The World’s Best Malaysian Food

Fine dining on the 48th floor with a front-row view of the Petronas Twin Towers, which is either the most on-the-nose table in Malaysia or the perfect metaphor for what's happening on the plate. Dewakan holds two Michelin stars and works through a tasting menu built almost entirely on indigenous Malaysian ingredients, the kind most menus overlook. The juice pairing, made in-house, is less a concession to non-drinkers than a statement of intent.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. The 50 #62 · Asia's 50 Best Restaurants

The name comes from the Malay word for lotus flower and the street where the chef grew up, which sets the tone for what follows. Seroja is a 24-seat fine dining restaurant built around a multi-course menu of Malay Archipelago cooking, with counter seats that put the kitchen on full display. Mangrove wood-charred scallops with laksa leaf sauce are the signature. It holds a Michelin star and sits on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list.

1. The 50 #20 · Asia's 50 Best Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Sydney, Australia

Oma's Hideaway is the loud, shiny little sister of Gado Gado, a Division Street restaurant where psychedelic Indonesian music plays over a menu that treats the word "restraint" as a rumor. Salted egg yolk curry fries come with sambal ketchup, and lamb satay arrives tucked inside a fried steam bun. The bar glitters like a disco ball, so the drinks keep pace, and nobody here is quietly checking their phone.

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Thomas Pisha-Duffly
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Esquire #30 · The Best New Restaurants in America

A lineup of house sambals lands on the table before you've made any decisions, which is a useful way to begin at this easygoing Malaysian restaurant on Beverly. Chef Johnny Lee's Chinese-Malaysian cooking runs from satay and charred okra to beef rendang with buttery roti, and the plates are sized for sharing, which softens the slightly higher tabs. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation #9 · LA’s Best New Restaurants
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Holly Fox and Adam Weisblatt - Last Word Hospitality

1. The Infatuation #5 · The 25 Best Restaurants In London
2. Eater The 38 Best London Restaurants

Flaky roti canai folded and crisped to order, torn apart and dragged through curry, is the move that explains Phat Eatery in a single gesture. This casual Malaysian street food spot in Katy draws a crowd happy to share plates of Hainanese chicken, beef rendang, and satay across a loud, affordable table. The chef was a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas, which for a strip-mall canteen in the Houston suburbs is a sentence worth sitting with.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
2. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
3. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Alex Au-Yeung

Charcoal grills sit at the heart of the room, their glow doing double duty as heat source and décor. This fire-led grill restaurant in a George Town shophouse works dry-aged Australian and Japanese beef over live flame, with a menu that moves between land and sea through a distinctly Malaysian lens. The space is calm and material-forward, the service composed without being stiff. It holds a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

1. World's 101 Best #76 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Named after a traditional Malay board game, this casual Malaysian restaurant sits on a quiet residential street just off the Bukit Bintang bustle. The kitchen leans into local classics that tourists call exotic and regulars call Tuesday, with the nasi ambeng platter as the centerpiece, a generous spread of spicy, sweet, and savory flavors built around sambal. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The two rooms tell the story: one wall still has the glazed tiles from the old butcher's shop, the other is draped in pot plants going full jungle. GaGa is a lively Malaysian and Southeast Asian restaurant in Partick, the kind of neighbourhood spot that earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand by keeping the food vibrant and the bill reasonable. Grab a booth, order a cocktail, and let the menu wander across Malaysia, Thailand, and wherever else the kitchen feels like going.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Named after a mango variety, this compact Malay grill in Jumeirah earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand for food that traces back to the team's family hawker roots in Singapore. The menu roams across Southeast Asia, and dishes like a six-hour rendang built on twenty spices show the kitchen's patience. The room is genuinely small, so bring people, order widely, and let the staff talk you through it, which they will want to do.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The line outside this small Malaysian café in Alhambra is the first thing you notice, and it doesn't thin out much once you're in. The menu is short and focused on classics: Hainanese chicken, curry with roti canai, kaya toast. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which feels about right for a neighborhood spot where the takeout tickets never stop piling up. Come with patience and without a reservation, because neither option exists.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The strapline is "Malaysian Heat + Juicy Wines," which tells you most of what you need to know about this snug Clapton restaurant. The menu rotates, but the cooking is rooted in family recipes, so dishes like prawn toast and pork-stuffed squid feel lived-in rather than constructed. Order generously and share. The natural wine list is taken seriously, the sour cocktail is a good opener, and the Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Nasi lemak, the Malaysian classic of coconut rice with pickled veg, crispy anchovies, and curried chicken, is what the regulars reorder without looking up. Nyonya is a no-frills Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown, brick walls and wooden tables, where the menu runs long and the servers are opinionated enough to steer you past the obvious choices. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a room this unpretentious feeding people this well.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Charcoal smoke sets the tone at Fiz, a tasting menu restaurant in Tanjong Pagar where the kitchen rotates its focus between regions and ingredients each season. One menu might trace the fermentation and curing traditions of a specific Indonesian region; another opens with kaya toast topped with century egg and caviar. The kind of place where every detail signals that someone thought hard about it, which the Michelin Guide has quietly noted.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Exposed ducts, charcoal-gray walls, and metal chairs set the tone at this Malaysian street food restaurant on Buford Highway, designed to feel like a night market and largely succeeding. The menu is enormous, the portions match it, and everything is built for sharing. The Michelin Guide has it listed, which tracks for a place this comfortable feeding a table of eight without breaking a sweat.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A Singaporean hawker-style restaurant on the third floor of the Andaz Doha, where the open kitchen does most of the decorating. The menu runs from chilli crab to mango sago pudding, organized by cooking method the way a good hawker centre organizes by stall. It skews toward expats chasing a taste of the Garden City, but the food doesn't require nostalgia to work. Tell them your spice tolerance upfront; they take the question seriously.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Akar is a Malaysian fine dining room in Clayton with concrete walls, sparse decor, and the lighting of a place that expects you to lean in. There's no menu online and reservations happen by phone, which in this economy counts as an aggressive commitment to mystery. The curries run rich and layered, the roti arrives in flaky sheets, and the plates cost real money, so dress like you made the call on purpose.

1. St. Louis Magazine Best restaurants in St. Louis
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants in St. Louis

Nasi lemak is the organizing principle here, the Malaysian national dish built around coconut rice with its constellation of sides. This quick-service counter in downtown San Jose plates it with Mamak-style fried chicken, an overnight spice-and-curry-leaf marinade under a thin cornstarch crackle that happens to be gluten-free. The San Francisco Chronicle put it on both its best San Jose restaurants and best Bay Area fried chicken lists, which is a tidy double for a $13 plate.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best fried chicken restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in San Jose

A kopitiam and cheese shop sharing one address on College Street, which is either a very specific vision or a beautiful accident. The Singaporean-Malaysian menu runs deep, the kind of cooking that earns Michelle Yeoh as a fan without making a fuss about it. Roti prata comes flaky and dip-ready, and the stacked lunchbox format means you can cover a lot of ground in one sitting.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Toronto, Canada

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Toronto, Canada

1. Eater The 38 Best London Restaurants

The menu runs to biblical length and the wall photos of dishes look like lineup shots at a precinct, but nobody in this clattery Malaysian restaurant in Elmhurst seems bothered by either. The New York Times put it on their 100 Best in New York City list, which tracks. Roti canai leaves a sheen on your fingers, and the char kway teow arrives smelling of the wok in a way that suggests Kuala Lumpur, not Queens, until you look up.

1. The New York Times #49 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In Oakland

Hat Yai is a casual Southern Thai spot on Belmont where the fried chicken comes with a stack of flaky roti and a bowl of curry you will absolutely pour over everything. The breading is rice flour and tapioca, so it shatters, and the pickles on the side are there to remind you that you have a palate. Orders at nearly every table look identical, which is the closest thing Portland has to a group chat.

1. Portland Monthly Fried chicken combo · Portland’s Most Iconic Dishes

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Restaurants In Chelsea

1. The New York Times 2023 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2018 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Bon Appétit #6 · America's Best New Restaurants
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

1. Punch Best New Bartenders · Sam Pritchard
2. Philadelphia Magazine #8 · 50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar