Vegan places to eat in Malaysia?

[nickysr]

Hi there
Going to Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi in two weeks as a last minute holiday choice... Does anyone have tips for great places to eat there? I am hoping there are lots of Buddist Chinese style places??

[Mr Flibble]

Have you tried typing "kuala lumpur vegan" into google? There seems to be quite a lot of vegan friendly restuarants in the first few links

[nickysr]

Have you tried typing "kuala lumpur vegan" into google? There seems to be quite a lot of vegan friendly restuarants in the first few links

thanks for the good advice - that was the first thing I did and I got some places etc.. but wanted to see if I could get the names of anywhere that people could actually recommend.... - the old cliche - ' this must be where the locals go'
TA Mr Flibble (love the name!)

[Mr Flibble]

Cool.

I'm not sure how many people on this forum are malaysian (i dopn't remember seeing many posting in the past year), but you never know :)

One thing I've tried in the past when visiting places is digging out email addresses of vegans who live there and contacting them directly for info. I noticed on the restuarant pages for kl some people had added reviews and included their email addresses - could be worth a shot. Another tip is to search for vegans who are members of forums and have their location listed in their profiles. You can use google for the search, then join the forum in question and PM. Many people don't reply, but I've had some interesting conversations with people in the past this way :)

[nickysr]

[QUOTE=Mr Flibble;233533]Cool.

I'm not sure how many people on this forum are malaysian (i dopn't remember seeing many posting in the past year), but you never know :)

Cheeky!!! (I did post this on the Vegan Travelling forum so...)

Thanks for the other advice though! Will start shooting off those emails...
N

[yorbo]

Hi,

I used to live in Kuala Lumpur, I wasn't vegan then, but I went back there as a vegan and believe me it is quite easy to find vegan food.

For starters food is everywhere in Malaysia you will be able to find really cheap food in "hawker centers", basically a place with a whole bunch of small stalls selling all sorts of food. There are many Chinese vegetarian stalls, they are pretty much vegan except sometimes they use eggs just be careful, Indian stalls offer also a wide range of vegetarian/vegan food. However it is hard to find vegan food in Malay restaurants. They use lots of seafood, chicken....

In Langkawi you will also find loads of hawker centers. If you go to a Chinese restaurant you will be able to order some really nice tofu dishes but be careful when you order green vegetables they often use oyster sauce to cook them.

Hope this helps

[cedarblue]

no idea about places to eat but have a great holiday! :)

[nickysr]

Dear Yorbo,
Thank you for the fantastic advice - It is really helpful.
As long as I can stand the humidity - I will have a great time!

[nickysr]

no idea about places to eat but have a great holiday! :)

Thank you - never been before so am sooo excited!

[EFCliz]

We went to KL and Langkawi 18 months ago. I wasn't vegan then but we were both veggie. We ate very well. There are some amazing chinese places that do loads of fake meat stuff. Which hotels are you staying in? Even on our breakfast buffets there was loads of vegan stuff. I will have a look at my guide book when I get in tonight and see if I can remember the names of the places. We went to one Indian place in KL where you could eat as mush as you want from a buffet and then you paid what you felt the meal was worth. From memory most of it must have been vegan.

In KL a great non-food related thing to do is go to the Batu Caves. It gives such a fascinating insight into Hinduism and well worth a visit.

[nickysr]

Thank you for your reply EFCliz...
We are staying in the Mandarin Oriental in KL and The Four Seasons in Langkawi. (a bit swanky but got a great last min. deal!)
The Batu Caves sound great - will deff. go there. Am so excited about the whole trip!!!
I know holidays are not all about the food - but it really helps knowing a few places so you are not wandering around aimlessly for hours to find somewhere pleasant( a constant part of all our previous hols!!!!)

[EFCliz]

We stayed in swanky places too. I'm sure you will find that the breakfast buffets will have loads of options because they all cater for many chinese and Indian visitors. At the very least there will be lots of miso soup with tofu and seaweed, and everywhere we went had lots of lovely lentil stew with coconut rice (yes for breakfast!).

Don't be afraid in your hotels to ask to meet the head chef when you first arrive and explain what you can and can't eat. I always do that in swanky places; the head chef will always come and say hello and sometimes arrange something special. One night in Langkawi after we'd done that he arranged a special 3 course meal for us.

In Langkawi taxis are very cheap. 2 great restaurants to visit are Barn Thai and Bon Ton. Barn Thai is set in the middle of a mangrove swamp and a brilliant building website here http://www.ytlhotels.com/properties/barn_thai/ We went in a taxi and it was well worth it. The staff were very good at explaining what had fish sauce or shrimp paste in and we had a good spread. Some very nice things if you like it hot!

BonTon is one of the nicest restaurants we've ever been to but you'd have to contact them to see what is vegan - I'm pretty sure mine was but don't think there were many options. they may be able to cook you something if you let them know in advance. It's in the most gorgeous setting and it doubles as a sanctuary for homeless and abused cats. This is the website.

In Kuah town (capital of langkawi) is a very very cheap Indian place which does a very good selection of vegan food. It's bright yellow and says vegetarian food on the outside. They give you a try with lots of little things to try.

Well worth buying is The Rough Guide to malaysia and singapore. All the places we ate came from there. If I can find it tonight I will try and remember to check the places we ate in KL.

[EFCliz]

We stayed in swanky places too. I'm sure you will find that the breakfast buffets will have loads of options because they all cater for many chinese and Indian visitors. At the very least there will be lots of miso soup with tofu and seaweed, and everywhere we went had lots of lovely lentil stew with coconut rice (yes for breakfast!).

Don't be afraid in your hotels to ask to meet the head chef when you first arrive and explain what you can and can't eat. I always do that in swanky places; the head chef will always come and say hello and sometimes arrange something special. One night in Langkawi after we'd done that he arranged a special 3 course meal for us.

In Langkawi taxis are very cheap. 2 great restaurants to visit are Barn Thai and Bon Ton. Barn Thai is set in the middle of a mangrove swamp and a brilliant building website here http://www.ytlhotels.com/properties/barn_thai/ We went in a taxi and it was well worth it. The staff were very good at explaining what had fish sauce or shrimp paste in and we had a good spread. Some very nice things if you like it hot!

BonTon is one of the nicest restaurants we've ever been to but you'd have to contact them to see what is vegan - I'm pretty sure mine was but don't think there were many options. they may be able to cook you something if you let them know in advance. It's in the most gorgeous setting and it doubles as a sanctuary for homeless and abused cats. This is the website. http://www.bontonresort.com.my/nam.html

In Kuah town (capital of langkawi) is a very very cheap Indian place which does a very good selection of vegan food. It's bright yellow and says vegetarian food on the outside. They give you a try with lots of little things to try.

Well worth buying is The Rough Guide to malaysia and singapore. All the places we ate came from there. If I can find it tonight I will try and remember to check the places we ate in KL.

[nickysr]

thank you so much for the advice, am really looknig forward it... not long to go!!

[Pete Teoh]

Nick, I'm a Malaysian living in the United States. I was omni when I lived in Malaysia so I never paid a whole lot of attention to specific veg restaurants. There's a fairly large population of Buddhists in Malaysia so there are restaurants that cater to them. Just ask the locals and I'm sure they'll be able to guide you to one. There's also a large Indian population so you'll be able to find Indian restaurants with vegan items.

If you need sightseeing suggestions, let me know. :)

[nickysr]

Thanks pete - we go to an amazing Malaysian Buddist place for food in London (the only one in London I think) so hoped that KL would have similar places...
Am going to order a guide book today - we are staying next to the petronas towers so will have a look at that by default! Anywhere else you think is a must would be greatly appreciated...... thanks again!

[Pete Teoh]

KL is very much a large metropolitan city so you're not likely to find uniquely Malaysian culture. That said, there are many places that might be interesting to you. As yorbo mentioned, food is everywhere so there'll be lots to try. Definitely check out the Petronas Towers. Also head over to the KL Tower. There's an observation deck and revolving restaurant at the top. You'll be able to have a great view of the Petronas Towers from the KL Tower, plus all the other surrounding areas.

Petaling Street is worth checking out for some cheap shopping. Lots of souvenir T-shirts here and lots of fake luxury watches. Beware of pickpockets! The area can get very crowded and it's easy to have something stolen from your pocket if you're not paying attention.

If the hustle and bustle of the city gets too much... head over to Lake Gardens. It's a huge park/wooded area and has some interesting spots to stop at, namely the Bird Park, Butterfly Park, Orchid garden, Hibiscus garden. The National Monument is also here and commemorates the lives lost in the 2nd world war. From the Natinonal Monument you can get a glimpse of the Parliament building in the distance.

Take a trip out to the new capital of Putrajaya. There's some interesting architecture there. Batu Caves is worth a day trip from KL. Have good walking shoes on because you'll be doing a lot of climbing. The Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) has a guided canopy walk where you can walk on the top canopy of trees. It's been a few years since I've done the Canopy walk so check to make sure they still have it.

Melaka is worth doing a day trip to also from KL. It has some interesting historical sites. If the tropical heat gets too much, take a ride up to Genting Highlands.

[nickysr]

Pete - thank you so much - all of your suggestions sound amazing - will definately try some if not all! Thank you once again
x
Nicky

[nickysr]

Thank you to everyone who made suggestions - we had an amazing trip and didn't want to leave!
Had the most amazing food in both places - especially KL where we found many chinese buddhist and indian pure vegetarian eateries. Yum!
Nicky x

[squigaletta]

Hey, thought I would revive this as I am going to the perhentians in march. I went to malaysia before and for the first week every 'vegetarian dish' I ordered had meat in it, luckily I was with omis. does anyone have vegan experiences in he perhentians, I'm staying on little perhentian. I figure I'm gonna be sticking mainly to fresh fruit for two weeks but theres nothing wrong with that :)

[pat sommer]

So, how was the raw fruit diet, Squigaletta?

Worth traveling to?

[squigaletta]

Amazing! I'm booking a ticket back there as soon as I have some cash!
The fruit was amazing so I could have survived on that but a lot of people also have really good english and I managed to get lots of vegan friendly meals prepared. In addition a lot of traditional malay food is buffet style, and it's moderately easy to pick the vegan out from the non-vegan, they use a lot of tofu and tempeh and very little dairy. the things to watch out for are tofu dishes with meat in, and just a general over usage of eggs!

[pat sommer]

Cheers! Never know, I may end up there on route from Phuket to KL for the flight back to Beijing. With the recession and swine flu I am hoping last-minute low-budget deals are on offer.

[squigaletta]

I cannot reccomend malaysia and the perhentians highly enough, its the most amazing country with the most amazing people!!!