Cameron Highlands Restaurants

It's always nice to visit The Smokehouse for its lovely gardens. I've stayed at the hotel before but it was too pricey for me this time. Decided to have lunch instead on the way back to KL.

Ambience is old English and it needs a tad of sprucing up as the furniture and furnishings are showing its age. Even the bathroom is looking a little run down.

Food wise, its English fare is pretty decent like fish and chips, strawberries and cream, etc. Expect to pay US$15 per person for a main meal and a drink.

Fancy encountering a German Swiss restaurant in Cameron Highlands? That's what I found during my stay in Tanah Rata.

Restaurant owner, Steven Ananda whipped up some emmenthaler sausages for me complete with mashed potatoes and salad. Turns out Steven gets his meat from Eurodeli in KL!

There's even a budget hotel here called Schwarbing House Inn and it costs RM60 (approximately US$17.40) a night.

Favorite Dish: Food was not too bad although I find the sausages that I have tasted from Eurodeli restaurant in KL better. Perhaps the meat is not as fresh in Cameron Highlands as Steven only stocks up during the weekends as it will be crowded.

"Restoran Cameron Highlands" @ Brinchang a.k.a CHEATERS!!!!

I went to the Cameron for weekend break with my gf and parents for the past week. We spent 3days there. And we had great experiences until we had dinner at "Restoran Cameron Highlands". It was a Saturday night where all other restaurants were full. Unfortunately we got into that restaurant (one well-spoken guy kept pulling us in). And so my parents and i were (4 persons)there for a dinner. We ordered 6 dishes ( fried beehun, "yin yang" , fried water crust, steamed fish(african ), vege, and chicken ). The servings were ordered for 2 persons and they were really stingly served. ( I could even finish the vege itself with a few scopes). And by the time we paid for the bill, the servant brought us a bill priced at RM85 ( wft!! chinese tea (heong pin) costed us RM5 alone) It was totally a rip off. So guys and gals... it is advisible NOT to go to "Restoran Cameron Highlands".

Directions: If you come up from Tanah Rata towards Brinchang town, the restaurant is on the left hand side shop rows. The first restaurant on the left. (next to a shop named You Hoo)

Unlike her spartan sister (Fraser's Hill ) , Cameron Highlands have more food choices for the weary traveller. You can get anything from really bad banana pancakes to honest to goodness Indian Bryani. Here's a list of all my favourite eating places.

1)Tea and Scones
- Bala's Chalet
- T-Cafe

2)Steamboat
Ho's Organic Restaurant - Brinchang
Hong Kong Restaurant - Tanah Rata

3)Western Style Meal
- Ye Olde Smokehouse

The best thing to eat in such cool weather condition is steamboat! There are many restaurants in the town of Tanah Rata & Brinchang offering steamboat dinner. They usually go by the number of persons and you may want to add on some fried noodles or vegetables. Steamboat is fun in a cold weather... just dump in the sausages, fish balls, eggs, chicken, pork into the boiling soup and wait for it to cook. It can't go wrong!

Favorite Dish: Order a plate of fried 'kam chan'. It's a kind of vegetable which is quite popular in Cameron and hardly found in other parts of Malaysia. Tastes very nice!

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We couldn't make up our mind which restaurant to patronize because over this stretch, almost all the restaurants are selling steamboats. In the end, we just went into the most crowded one. We had steamboat at this restaurant and each person cost RM15 for lunch. We had the "Yuan Yang" wok which means half of it is tom yam soup and the other one is clear soup. The so called tom yam soup was excellent, it has a bit of assam favour.. and we simply love it. The ingredients for the steamboat were quite simple as you can see from the photo. I ate lots of vegetables here because the veggie here were very fresh. We ate at this restaurant for 2 consecutive days but the steamboat will cost RM17 for dinner.

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Avoid this place at all cost, if not it will cost you a lot. I and my family went up Cameron Highland on a wonderful Friday and expect a good dinner.
There wasn't any menu and/or price. There's only a notice saying price is up 20% during the Chinese New Year season. They'll charge you crazy for pathetic food. Fish ball soup which is basically 10 pcs of flour balls goes around RM 18. A dish of very normal vege cost about RM 17. A dish of chicken with a few slices of chicken and which doesnt taste good goes for around RM 28. Everything added in, it cost us RM 170 for 5 person simple dinner which is exorbitantly high even compared to KL standards. This restaurant is definitely a trap for tourist. They like one-time business.

Be careful of others restaurant around that have a same signage design. Or to be safe, first check whether the restaurants have menu with price listed clearly before deciding to eat there. Be wary of restaurant where there are people inviting you in.

Favorite Dish: Definitely none. Probably the strawberry juice is ok, because its not available in KL. But be prepared to pay a lot for something you can buy somewhere else on the highland.

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There are a number of restaurants serving tasty South & Northern Indian food at Tanah Rata town. You can't miss them-they are located after the HSBC bank and souvenior shops and are almost all set in a row.

If you are in a hurry, you can select from a number of pre-prepared spicy curries, marsalas, beriyani rice, or white rice. If you have a bit more time, you can get them to whip up some tandoori chicken with freshly oven-baked naans (a type of flat bread). They have many varieties: honey naan, banana naan, plain naan, cheese naan, garlic naan, etc. etc. The naan set (under RM10) was pretty good value-comes with tandoori chicken, mint sauce and curry gravy.

They also serve hainanese chicken rice for those who don't like spicy food.

Favorite Dish: The naan with curry and tandoori chicken.
Mango Laasi (a type pf yoghurt drink)-very creamy and yummy
Strawberry Lassi
Banana Naan was quite tasty as a dessert too.

CaveatIf you are in a larger group, it is better to just choose from the pre-prepared dishes, or order the chicken rice. The tandoori & naan sets seemed to take a long time to be ready. However, we were not in a hurry, so we relaxed with our lassies, while waiting for our food to be served. Service was friendly & overall, the price was very reasonable.