Kuala Lumpur Vegetarian Food Mecca

Vegetarian food

Annalakshmi Vegetarian restaurant:

This place was one of our goals for this trip. We walked from KL Sentral and once we reached Brickfields, we started seeing Indian places one after another. They have their own restaurant, which we didn’t go to, and a buffet that operates three times per day. We went there for breakfast, and basically you take a tray, choose whatever foods you want, and pay however much you want once you’ve finished.

We asked one lady how much she pays and she said 5 ringgit and something along the lines of “whatever your heart says”, so we paid double – 10 ringgit each. We also ate double! The food wasn’t bad and it wasn’t extraordinary either – it was good enough to go for seconds!* We stuffed our faces to the point where we couldn’t stand up. Literally. The walk back to KL Sentral was a real struggle.

Street snacks:

We saw a few of these carts on wheels, and at least two of them were %100 vegetarian. We tried every single deep-fried item from one vendor, and 6 out of 8 pieces were good, and only 2 out of 6 were very tasty. The winner was a samosa stuffed with potato curry, and 2^nd place went to the Eastern-European style donut. They cost like one or two ringgit for the whole bag. I think I messed up with the change, because the guy asked for 2 ringgit 20 cents, and I think I confidently gave him 2 ringgit notes, which he thought were 3, and gave me 80 cents change. I was confused all day!

Banana Leaf meal:

After a few hours of chatting and looking at the Petronas Towers, our friends drove us to the lively Bangsan area for the anticipated banana leaf experience. One of the famous restaurants was packed and there seemed to be a permanent queue, but they had finished their vegetarian options. There was another place around the corner, but no vegetarian mains, just sides. The side dishes that consisted of curries and so on, seemed “main enough” for us! Man, I was still full from the morning buffet and snacking. And this was another buffet!

OMG I’m getting hungry just thinking about that place. There were 4 of us but one wasn’t hungry (I wish I had such self-control). They treated us to a lovely dinner and I think it cost about 50 ringgit for one meat curry, 3 rice, and tissue roti, endless sides of dhal, bitter gourd, cucumber curry and curried coleslaw.

Now the tissue roti was something I hadn’t seen before – it was like a puffed, very thin roti, almost like a traditional sweet Thai “dessert bread”. Once you sit down they place a huge banana leaf on the table, deliver your main, put slabs of limitless Indian goodness, and you tuck in with your fingers. At least that’s what 95% of the locals did. We used cutlery. I don’t know what they do to the bitter gourd, but it was fantastic. It tasted like deep-fried tempura sweet potato, only pink in colour. We were glad that most of the dhals that we tried weren’t at all greasy.

While we were eating we saw some musicians come, play, collect cash, then go elsewhere. Efficiency at its finest!

Best Indian food – Anjappar restaurant:

It was early Sunday afternoon, we walked for ages and really struggled to find a place for breakfast with veggie curries and roti… I even made a note on my phone saying “no roti, no roti…” hahaha. Then upon deciding to take a train to Brickfields, right there and then we saw a sign worth a million: “Indian vegetarian restaurant”. There was no longer a need to go to Brickfields for food. It was the best Indian food we’ve ever had. Although we haven’t been to India itself yet! We kept it easy, but still ordered way too much: a platter of everything (on a banana leaf!), a dhal, a paneer curry, some different breads, and more rice. We stuffed our faces once again and asked to pack half the stuff. At that point we were having thoughts about how much food your body can actually process in a day?

So I leave you with a question: can you gain ten pounds of pure fat in four meals?

Answer: If you happen to be in KL, it is highly likely.