10 unique coffee experiences to keep you awake in Kuala Lumpur

With a rich history that dates back to when it was founded in the late 1850s, Kuala Lumpur is a popular destination for those seeking a mix of the old and new. From the gleaming Petronas Twin Towers – appearing in many feature films and reality television shows – to kampung houses and colonial buildings, one never runs out of things to see in Malaysia’s capital.

So where do people in KL go for food and drinks? Apart from hanging out in hawker centres for a bite of local delicacies, café hopping has long been one of KLites’ favourite pastimes. As restrictions ease up, the city has started buzzing again with people out and about, keen to revisit old favourite coffee spots and try out new openings. Whether your idea of a good cuppa is a single origin cold brew or butter-roasted white coffee, it’s yours to be found in KL.

Here are our top 10 coffee-inspired experiences in the city.

Lintang 138 may look like just another stall in modern wet market ICC Pudu, but it frequently draws queues and crowds for its unusual take on Hainan tea. Hainan tea, or cham, is a sweet, silky blend of tea and coffee and Lintang 138 takes the flavour one step further by brewing it in a claypot. The added smokiness adds a whole other layer of flavour, whether you have it steaming hot, topped with frothed milk, perched at a table outside, or sip it over ice while wandering around the wet market. The drink is best paired, of course, with a plate of kaya toast, generously buttered then slathered with fragrant coconut jam.

Starting 26 April 2022, fully vaccinated travellers on all Singapore Airlines and Scoot flights will enjoy quarantine-free entry into Singapore without any pre-departure Covid-19 test. On your way to Kuala Lumpur why not stopover in Singapore and check out the spots below. To know more about entry requirements for Singapore, check Singapore Airlines’ travel advisory.

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Ilaika’s charming space in Taman Paramount is stacked with beautiful wares from independent Malaysian makers. Order your coffee at One Half Coffee’s counter, then take your time wandering while you wait for your cup of java. Here you will find natural skincare and body care, handcrafted wooden homeware, one-of-a-kind ceramics and small-batch candles. And of course, thoughtfully brewed coffee from an everchanging line-up of interesting roasters.

You could spend a lot of time at Tintabudi, one of KL’s best independent bookstores. Tintabudi is small but well-shelved and specialising in the humanities, with titles covering literature, philosophy, history, arts and more. And then there’s the secret entrance to coffee bar Piu Piu Piu – head out the back door, round the corner and you’ll find yourself in this tiny coffee bar. Forget polished Insta-ready aesthetics – Piu Piu Piu is dominated by paraphernalia, from framed movie posters to knick-knacks, toys and postcards hanging from a full wall of pegboard. Try their Military Latte – it’s a concoction of matcha, espresso and vanilla syrup. And if you’re lucky enough to find a place to perch, the cakes come very well recommended too.

If you can’t do a spa day while travelling, when can you? Urban Retreat Spa is a welcome retreat in glossy Mont Kiara – perfect for a quick treat in between brunch and afternoon tea. Their Shine My Back treatment is a 90-minute-long delight, starting with Balinese coffee scrub to cleanse and buff away dead skin, leaving you soft and glowing. The scrub is followed up by a signature aromatherapy massage to work out all your travel aches and pains.

If your interest in coffee goes beyond just mainlining caffeine and extends into the technical, book yourself a class or two at Cottle Coffee. This Melbourne roaster offers classes in their airy, industrial-style Tropicana Gardens Mall flagship café and a dedicated training centre in Taman Titiwangsa. Their range of classes and courses goes from beginner-friendly to barista-level accreditation. Try your hand at latte art or filter coffee, and grow your understanding of coffee-making as a skill.

Half & Hāfu is a half-playful café, half-very cool hair salon for those who want a new look and/or a fun coffee-based beverage. The space is filled with greenery and an artful mix of mid-century modern and actual modern styling; be warned: you may have to join a small queue of people waiting to take a photo under their famous neon sign. Half & Hāfu’s signature menu item is the eponymous Half & Hāfu, a fragrant blend of espresso, chocolate and dry bitter orange. Sample their seasonal line-up of flavoured cold brews, their strawberry matcha (really), and their expertly light-handed balayage.

KL’s Chinatown has been going through a revival, and one of the first places to start this movement was Merchant’s Lane. It’s a beautiful space that clearly understood the assignment, delivering Instagram-ready moments and corners, fusing old world Chinatown charm with contemporary flavours. Merchant’s Lane’s iced jasmine black is a revelation in mid-afternoon thirst quenchers – and if you’re lucky enough to be able to sip it from the cafe’s much-photographed hanging rattan chair, so much the better.

RexKL is one of KL’s most exciting spaces, an old abandoned cinema transformed into a cultural and creative hotspot. There’s rarely a weekend when there isn’t a screening, market or festival happening here – and even when there isn’t, resident coffee bar Stellar is worth the visit. Go for the cold brew tonic, and stay for the artfully-crafted industrial décor, the excellent people-watching opportunities and the chance to witness KL from a slightly less slick corner of the city.

Toothless Coffee has been a favourite on the city’s coffee scene for its excellent roasts, and now they’ve opened their very own omakase experience coffee bar. The bar takes extremely limited reservations (only four people at a time), for a whole array of different one-hour coffee experiences: coffee flights, cocktails, mocktails and tonics.

This award-winning bar-café, tucked away in Damansara Heights’ dining hub Republik, isn’t just about a tokenistic espresso martini on the menu. They’ve got a whole section dedicated to the coffee cocktail – and what a section it is. Ease yourself in with a Cold Irish Coffee, featuring Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey, cold brew coffee (from Happy Stan’s sibling cafe, VCR) and sweetened by honey and muscovado. Then sample the bar’s Trinidad Coffee Sour, or their Coffee Negroni. And end on a high with the classic Espresso Martini.

Please check the establishments’ respective websites for opening hours as well as booking requirements before visiting, and remember to adhere to safe-distancing measures while out and about.

The information is accurate as of press time. For the latest travel advisory updates, please refer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website.

To learn more about Singapore Airlines flights to Kuala Lumpur, visit singaporeair.com. To join us in protecting the environment by offsetting your carbon emissions on your future flights, visit the following websites to learn more:  carbonoffset.singaporeair.com.sg and carbonoffset.flyscoot.com