Jalan Alor - Kuala Lumpur, the hawker food culinary

There are hawker centres all over Kuala Lumpur  but one of the famous ones is at Jalan Alor. Although the food may not be the top of its category, you will get to sample all Chinese, Malay, Thai and Indian hawker foods without traveling for hours or getting lost.

jalan alor

Jalan Alor, formerly known as the Red light district of Kuala Lumpur is a short walk away from the modern shopper’s paradise of the Bukit Bintang Walk and its many malls and plazas. It's generally jammed with tourists who wants to experience the hawker food culinary and looking for a taste of genuine Malaysian cuisine without the high price tag. It is quite an overwhelming experience for the first timers, who may have some difficulty on deciding where to eat as there is a wide array of food to choose from, some of the best being the grilled fresh seafood.

milk tea drink vendor at Jalan Alor

The Jalan Alor area is relatively dead during the day, but when the sun goes down it gets a complete makeover. Then people will come and make the tables ready for you. Soon the delicious smells of food being cooked filled the air.  Jalan Alor is famous for offering food served in a traditional open-air atmosphere, with chairs and tables dotting the curbs and road-sides. It is an entire street dedicated to cheap hawker food of mainly local Chinese cuisines as well as others. While some hawkers erect stalls along curbs, others operate food stalls from utilitarian restaurants. At night, the place has a very festive atmosphere with red lanterns strung along lamp posts and quite a bit of traffic.

tourist at Jalan Alor

You can see hawker stands selling durian fruits, sweetcorn bbq, fried chestnut and bubble ice tea. The culinary are varies, you can try barbecued meats, hanging roasted ducks, hokkien mee, grilled fish, Chinese noodle, fried rice, chicken satay, sweet and sour chicken, the local delicacy Stingray, the sea bass and red snapper came in a garlic and chilli marinade, the garlic kangkong, perhaps the penang fried kway teow and so on. The steamed vegetables, salad and fresh coconut drinks all complemented the seafood very well.

Tips: 

• grill seafood is a popular dish in Jalan Alor, so you might have to wait a bit for the food to arrive
• For the atmosphere and the experience, this as a must-try street culinary for first-time visitors to KL and the price is average
• Durian is also a popular stall in Jalan Alor, it has a sweet smelling and taste.  Please don’t eat durian if you have been drinking beers, it could be one of your worst days
• It’s easiest to arrive at the Bukit Bintang monorail stop and walk along Bukit Bintang. When you're around KFC you have to go left and than you have to walk 20meters and turn to the left. 
• Jalan Alor is a street full of Malaysian authentic food like curry laksa, assam laksa etc. It should be an amazing scene for trying Malaysian local foods.