Kota Baharu Restaurants

I didn't mean to say this is the only one place worth paying attention to since I rarely write about food.

I find this joint is quite against all odd as compare to most eat out places in Kelantan. The restaurant is tastefully decorated, foods of wide variety and reasonably priced.

This place is frequented mostly by youngsters (me too) and lots of Chinese kids love to hang out here. It probably due to the deprivation in the State of Kelantan where governing rulers are quite against modernization and foreign influence.

By the way, I am just accidentally step into this joint and they actually serve hahal foods. I suggest those who’re not fancy roadside food stores should check this out.

P/s: They serve latte, earl grey and all the regular espresso based coffee as well.

Keropok is famous in the east-coast of peninsular Malaysia.

The special about this is the keropok is it is eat with chili..

Favorite Dish: You can get the keropok in the 1st floor of pasar siti khatijah. My friend bought a lot from Kuala Terengganu but it is about the same as in Kota Bahru.

Although it is famous.. haha.. i dont like it.. while my other friends said it taste good..

The common price is RM1 per packet, 6 packets for RM5

Kuih-muih is the malay of 'cake'.

After listening so much about the kuih-muih in Kelantan, finally I have a chance to try it myself.

Personally, I dont quite like the kuih muih in Kelantan because the taste are generally more sweet than in west peninsular.

I had a few types of the kuih on the first floor of pasar siti khatijah. There are a wide range of variety. The price is cheap, so just point and try!

1 more image

One of my biggest found in our trip to Kota Bharu is this Restaurant 69. We came a day earlier on Friday only to discover it is closed. Came the next day, only to be welcomed warmly by this Chinese middle aged owner (shame on us for never even find out his name).

Although Nasi Padang (or Nasi Sumatera) is an Indonesian cuisine, it is actually very very common in Kota Bharu.

We sat down, and all the dishes came at once. I tend to think it is a set meal thing. Every table gets the same dishes: There were curry beef chunk, stirr fry beef strips, Curried Mutton knuckle, deep fried chicken tight, some veg, and top it up with a very savory tasting spiced beef bone stock soup. YUM!

The owner is very very proud of the good food served from his restaurant, so much so he kept insisting us to try variety of his dishes, and offered the lightly toasted bread so we can even dip the sauce and eat it all clean!

We love the environment here too, as workers of different ethnic and age work as a team helping to serve the best food to their customers.

Favorite Dish: Definately the mutton curry. With a slight hint of burn grated coconut, it is very hard to forget the good taste. It taste slightly sweet too, a little of peanut I think as well.

Also should try is the fried chicken, as they only use free running Kampung Chicken (Village Chicken). Therefore the meat is mostly tender juicy, and almost without fat.

1 more image

You will get to see this shop all over the place. Mostly consist of cottage industry. It is recommended to buy a few thing or two to help support the local cottage industry.

Terengganu might have the Lekor, but Kelantan has the keropok Losong that has much more fish meat in within.

Favorite Dish: Product includes most famous boiled fish cake made with ground fish meat and tapioca flour. You buy them in newspaper wrapped packet, consisting of 23 small sticks (like churos), around RM5 per packet. Usually I see tourist buy them in 10 packets or so in a go

When bring home, you can store them into the freezer for later consumption, or deep fried and eat as a snack, together with sweet chilli sauce if you please. Highly addictive I warn you.

Apart from that, you can to buy all kinds of dried fish crackers around. Make sure you heat them lightly under sun before begin deep frying them. Otherwise they won't expand and will definately taste rock hard.

3 more images

Try come later around 9pm instead, because at dinner and normal weekday lunch time this place is packed! Nonetheless the staffs always seemed patience enough. So it is good.

Favorite Dish: No one leaves Kota Bharu without trying the best ayam percik in town. It is a specially marinated chicken being roast on charcoal flame. When done, a coconut milk based creamy sauce is poured lavishly all over.

At Yati's you order one serving of ayam percik, and then eat with the Nasi Kerabu. Nasi Kerabu eassentially is a white steamed rice, mixed with sort of local garden salad, comprising diced long bean, bean sprout, dry fried grated coconut, and some spice.

Apart from that, you can order the daging bakar too which I strongly recommended as well. Daging Bakar is made out of beef. You can call it a BBQ beef as well, and it usually taste a little salty, with a five spice sort of after taste.

2 more images

If you are like us, hanging around KB on a Friday afternoon, you will find yourself hungry after founding for food around the whole town. THIS IS TRUE! 90% of the shops in KB is closed on Friday, perhaps for prayer or so. Even the Chinese restaurant close too.

Favorite Dish: The only way to get something decent to eat, for us at least, was this Kebun Sultan Hawker Center. Lucky can find food here, otherwise must've died famine. Heh...

Loads of people eat the dim sum in the afternoon, looks a bit like a steamed sushi stuffed with fish meat. It taste alright. They have the indian food stalls here too, nothing too special. Other stalls include Cantonese fried noodles, Fish Ball Noodles, mixed rice, chee cheong fun. Take your pick

As Kota Baharu is close to Thailand, the influence of Thai cuisine such as Tom Yam are apparent here.