Teh Tarik Place

Teh Tarik Place is a small chain restaurant that serves some basic Malaysian dishes, including the namesake national drink, teh tarik. I suppose this would be a good place to suggest trying teh tarik if you've never had it! The menu is fairly simple as are the interior decorations (mostly wood and stone).

The typical range of fried rice and noodle dishes (RM6-9) are on hand, as well as laksa (RM7), nasi lemak (RM4-8), a range of roti dishes (RM 2-7), and a small nasi campur bar. They also have set lunch combos (RM7-9) and serve breakfast (RM2-3) too. Some popular snacky foods that I could eat daily if given the opportunity, like curry puffs, ABC, and cucur udang. The drinks are also the standard ones that you would find at a local mamak stall. Prices are pretty good for restaurant, and it is a cleaner option than the typical mamak for those who value hygiene and cleanliness at restaurants.

At the time of writing, there were six stores open in malls around the greater KL area, including the Curve, 1 Utama, IOI Mall, Sunway Pyramid, Empire Shopping Gallery, and Sooka Sentral. None of these are really central except for the one at Sooka Sentral (right next to KL Sentral Station). But it is worth a trip to one of its locations to give it a try. I don't go often, but I would if I had one closer to my house (hint, hint).

My rating: 4 stars

Teh Tarik Place
Empire Shopping Gallery
Lot LG21, Ground Floor
Subang Jaya, Selangor

Sooka Sentral
Lot GC2, Ground Floor
Jalan Stesen Sentral 5
50470 Kuala Lumpur

The Curve
Ground Floor
Mutiara Damansara
Petaling Jaya, Selangor

1 Utama
Lower Ground Floor, Rainforest
Petaling Jaya, Selangor

IOI Mall
3rd Floor, New Extension
Bandar Puchong Jaya
Puchong, Selangor

Sunway Pyramid
Lot OB3 LG1.1 & G9
Oasis Boulevard Three
Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Web site: http://www.tehtarikplace.my/
Open from 10am until 10pm

Naili's Place

Naili's Place is a small chain of (currently) 3 stores around Kuala Lumpur. For the sake of disclosure, I have never been to the Taipan--Subang Jaya branch. But I have been to the Ampang Point and Sentul branches and will base my reviews based off of these two. The Ampang Point location is at the end of shop lots next to the Ampang Point shopping center in Ampang and tries to cram too much character into its small location unfortunately. If you want the best experience, go to the Sentul branch. It is somewhat isolated but in an increasingly popular dining area. It has even opened for lunch recently.

The Sentul branch is all about ambience. The tropical setting is nice. Trees, stylish decorations, leaf-roof huts, and tree stump tables. In some cases, private dining hits were built around large trees that were there before the restaurant was built. Sometimes mosquitoes can be a problem here, but you will hardly notice as you take in the scenery (and sometimes even a DJ).

Naili's Place is popular for functions and parties but individual diners or "lepakers" fill up the rest of the tables or bar stools. The food is better than average...not out of this world...but the ambience makes up for that easily. A range of sheesha flavors is also available. It is a good place for (Malaysian or Western) dinner or just hanging out over a few drinks and maybe a snack.

My rating: 4 stars

Naili's Place
116C, Kampung Chempedak
Jalan Taman Dato' Senu
Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur

Ampang Point
39, Jalan Memanda 9
6800 Ampang

Taipan
48, Jalan USJ 10/1B USJ Taipan
47620 Subang Jaya

Web site: http://www.nailisplace.com/
Telephone: (+6) 019-202-0755
Open from 5pm until 2am
(the Sentul branch has recently started lunch hours too)

Dhivya's Cafe at Batu Caves

After the long (no, really...LONG) climb up to Batu Caves, then all the way back down, you kinda work up an appetite and thirst. Appropriately, there are a few small restaurants onsite at the base of the caves, some connected to souvenir shops. Dhivya's Café is unique from the others in that it has an outdoor and an air-conditioned indoor eating area. The rows of long tables encourage "community eating" and the waiters have quite good English actually...and are even friendly and a bit chatty (surprise!).

The food, as to be expected, is pure Indian vegetarian fare and is served on the largest banana leaf I've ever seen. That's unfortunate, in a sense, because it made the portions served look skimpy. The set lunch (which was heavily pushed by the waiters to every customer) cost RM7...a little high compared to what you would pay elsewhere for this type of meal, but it is a tourist site after all.

The helping of rice was good and the vegetable side dishes (boiled, pickled, and curried), although not too plentiful, were tasty. At many restaurants, you can find a caboodle of condiments (ketchup, soy sauce, salt/pepper). But here, you get three connected containers of vegetable curry, some sour milk thing (that I don't remember the name and never really got into that much), and dal. Dhivya's Cafe also offers different varieties of roti, mock meat dishes, and ice cream. Overall, it was nice.

My rating: 4 stars

Dhivya Cafe
Batu Caves
Jalan SM1a
Batu Caves, Selangor
Malaysia
Open for lunch and early dinner