Kota Kinabalu Food Guide – w w w . x e .s . c x

Kota Kinabalu Food Guide – Lintas Square

Lintas Square is a small commercial zone just few minutes away from Kota Kinabalu City. It is located within the residential area and it is a treasure trove of good KK food. These are the few places that I would recommend to fellow visitors.

Kedai Kopi Melanian

When I first read the signboard of the restaurant, I thought the place was Kedai Kopi Melamine.

This restaurant is well known for its sang yuk mee. In KL, its commonly known as chu yuk fun. Basically, its pork noodles.

We ordered the dry version of the noodles and I must say this in CAPS. IT WAS BLOODY GOOD!

The noodles came with very thick sauce. The bowl of soup came with pieces of soft and tender pork slices and also few pieces of nice pork balls. The soft and tender pork slices is my personal favourite. I could eat this everyday.

Before

After – gobbled up everything!!!

Must come back to this place when I’m back in KK again!

Map

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Address
Kedai Kopi Melanian
Lot 7-0, Ground Floor, Lorong Lintas Plaza 1,
Jalan Lintas, 88300 Penampang Kota Kinabalu

Other reviews
beautifulkk.com | Kedai Kopi Melanian 2

Kedai Kopi Jia Siang

This restaurant also serves awesome sang yuk mee. The taste is almost identical to the sang yuk mee served at Kedai Kopi Melanian. Its open for dinner unlike Melanian which closes by dawn.

The noodles is also served with very thick sauce. The bowl of soup comes with pieces of soft and tender pork slices, a few pieces of nice pork balls and also ‘wantan’. You may customise your soup by adding other stuff like ‘pig’s spare parts’.

Again! hehe!

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Kedai Kopi Man Hui Wei

If you’re fan of Tuaran mee, you should try it at this restaurant. It only covers half a shop and as such seats are limited.

For their Tuaran mee, you may choose to mix it with seafood or roasted pork or both. Spicy yet sour sauce is available as condiment.

Seafood is fresh and the slices of roasted pork is not bad.

Interior reminds me of someone’s home kitchen

UFO Mee anyone?

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Yoyo Cafe

Yoyo Cafe recently moved from their small premise to a bigger premise in the newest block of Lintas Plaza. It now boost a 2 storey cafe. Yoyo Cafe is well known for its Bubble Tea but I recently discovered that their mini Croissant is awesome. It costs RM5 for 100g which is about 5 pieces. The outer layer is crispy and the fillings melt in your mouth!

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Kota Kinabalu 2009: Restauran Malaysia @ Beaufort

After our trip to Kuala Penyu, we stopped by Beaufort, a small town located outskirt of Kota Kinabalu.

We initially wanted to try Beaufort noodles at one popular Chinese coffee shop but it was closed.

We ended up at one Muslim restaurant by the name Malaysia Restaurant. Although a Muslim restaurant, it is run by a Chinese Muslim man.

The recommended dishes of this place are their Butter Pao and Kuih Bom.

Yam cake! So-so only though.

Pao is served on a plate. Take as many as you like. The rest you can leave it there.

The butter pao is filled with butter but ‘lai yau’, a yellowish sweet filling. The bread is green in colour. It tasted damn good. So good that I had 2 pieces of it!

Kuih Bom on the other hand is an egg shaped pastry (supposed to look like a bomb though). The outer layer is as hard as an egg shell. I had to use force to crack the layer. The filling of kuih bom is hollow with few strands of turnip inside. It was my first time seeing such item and the taste was rather unique. It wasn’t sweet but it was salty.

Map (rough estimation)

Address
Restoran Malaysia
Lot 14, Block B,
Beaufort Jaya,
89808 Beaufort,
Sabah

Tel: (00)(60) 087 223 548

Website: http://littleitaly.fortunecity.com/cremona/18/

Kota Kinabalu 2009: San Sui Baru Restaurant

Before embarking on our journey to Kuala Penyu, we stopped by San Sui Baru Restaurant for breakfast. Apparently, this place is well known for its Tom Yam noodles.

This place is located along Lintas Highway. It was packed when we arrived.

We ordered their well known tom yam prawn noodles and black pepper beef noodles.

Tom yam in San Sui Baru is not your usual spicy and hot tom yam. It comes in a sourish bowl of soup with prawns and beans sprout in it. It tasted like assam pedas.

Nescafe came with a thick layer of condensed milk. Tasted so-so.

I’m not a big fan of tom yam hence I ordered their black pepper beef noodles. It came in a Cantonese style gravy with of black pepper mixed inside. The beef was tender and soft but overall the dish was mediocre.

The overall experience with this restaurant is average. Nothing to shout about but if you’re on Lintas Highway, perhaps you can drop by to try their unique Tom Yam noodles.

Kota Kinabalu: Food Guide

Kedai Kopi City @ Gaya Street

Tuaran Mee is a special dish that originates from the town of Tuaran, a town not far from KK City. I was told that Tuaran Mee comes in a few varieties – e.g. soup based or in thick sauced. At Kedai Kopi City, they serve Tuaran Mee fried with Chinese Wine. If you like the taste of Chinese Wine, this dish is highly recommended as it’s extremely aromatic.

The other recommendation is their “Wat Tan Ho” (Chinese style fried noodles). I’ve not tried it myself so please don’t beat me up if you don’t find it tasty.

You should also check out their menu. It comes in Chinese and in Engrish.

“Hua Dan Ho” is actually “Wat Tan Ho” and Mee Tuara Wong Jio. Nice..you don’t need to go to China or Japan to read Engrish.

Related Link:
Kedai Kopi City | Gourmet Borneo

Just across Kedai Kopi City, there’s a stall selling “baked buns”. It’s not bad.

Little Italy

When you think of Kota Kinabalu food, the last thing you probably think about is Italy food. But in KK City, there is one famous Italian restaurant by the name Little Italy. When I was there, it was filled with locals and foreigners alike. The place was packed too.

Their loyalty card – comes with Google search keywords!

The 4 of us ordered pasta and pizza. I was told that their tomato based pasta is excellent. I got myself a meat ball spaghetti which tasted good. The other recommendation is their marina spaghetti. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to try that.

Pizza on the other hand is thin crusted and yummy. But it too a little bit time to arrive as the pizza is baked on the spot. Nevertheless, their service comes with a smile – excellent.

Map

Little Italy
Ground Floor, Hotel Capital,
Jalan Haji Saman
88813 Kota Kinabalu
Sabah
Tel: (6088) 232231

Kota Kinabalu: Tuaran Mee @ Kedai Kopi Tai Meng, Damai

Kedai Kopi Tai Meng

Before my trip to Kota Kinabalu, my friend recommended me one dish by the name Tuaran Mee.

Tuaran is a town in Sabah and this dish originates from this town. Due to its popularity, the sale of such dish has expanded to Kota Kinabalu. Kedai Kopi Tai Meng is actually our second choice as our first choice is not open due to the Chinese New Year break.

Tuaran mee consist of, among others, noodles, roasted pork and vegetables. It’s fried and tastes quite egg-ish. – quite tasty too! To complement this dish, one should add the stall’s self-made condiment i.e. their spicy sauce. If it’s too spicy, you may add some soy sauce to dilute the spicy taste.

While eating, we saw this cat with multi coloured eyes.

This cat kept clinging on my friend’s jeans. After my friend kicked the cat away, the cat went to another table and started clinging on a lady’s jeans. LOL

Kota Kinabalu: Dott’s Egg Tarts

One of the things I don’t see in Kuala Lumpur is small retails selling egg tarts solely. I’ve almost been a big fan of egg tarts and I would order egg tarts whenever I go for dimsum.

Took this when it was closed 😛

While walking around Warisan Square, I bought a piece of egg tart from a small shop by the name Dotts Egg Tarts. Each egg tart costs RM1.10 – quite expensive for KK standard. However, it’s well worth it. Although it’s not freshly out from the oven, the egg custard was still warm and soft. The egg custard was sweet and extremely delicious. I wanted another one when I finished the first one!!!

Soon I realised that Dotts Egg Tart is a chain selling egg tarts. In fact, there are many other shops that sell only egg tarts! This is something that I would recommend Klang Valley entrepreneurs to venture in.

Kota Kinabalu: Port View Seafood Village

Our first dinner was at Port View Seafood Village, a well known restaurant for tourists. It’s located along the beach in Kota Kinabalu City. We were told that the food there is good but a little bit pricey.
After sitting down, a lady came to serve us. We wanted to eat fish..
Me: What fish do you have?

Lady: “Lou pan” and “Chat sing Pan”..

I know that “chat sing pan” (literally means “seven stars fish”) is quite expensive. However, at that time, I forgot the Chinese names of the cheaper fishes. Hence…

Me: How much is “lou pan”? For 2 person..

Lady: oh, around RM200
Me: O_O ok..how about “chat sing pan”??
Lady: About RM15 per 100 gram.
Me: Aahh..ok.. 1 steamed “chat sing pan” please.

We ordered a dish of vegetables to complement our fish. It took a long time for the fish to come.

The fish came and we ate. The fish was fresh from the aquarium. I didn’t know until I was told later but nevertheless it was good. It’s best to eat fresh fish steamed as from there, one can taste the freshness of it.

But when the bill came…RM90 for “chat sing pan”!!! What the fish!!?!? RM90 FOR FRESHNESS??? I GIVE FRESH FART RM90 CAN??? THIS IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE FISH I’VE EVAAAA EATTEEEENNNN$@$!!1111

Kota Kinabalu: Siang Siang Pan Mian

My friend brought the www.xes.cx makan team to one restaurant by the name Siang Siang Pan Mian @ Lintas. The interior is quite similar to our Ipoh Oldtown Coffee. However, the place seems a little bit dirty – rubbish was scattered over the floor.

The menu comes in a mixture of English, Malay and Mandarin language – with pinyin for bananas like me. One part you have soup, another part you got mee kuning.

See bottom line…Feet / “Lutut” LOL! Shouldn’t it be feet / “kaki”??

I ordered a soup based pan mee aka kan lau pan mian.

After ordering our food, I spotted a small bowl filled with fresh lime. I was told that the lime juice extracted from the fresh lime is to be mixed with the soup.

Other than the soup based pan mee, we also ordered “teik pan” (hot plate) pan mee. The teik pan pan mee is quite good but their soup based pan mee is so-so. However, after adding some lime juice into my soup based pan mee, the taste of the noodles became quite interesting.