Off-Beat Places to Eat in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Normally, our family tends to be the type that makes vacations more affordable by getting our meals from grocery stores while on vacation. This is a very useful strategy, but on our recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, Mom requested that we alter our strategy a little bit and incorporate some 'food tourism' into our travel schedule, taking the time to check out off-beat restaurants with cuisine that was more interesting than the average loaf of french bread at a grocery store.

That sent me to the computer, searching for what interesting restaurants were in the area and didn't have too high of price tags, and these were the fascinating food experiences that we found:

Magnum Cafe

Dude. You get to design your own ice cream bar, choosing the ice cream flavor, the chocolate coating, three toppings, and the flavor of the chocolate drizzle. Somehow, this is the coolest thing ever. Not too crazy expensive, either, with the ice cream bars priced at just under 10 RM. For a tasty dessert AND the fun experience of creating your own combination, along with the chance to sit and eat in the beautifully decorated, quiet cafe--so worth it.

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Panchos Mexican Taqueria

We loved this place so much, we ate here twice! I wouldn't really call it a 'taqueria', though...probably nobody who has spent much time in Texas would call it one, as it's really a completely different sort of feel than an actual neighborhood taqueria. I would describe it more as a Qdoba or Chipotle type of restaurant--only better, because our meals tasted significantly better than anything I've had from those two chains. I got the Chipotle Beef Nachos at both meals, because they were so good I couldn't pass up a second opportunity to eat them, but everyone else really enjoyed their meals, too!
And there's a pinata, which Angel would appreciate, because he believes it's not a party till there's a pinata!

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Out of Africa Restaurant

We were looking for offbeat places to eat. We weren't really looking for Malaysian food, because we can eat that all the time. Something we can't try every day is South African cuisine. We arrived at Out of Africa just about the time it opened for lunch, and had the whole restaurant to ourselves. We enjoyed the meat from the braai--and Dad got a lesson in pronouncing boerewors, though I'm not sure he could do it again.

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A&W

Okay, perhaps this one doesn't sound as off-beat, but we were startled to stumble across this A&W in KL and stopped in for a couple of root beer floats. Being here was a somewhat surreal experience, as the design of the somewhat shabby building and the sprawling parking lot made me feel like we were back in the USA at a fast-food joint. Stand-alone restaurants with large parking lots all to themselves are not at all the norm here, where many times, dozens of restaurants and shops are packed into strip malls and you have to fight for street parking. Sarah was impressed by the classic float, but what I thought was interesting was how it felt, just because of the building and area around it, that I'd stepped back into my birth country for a few minutes.

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The Apartment at KLCC

The Apartment is an elegant/hipster styled cafe. The decor and various 'rooms' throughout the restaurant are meant the evoke the experience of being inside an apartment, more so than a restaurant. We couldn't quite relate to that--I imagine the type of apartment they are trying to evoke is a very modern, classy, open concept penthouse in a snazzy new skyscraper. Having no experience at living in those types of apartments (I have more experience with living in a dingy 600 sq. ft. 3rd floor walk-up in China), we couldn't relate to the apartment aspect too much, but it was a really nice atmosphere, and, being that we were there for lunch on a weekday, we made use of the 2-course specials for 29 RM, enjoying a meal that was quite fairly priced.

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Dip-n-Dip at Sunway Pyramid

This one's for the chocolate lovers. It was pretty mesmerizing watching the three chocolate fountains in the kitchen. We were highly amused by "The Choice Helper Page" within the menu, which advocates using the strategy of closing your eyes and pointing your finger at something to choose your dessert.  I didn't order anything here, as we had just eaten lunch, and I'm not really the meal + dessert type, it has to be one or the other. Footage from our Dip-n-Dip visit does appear in our recent music video, however!

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What do you like to eat on vacation? Have you been to any of these restaurants before?