Best Food to Eat in Malaysia: Laksa, Rendang and More

The best food to eat in Malaysia is what happens when Malay, Chinese, and Indian cooking collide on one peninsula, compete for 200 years, and produce a food culture with no equal in Asia. This is a country where breakfast might be coconut-rice nasi lemak, lunch a smoky plate of char kway teow, and dinner a banana-leaf curry feast, all for a few dollars at a hawker centre.

My education started at a Penang hawker centre at 11 PM, ordering from three different stalls at once: char kway teow with proper wok hei smoke, a bowl of tangy asam laksa, and a teh tarik pulled into a froth by a mamak vendor. Malaysia is the best-value great food country in Asia, a place where three cuisines and the brilliant Peranakan fusion between them are all available at one plastic table.

This guide covers the Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Nyonya traditions, the two laksas, the hawker centre, the desserts, and the drinks, with what to order and what it costs. Malaysia is one of nine countries in our guide to the best food in Asia.

Why Malaysian food is worth the trip

Malaysian food is worth a trip because three great cuisines live side by side and borrow from each other constantly. Malay cooking brings coconut milk, sambal, lemongrass, and slow-cooked rendang; Chinese (largely Hokkien, Cantonese, and Hainanese) brings the wok, noodles, and pork; Indian (largely Tamil) brings roti, curries, and the all-night mamak stall. Then there is Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine, the centuries-old fusion of Chinese ingredients and Malay spices that exists nowhere else.

The other reason is value and intensity. The hawker centre, a roof over dozens of specialist stalls that each cook one dish, lets you eat across all of it in one sitting for a few dollars. Penang is the food capital, but every state and city has its own specialties worth chasing.

Malay food: coconut, sambal and the heart of Malaysian cuisine

Nasi Lemak Nasi lemak

nationwide
RM 5 to 12
national dish

Malaysia’s national dish and its great breakfast: rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan, served with a spoonful of sweet-spicy sambal, crunchy fried anchovies (ikan bilis), roasted peanuts, cucumber, and a boiled or fried egg, often wrapped in banana leaf. Add fried chicken (ayam goreng) or beef rendang to make it a full meal.

RM 5 to 12. The sambal is everything; a great nasi lemak lives or dies on it. Sold from dawn at stalls and from kiosks around the clock.

Rendang Rendang daging

nationwide
RM 10 to 20
festive masterpiece

Beef (or chicken) slow-cooked for hours in coconut milk with a paste of lemongrass, galangal, garlic, turmeric, ginger, shallots, and chili until the liquid evaporates and the meat turns dark, dry, and intensely flavored. It is not a wet curry; a proper rendang is almost caramelized. A festive and celebration dish, and one of the great meat preparations on earth.

RM 10 to 20 as a main or piled onto nasi lemak. Shared with Indonesia, but Malaysia makes a superb version.

Satay Sate

nationwide
RM 0.80 to 1.50 a stick
order by the dozen

Skewers of marinated chicken, beef, or lamb grilled over charcoal and served with a thick, spicy-sweet peanut sauce, cucumber, raw onion, and pressed rice cakes (ketupat). The smoke and the char are the point, and the peanut sauce is richer and more complex than the satay you meet abroad.

Around RM 0.80 to 1.50 per stick; order ten or twenty for the table. Kajang, near KL, is the satay town.

• Nasi goreng. Malay-style fried rice with sambal, soy, egg, and often anchovies or seafood, the universal quick meal.
• Otak-otak. Spiced fish paste wrapped in banana leaf and grilled, a fragrant, slightly rubbery, addictive snack.
• Ayam percik and ikan bakar. Grilled chicken basted in spiced coconut sauce, and whole grilled fish in sambal wrapped in banana leaf, the stars of the east-coast night markets.

Chinese-Malaysian food and wok hei

Char Kway Teow Char kway teow

Penang
RM 7 to 14
wok hei legend

Flat rice noodles wok-tossed over a ferocious flame with prawns, cockles, Chinese sausage, bean sprouts, chives, and egg in a dark sweet-savory soy mix. The prize is wok hei, the smoky “breath of the wok” that only a screaming-hot flame and a fast hand can produce. Penang’s hawkers set the standard.

RM 7 to 14. Look for a stall with a single sweating cook, a roaring flame, and a queue; that is where the wok hei is.

Bak Kut Teh Bak kut teh

Klang
RM 12 to 25
pork-rib tea

“Pork-rib tea,” a peppery, herbal broth of pork ribs simmered for hours with garlic, star anise, cinnamon, and Chinese herbs, served with rice, dough fritters (you tiao), and a dip of soy and chopped chili. A Hokkien dish born in the port town of Klang, eaten for breakfast and as a restorative. A dry, claypot version also exists.

RM 12 to 25. Deeply savory and medicinal-warming, a favorite of the Chinese-Malaysian community.

Hainanese Chicken Rice Nasi ayam

nationwide
RM 6 to 12
deceptively simple

Poached or roasted chicken served with rice cooked in the chicken stock and rendered fat until fragrant, with a chili-garlic sauce, dark soy, and a clear soup on the side. Simple on paper, exacting in practice: the rice and the chili sauce are what separate a great plate from an ordinary one. Melaka serves it with rice rolled into balls.

RM 6 to 12. A dish Malaysia and Singapore both claim and both do beautifully.

• Hokkien mee. Two dishes share the name: KL’s dark, thick noodles in black soy with pork and prawn, and Penang’s prawn-broth noodle soup (Hokkien prawn mee).
• Wonton mee. Springy egg noodles tossed in dark sauce with char siu pork and wontons, served dry with the soup on the side.
• Popiah. Fresh (un-fried) spring rolls of soft wheat skin wrapped around stewed turnip, egg, peanuts, and sweet sauce, a Hokkien-Nyonya snack.
• Chee cheong fun and yong tau foo. Silky steamed rice-noodle rolls in sweet sauce, and a pick-your-own bar of tofu and vegetables stuffed with fish paste in broth.

Indian-Malaysian food and the mamak culture

Roti Canai Roti canai

nationwide
RM 1.50 to 4
the mamak breakfast

A flatbread of dough flipped, stretched, and slapped paper-thin, then folded and griddled in ghee until flaky outside and soft inside, served with dhal and curry dipping sauces. Watching a skilled vendor spin the dough into the air is part of the show. The base of a whole family: roti telur (with egg), roti tisu (a crisp paper-thin cone), roti bom.

RM 1.50 to 4, eaten with the hands at a mamak (Indian-Muslim) stall, any hour of the day or night.

Nasi Kandar Nasi kandar

Penang
RM 8 to 18
curry flood

A Penang Tamil-Muslim institution: steamed rice topped with your choice of curries and proteins (fried chicken, fish roe, squid, beef), then flooded with a mix of several curry gravies (banjir, “flooded”) so the flavors run together. You point at what you want and the server builds the plate.

RM 8 to 18 depending on toppings. Line of Tamil-Muslim restaurants in Penang stay open 24 hours.

• Murtabak. Roti dough stuffed with spiced minced meat, egg, and onion, griddled and cut into squares, served with curry and pickled onion.
• Banana leaf rice. South Indian rice served on a banana leaf with vegetable curries, rasam, pickle, papadum, and a meat or fish curry, eaten with the right hand.
• Mee goreng mamak. Indian-Muslim fried yellow noodles, sweet, spicy, and tangy with potato, tofu, and egg, a mamak-stall staple.
• Teh tarik. “Pulled tea,” black tea and condensed milk poured between two cups from a height to build a thick froth, Malaysia’s national drink, made at every mamak.

Laksa: Malaysia’s two great noodle soups

Asam Laksa Penang asam laksa

Penang
RM 6 to 12
tangy, fishy

The tangy one: a sour, spicy fish broth built on mackerel, tamarind (asam), and lemongrass, poured over thick rice noodles and topped with mint, shredded cucumber, pineapple, raw onion, and a spoonful of pungent shrimp paste (hae ko). Bright, sour, funky, and utterly unlike the creamy laksa most travelers expect.

RM 6 to 12. Penang’s asam laksa once topped a global “best foods in the world” list, and the Air Itam stall by the market is the pilgrimage.

Curry Laksa Curry mee / laksa lemak

KL / nationwide
RM 7 to 14
creamy and rich

The creamy one: noodles in a rich coconut-curry broth with prawns, chicken, tofu puffs, cockles, and bean sprouts, finished with a dollop of sambal. This is the laksa most of the world knows, closer to Singapore’s, and a completely different dish from Penang’s sour asam laksa despite the shared name.

RM 7 to 14. Ordering “laksa” means different things in different cities, so know which one you want.

Peranakan (Nyonya) cuisine: the beautiful fusion

Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine is the centuries-old food of the Straits Chinese, descendants of Chinese traders who married local Malay women in Melaka and Penang. It marries Chinese ingredients and techniques with Malay spices, herbs, and coconut, and it is labor-intensive home cooking rarely found outside Melaka, Penang, and a few specialist restaurants.

• Nyonya laksa (laksa lemak). The Peranakan coconut-curry laksa, the refined ancestor of the curry laksa above.
• Ayam pongteh. Chicken braised in fermented soybean paste (taucu) and palm sugar, sweet and savory and deeply comforting.
• Assam fish and itik tim. Tamarind-sour fish stew, and a duck-and-salted-vegetable soup, classic Nyonya home dishes.
• Nyonya kuih. The jewel-colored, often pandan- and coconut-scented bite-sized cakes and sweets that are Peranakan baking’s signature.

How to navigate a Malaysian hawker centre

Beyond the headline plates, a hawker centre is where you graze the typical everyday Malaysian dishes: rojak (a tangy fruit-and-vegetable salad tossed in a thick prawn-paste and tamarind sauce with crushed peanuts), Hokkien mee, wonton mee, popiah and otak-otak. Malaysian hawker food is some of the cheapest world-class eating on the planet, and it’s where you taste all three cultures in a single sitting.

Borneo adds its own layer: Sarawak laksa (a fragrant, sambal-and-coconut noodle soup Anthony Bourdain called “breakfast of the gods”), kolo mee, and the Kadazan-Dusun dishes of Sabah, including hinava, a lime-cured raw fish salad.

Desserts and drinks

• Cendol. Shaved ice with green pandan jelly noodles, red beans, coconut milk, and dark gula melaka palm sugar syrup, the great Malaysian cooler. RM 3 to 6.
• Ais kacang (ABC). A mountain of shaved ice over beans, jelly, sweet corn, and syrups, often topped with evaporated milk, the maximalist dessert.
• Kaya toast. Toasted bread spread with kaya (coconut-egg jam) and cold butter, served with soft-boiled eggs and kopi, the classic kopitiam breakfast.
• Apam balik. A thick folded pancake filled with crushed peanuts, sweetcorn, and sugar, crisp at the edges, a night-market favorite.
• Teh tarik, kopi and durian. Pulled milk tea and thick local coffee, and the king of fruits, durian, pungent, custardy, and adored, in season around June and December.

Best food cities in Malaysia

Best food to eat in Malaysia: the dish guide with prices and ratings

How to eat in Malaysia

For dining customs across other countries, see our guide to food etiquette around the world. Malaysia is also one of the great-value picks in our cheapest cities for food.

How to eat well in Malaysia on any budget

Budget: the hawker centre

Nasi lemak or roti canai for breakfast (RM 2 to 6), a hawker plate of char kway teow or laksa for lunch (RM 7 to 14), satay and a teh tarik at night. Malaysia is one of the best-value great food countries in the world; you can eat brilliantly all day for under RM 40.

Mid-range: kopitiam and specialist restaurants

A banana-leaf feast, a bak kut teh dinner, a Nyonya restaurant in Melaka, and air-conditioned comfort. Still inexpensive, with a wider range of regional dishes.

High-end: modern Malaysian and KL fine dining

Kuala Lumpur’s modern-Malaysian and Nyonya fine-dining scene reinterprets hawker classics and Peranakan home cooking. Even the top tables stay reasonable next to Western capitals, and the city has a growing list of Asia’s 50 Best contenders.

Frequently asked questions about Malaysian food