurants. The dining options along Changkat Bukit Bintang are endless. It has been said that this is the street with the most vibrant restaurant scene in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Dedicated foodies would love the wide variety of gastronomic delights available here, from authentic, traditional dishes to fusion fare. Quaint and unique, the eateries here are as singular in décor as in menu.
Due to the variety of international offerings that can be found here, Changkat Bukit Bintang is sometimes dubbed the ‘United Nations of Fine Dining’. There’s Japanese (Yoko’s), Indian (The Mogul House), French (Le Bouchon), German (Deutches Haus), English (The Green Man), Lebanese (The Al Bait), Cuban (Little Havana), Brazillian (Bom Brazil Churrascaria), Russian (Dusha), Italian (Flam’s) and Thai (Baan 26). Alternatively, if you are not feeling too adventurous palate-wise, there are also restaurants that offer fusion delights such as Werner’s, twenty.one and Frangipani. Aside from a medley of authentic and fusion international cuisine, the street also has some specialty restaurants. For pork-lovers, there’s Elcerdo, a restaurant specialising in all things pork, and for fans of good old fish and chips, there’s The Magnificent Fish and Chips Bar, touted as the best fish-and-chips restaurant in town. Don’t let looks fool you. It may look like there’s nothing much happening here during the day, but try to return a few hours later when all the establishments are in full swing and you’ll see what the fuss is all about. Some of the restaurants may look pretty sober during the day, but at night, it’s a different story altogether; during nighttime, the restaurants metamorphose into buzzing joints bursting with energy. The whole street comes alive with lights, colours, and sounds of music and people having a great time.
Pubs along the street such as Ceylon Bar, Hemingway’s, The Green Man and Little Havana transform into bustling drinking holes after dark. Some of the restaurants turn into hip and happening party venues by night, with their own cocktail bars and deejays spinning music all night long. Little Havana hosts a Salsa Party Night every Friday and Comedy Thursdays every first Thursday of each month - with the latter featuring stand-up comic performances from some of the nation’s best comedians. If live band performances are more your kind of thing, you can catch some live indie performances at Yoko’s every Fridays and Saturdays, and at Cloth & Clef every other night (check their listings). The latter also plays host to ‘Freaklub’ every Wednesday night, where a group of local deejays join forces in a series of exhilarating audio-visual performances. Two of the hippest party venues in town, Frangipani and twenty.one are popular haunts of the young and the trendy, situated at the end of the street just across from each other. Both feature resident deejays spinning various tracks all night long to suit different moods, from chill-out tunes to hip-grinding Latin house music.
Even though the street is quiet and devoid of action during daytime, you may walk along it during the day just to have a clearer view of the striking façades of the restaurants, and to enjoy the sight of the beautiful leftovers of yesteryears lining the street. In fact, as you explore this area during this time of the day, it tends to give you a sense of being cut off from the rest of the city, as, despite being right in the middle of a buzzing metropolis, the street feels uncannily calm and tranquil during the day. But be sure to return at night, preferably in the company of others, to fully appreciate what Changkat Bukit Bintang has to offer. Whether you’re looking for good food or a good time, make Changkat Bukit Bintang your first stop.
Hosting a lot of hawker stalls and seafood restaurants, Jalan Alor is one of the most famous roads in Kuala Lumpur for food. Located just behind Jalan Bukit Bintang and a short walk away from Changkat Bukit Bintang, it is a favourite after-clubbing dining spot in the Golden Triangle area.
Though the seafood at the air-conditioned restaurants is really good and inexpensive, we highly recommend the hawker food. KL being an immigrant city, the variety of food available is amazing and in Jalan Alor the barbecued meats, noodles and desserts are some of the best (and cheapest) in the city. Most of these dishes cannot be found in fashion-conscious restaurants – and even if they are, they are rarely as tasty, so hawker stalls are a favourite on the city’s foodie scene. Called the cultural hearth of the city’s local cuisine, tourists rarely venture here largely because of its ‘hidden’ location. A sharp contrast to trendy Jalan Bukit Bintang and Changkat Bukit Bintang, Jalan Alor has a traditional charm to it with atmospheric air-conditioned Chinese seafood restaurants, bright fluorescent restaurant signage lighting and mini red Chinese lanterns strung up in the trees. But it is also a tad messy because of the seemingly-endless row of hawker stalls set up on the five-foot walkway, with plastic tables and chairs spilling out onto the road.
Sure, the food is the main draw but the atmosphere is also truly memorable. The place stays loud and vibrant throughout the night with vendors furiously fanning grills of chicken and beef skewers, the metallic clang of frying woks and the air is thick with charcoal smoke.
At the food stalls food is cooked in a furious fashion (with delicious smells coming from the frying woks and boiling pots) and served on plastic plates in a rainbow of colours. Most hawker stalls have picture menus, making ordering simple.
We suggest you grab a table somewhere in front of Restoran Dragon View at the top of the street and then walk along and order your dishes from the diverse range of hawkers. We recommend the fried oyster egg from Restoran Wong Ah Wah: a thin and crispy omelette with plump and briny oysters that is served with fresh coriander leaves and accompanied by a chilli sauce that gives it a tangy, spicy kick. Or even the smoky-flavoured satay (marinated chicken tenderloin) from Terminal Sate Zul and grilled chicken wings in a simple soy marinade with chicken rice and roasted barbecue pork from Restoran Meng Kee Grill Fish.
The easiest way to get here is via monorail: alight at the Bukit Bintang stop and head north along Jalan Bukit Bintang: from there Jalan Alor is a one-minute walk. At the food stalls food is cooked in a furious fashion (with delicious smells coming from the frying woks and boiling pots) and served on plastic plates in a rainbow of colours. Most hawker stalls have picture menus, making ordering simple.
Kuala Lumpur is an international shopping haven with a plethora of retail therapy options. Though there are a few small-time boutiques scattered around the city centre, the country’s hot and humid weather tends to draw crowds into the cool interior of expansive air-conditioned shopping malls. Located within the Bukit Bintang area itself there are more than eight large shopping centres ranging from the ultra posh and exclusive Starhill Gallery and the newly-erected trendy Fahrenheit 88 to the downmarket Sungei Wang Plaza and gadget haven Low Yat Plaza. Berjaya Times Square – one of the biggest shopping centres within Bukit Bintang – is one of the city centre’s most easily located structures. Located along Jalan Imbi, the 48-storey twin-tower complex first opened its doors in 2003 and each 203m tower offers a host of retail stores, dining venues and entertainment outlets.
Adjacent to the four-star Berjaya Times Square Hotel – a high-rise four-star venture set at the top of the mall with 650 rooms, a pool, gym, sauna room, rooftop garden and squash courts – the 700,000sqm Berjaya Times Square is an all-in-one complex that dominates the city centre’s mallscape.
Set opposite the Amoda office block, the mall is a sprawling all-in-one complex that spans the lengthy Jalan Imbi Boulevard. Currently the fifth largest building in the world, Berjaya Times Square has over 1,000 retail stores and 65 food outlets. The lower ground floor houses a food court – Taste of Asia – where there’s a smorgasbord of culinary options ranging from local cuisine to international fare such as Japanese and Korean specialties. There’s a variety of good restaurants that offer tasty and inexpensive fare throughout the complex including the Dynasty Dragon Seafood Restaurant, a branch of the popular Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant, Old Town White Coffee, Sushi King and more.
The shopping podium doesn’t play host to designer fashion marques such as CK by Calvin Klein, Coach, Juicy Couture or Marc by Marc Jacobs; instead you’re more likely to come across a melange of affordable but unknown retail boutiques. Small time apparel boutiques such as 29 Fashion, Gimme More Boutique, Anna’s, Giordano, Body Glove, Sixty Fashion and more are dotted throughout the mall.
The rest of the shopping centre houses a variety of mid-range stores that range from toy stores like Anime Tech, Citrine Toys, Kyosho and Grafitti Toys to specialty adult stores such as I Need House and Naughty Zone. Additionally, there’s a variety of major tech and IT stores such as Acer, Apple, Canon, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, HTC, Lenovo, Samsung and more, for those looking to purchase the latest gadgets and gizmos.
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