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Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown area has evolved over the last few years and is now home to some of the city’s hippest and design-forward bars and restaurants. Many of them are housed in conserved old buildings. Here are some recommended spots that serve innovative cocktails using local ingredients, and natural wines along with shared plates.
1. Yellow Fin Horse
Photo: Yellow Fin Horse
ELSE, a stylish boutique hotel set in the beautifully restored Lee Rubber Building, recently launched Yellow Fin Horse. Located next to the infinity pool, this chic restaurant-bar offers welcome respite from the bustling neighbourhood.
The modern venue aims to attract conscious diners who care about the freshest, sustainably sourced ingredients. Solo diners or smaller groups can sit at the bar counter and banter with the staff. The drinks menu here features a well-thought-out cocktails programme curated by Proof & Company. This is complemented by a range of natural wines and homemade kombuchas. If you can’t decide what to start with, request for recommendations from the friendly manager.
For unique pre-dinner sips, try the ‘Mentaga’, a concoction of butter washed Nusa Cana White Rum with Mancino Bianco Vermouth, uplifted with charred lemon juice and local honey syrup. Or the inventive ‘Nasi Bakar’ made with Amontillado sherry, perilla-infused Mancino Rosso, Montenegro Amaro, toasted brown rice syrup and aromatic bitters. There are also zero proof cocktails like ‘Panas’ – a combination of cherry tomato shrub, dill syrup, lime juice and galangal beer is spiked with fermented chilli.
Although it may sound simple (which is what Yellow Fin Horse’s concept is all about), the Longan Sourdough served with smoked house-made butter is the perfect start to foil the belly before you down more drinks. Food-wise, the articulate Chef Jun Wong has devised unadulterated dishes like local Malabar snapper fused with a light cucumber dill buttermilk, and succulent whole charcoal grilled baby bass perked up with kelp vinaigrette. Most of her creations feature farm-fresh ingredients. For instance, the Summer Salad which comprises Cameron Highlands purple corn and garden herbs, brightened with thinly sliced pickled pumpkin and raspberries. The share plates here will evolve depending on availability of ingredients.
Find out more here.
2. Shhhbuuuleee
Photo: Shhhbuuuleee
You’ll have to climb several flights of stairs and go past the labyrinth of bookshelves lining the BookXcess bookstore to reach Shhhbuuuleee located at the rooftop of REX KL – a former cinema-turned-lifestyle enclave. When you get there, you’ll be rewarded with refreshing cocktails topped with views of the city’s historic heart.
This progressive rooftop bar-restaurant serves sake, natural wines and highballs. To beat the heat, sip a cocktail made with rum, yuzu sake, Makrut lime leaves and bird’s eye chilli. Or try the ‘Sour Plum’ consisting of bourbon, amaro, sour plum and mint. The ‘Chenpi 10 years’, is a unique concoction of baijiu, aperol, peach, jasmine soda and roses. The playful menu focuses on East Asian inspired items like tea smoked tomato with seagrape, salted kumquat and lemon dressing; quail stuffed with glutinous rice, chestnuts, mushrooms and duck offal, or the new Wagyu karubi ‘char siew’ perked up with flowers, green peppercorns, and turmeric cream.
Shhhbuuuleee’s open-style layout boasts communal tables and high bar counter seats as well as stools at the outdoor terrace area – a nice spot for a relaxing evening if it’s not blazing hot.
Find out more here.
3. PS150
Photo: PS150
Hidden in a pre-war shophouse behind an unassuming entrance (think: tiny old school toy shop) is PS150. This happens to be the first cocktail bar launched in the Chinatown area. Despite its derelict façade and ex-brothel past, this is one of the most popular joints in KL. Walk further into the weathered building and you’ll discover intimate booths. Go pass an open-air terrace of sorts and you’ll reach an atmospheric bar, nestled deep within the shop. This is where all the action takes place. The PS150 bar team rustles up a huge variety of cocktails which draws from bold Southeast Asian flavours. Lining the bar shelf is a wide array of spirits and liqueurs including rare vermouths, local ginger wines, tuak (rice wine from Sarawak) and many more curated by the team.
Flip through the school ‘exercise book’ and choose one of the numerous cocktails. There’s ‘Rahsia’, a floral and zesty drink with citrus peel infused gin, homemade rose syrup, kaffir lime syrup, lime juice and lemon bitter. Or ‘Don’t Say Bojio’, a smoky, spiced, sweet and sour drink of blended scotch, osmanthus honey, ginseng-infused tuak, ginger juice and lemon juice. Go early to score a seat.
Find out more here.
4. Chocha and Botak Liquor
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Chocha Foodstore and Botak Liquor Bar at 156 Jalan Petaling is another wildly popular spot among locals. The space is designed by architect Shin Chang (who also founded Shhhbuuuleee). The interiors are highly evocative of past decades. Just like PS150 a few doors down, this address was a former brothel.
Both the bar and restaurant cleverly incorporate home-grown ingredients into their modern creations. Head up the narrow spiral stairs to the ultra-hip Botak Liquor Bar which turns out unique cocktails such as ‘Bunga Kantan’ which comprises vodka infused with toasted pumpkin seeds and mixed with ginger flower cordial, fresh calamansi and soda. The bar’s menu describes ‘Junglebird’ as their “representation of the official Malaysian cocktail”. The blushing pink drink contains rum, fermented pineapple soda, ginger flower, calamansi lime and bitter bianco. Another unique Malaysian-inspired drink is the ‘Air Mata Kucing’ – this boozy version of Chinatown’s specialty thirst-quencher consists of wintermelon, monkfruit and water chestnuts, spiked with gin and a touch of white chocolate liqueur.
You can also knock-back these drinks at Cho Cha on the ground level. The chefs confidently inject native ingredients like fermented tapioca leaves, budu (fermented anchovies), and native herbs and ferns into their assured cooking. The result is complex with multi-layered flavours, yet incredibly satisfying and delicious.
Find out more here.
5. Penrose
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Opened in 2022, Penrose is a modern craft cocktail bar nestled in a narrow shophouse just next to the popular Wildflowers restaurant and bar (same owners). Behind a heavy industrial-style door is an intimate and minimalist setting. Perch yourself at the bar counter and let the team know your drink preference. Penrose’s menu offers 15 cocktails. Most are an elevated interpretation of classics like Negronis, Martinis, and Tom Collins.
You can start with the gin-based ‘Cherry Pop’ with flavours of grapefruit, rose and cherry. Alternatively, try other more complex highballs like ‘Ume Fuji’ made with Scotch, Fuji apple, Japanese plum and rhubarb, or the ‘Oba Rossa’ with tequila, oba leaf, yuzu and honey. For more spirit forward drinks, opt for the savoury Penrose Gibson with gin, sake vinegar, leek and shio kombu.
Find out more here.
