Many people go to KSL City Mall for shopping, movies and dining, and will usually stay inside the shopping mall. Those who are willing to wander out of the mall will be rewarded with cheap and good local food.
Below is a list of great eating places around KSL City that we frequent. But first, go down to the basement level of KSL City and find the exit near to Lotus's supermarket. All the eating places out there are within walking distance from KSL City Mall. You can use the map at the end of this post to find their locations.
1. Yong He Kway Teow Soup (永和粿條)
Yong He's kway teow (white flat noodle) soup comes with wide variety of fresh ingredients. There is a slice of abalone, a prawn, an abalone clam, several big oysters, slices of pig's liver, fish balls, minced pork, slices of lean pork and veggies. Wow! was my reaction on the first visit. I had ordered the medium-size noodle soup without expecting so many ingredients. Yong He serves dry noodle (without soup) version too.
2. Yit Foh Wanton Noodle (益和云吞面)
Just next door to Yong He, Restoran Yit Foh serves traditional wanton (meat dumplings) noodle. The barbecue pork is nicely done with mostly lean meat and their homemade egg noodle is springy. Needless to say, the meat dumplings are really fresh too. For side dish, order their fried crispy wantons and eat with spicy chilli.
3. Soon Soon Heng Bak Kut Teh (顺顺兴肉骨茶)
Soon Soon Heng's bak kut teh (pork ribs soup) is popular among Singaporeans and locals. The outlet is right opposite KSL City's basement exit. Similar to most bak kut teh restaurants in Johor Bahru, Soon Soon Heng's Teochew-style bak kut teh allows additional ingredients (charged separately) to be boiled with the light-herbal, pig-bone soup.
4. Ipoh Fried Kuey Teow in Restoran Sing Li
Right beside KSL City, inside the coffee shop named Restoran Sing Li (信利美食中心), is this stall selling Ipoh Fried Kuey Teow. The flat noodle is fried with prawns, eggs and bean sprouts in a large wok, which gives the fried noodle a wok smell (characteristics of Ipoh fried noodle) and not oily.
5. Ah Hua Kueh Teow (亚华粿條)
Ah Hua Kuey Teow is one outlet that sells pork noodle soup during the day and clay pot chicken rice at night.
Similar to Yong He's noodle soup, Ah Hua Kueh Teow's noodle soup is very much the same except for the ingredients used. While Yong He's ingredients include seafood, Ah Hua has wider varieties of pig offal and with minced meat and abalone (depends on choice of ingredients). For those who prefer not to have seafood (slightly higher price), go for Ah Hua's pork noodle soup.
6. Restoran Hao Bi (好比鸭王药材烧腊)
Restoran Hao Bi is easily distinguishable for selling roasted duck due to a huge duck next to its signboard. Hao Bi is famed for its dang gui herbal roasted duck although other flavours are also available. Apart from roasted duck, they have roasted pork, roasted suckling pig, kampung chicken, boiled soups and other cooked dishes too.
7. Tian Xiang Yong Peng (Homemade) Fish Ball Noodle (天香永平手工鱼丸面)
Along the same row of shophouses as Yong He Kuey Teow Soup and Yit Foh Wanton Noodle, Tiang Xiang Fish Ball is located several units away. Their signature item is their homemade fish balls, which are made with Pacific saury (秋刀鱼).
You can order any types of noodle, soup or dry or with laksa, and the main ingredient will always be their fish balls. There may be other ingredients too depending on what you ordered. The fresh fish balls are firm and spongy. You can also buy raw fish balls and take home to cook.
8. Pin Ming Xuan Cantonese Dim Sum (品茗轩广式茶楼)
Pin Ming Xuan is a relatively-new restaurant, that started in 2022, serving Chinese-popular Cantonese dim sum dishes for breakfast through lunch. They serve a wide variety of dim sums, steam buns and also noodle soup. Most of the dishes are nice-tasting. The special-sauce stir-fried radish cake — probably the only fried dish on the menu — is delicious and a must-try too.
The restaurant is usually without a waiting queue, so patience is required. Go early to avoid long queue — there is no off-peak period at Pin Ming Xuan.
9. Geylang Lor 9 Fresh Frog Porridge (Night time only)
Along the same stretch of shop houses as Restoran Sing Li, Restoran Geylang Lor 9 (芽笼九巷) sells frog porridge. It is opened for business around evening time.
The frogs are available as spicy kung pao (宫保, cooked with dried chilies) or gingers and spring onion (姜葱), both in claypots. Try their fried frog legs with garlic too. The frog dishes are usually eaten with porridge. The frog meat are tender with some chewiness and also spicy from the dried chilies. Apart from dinner, it is a hot favourite for supper too!
10. Ming Ang Confectionery (明安特产专卖店)
If you like pastries, especially wife biscuits that are not too sweet, try Ming Ang. They have heong peah (malt-filling fragrance pastry) and char siew buns (barbecue chicken pastry), tausa peah (mung bean biscuit), egg tarts, kaya puffs and others.
I always go to Ming Ang for their chicken char siew buns, wife biscuits and their signature heong peah. All are freshly baked and usually sold out fast. You can always look through the glass windows to see if they are baking the next batches.
11. August Drip Coffee (八月咖啡工作室)
August Drip Coffee, located right beside Restoran Haobi, is a great place for coffee-lovers to interact, exchange coffee knowledge, and enjoy wonderful coffees together. The cozy cafe has a coffee-roaster in one corner with large sacks of coffee beans from different regions. It's a cafe also with self-made cakes and pastries. Light food from nearby shops can be ordered and consumed in the cafe.
The cafe's objective is to roast various types of coffee beans for sales. They imported over 70 types of coffee beans from over the world (subjected to seasonal availabilities). Having a cup of pour-over coffee at the cafe is a great way to try the different flavours before getting freshly roasted coffee beans. It's a great starting place for beginners in handbrew coffee too.
More Eating Places
There is also a night market outside KSL City Mall on Monday nights, don't miss it.
For a wider search: What to Eat @ Johor Bahru
Use the tags below to find newer places that may not be added to this list.
Comments