What to Eat around KSL City Mall, Johor Bahru (2022)
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.
Here 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 200 metres from KSL City Mall. You can use the map at the end of this post to find their locations.
Note that operating hours and off-days of the food outlets are for reference only — they may not keep to their schedules sometime — especially after long school holidays and public holidays that fall on their off-days.
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.
Opening Hours:
8am to 8pm | Closed on Tuesday
Read: Yong He (永和粿条) Kway Teow Soup @ Taman Century
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 chili.
Opening Hours:
7am to 1am | Wed: 7am to 10pm | Closed on Thursday
Read: Yit Foh (益和云吞面) Wanton Noodle @ Taman Century
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. The uniqueness with their bak kut teh is they allow adding of other ingredients (charged separately) to be boiled with the pork ribs soup. Do tell them you want pork ribs only if you don't want the fat belly meat.
Also, being boiled in clay pots with big fire, the soup tends to over-evaporate sometimes and become salty, do ask to add some hot water if necessary. In the past, bak kut teh was eaten with self-serving hot Chinese tea, so diners would add hot water themselves. But as time changed, the practice of having Chinese tea with bak kut teh is dying out and few know that hot water should be added when need to.
Opening Hours:
9am to 8pm daily
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.
Opening Hours:
11am to 9pm (*not fixed)
5. Ah Hua Kuey 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 minced meat and a piece of abalone. For those who are not so keen on having seafood (slightly higher price), can go for Ah Hua's pork noodle soup.
Opening Hours:
7am - 2:30pm (Friday: 7:30am - 2:30pm)
Closed on Wednesday
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 and boiled soups too.
Opening Hours:
9:30am to 8pm | Daily
Read: Hao Bi (好比鸭王) Herbal Roasted Duck @ Taman Century
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.
Opening Hours:
7am to 4pm | Closed on Monday
8. Geylang Lor 9 Fresh Frog Porridge (Night time only)
Along the same stretch of shop houses as Restoran Sing Li, there are two restaurants selling frog porridge. Both are opened for business around evening time. We tried the frog porridge from Restoran Geylang Lor 9 (芽笼九巷).
We tried both the spicy kung pao version (cooked with dried chilies) and spring onion version in two clay pots and also a fried frog legs with garlic. The frog meat are tender and also spicy from the dried chilies. And usually eaten with porridge. Apart from dinner, it's a hot favourite for supper too!
Opening Hours:
6pm to 4am daily
9. 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 and kaya puffs too.
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 by afternoon. You can always look through the glass windows to see if they are baking the next batches.
Opening Hours:
9am to 9pm | Daily
Read: Traditional Pastries of Ming Ang Confectionery (明安特产专卖店)
10. 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. 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.
Opening Hours:
10am to 6pm | Daily
Read: August Drip Coffee (八月咖啡工作室) @ Taman Century
More Eating Places
There are more eating places in Taman Sri Tebrau (or nearby Pelangi, Dai Mah Garden, Sentosa) — about 600-metre walk from KSL City Mall. There is also a night market outside KSL City Mall on Monday nights, don't miss it.
Read: What to Eat in Taman Sri Tebrau, Johor Bahru (新山大马花园) (2022)
Read: What to Eat around KSL City Mall, Johor Bahru — The Night Market
Note: Those marked in "blue" open for business at night only.