Walk down the streets of Kuala Lumpur and you’ll see the capital city’s culinary history written in its restaurants. Among the most obvious is Chinese food. Migrants from southern China began arriving in then-Malaya in large numbers from the 19th century onward, bringing not just labor and trade but also their culinary ways. Cantonese cooks shaped banquet culture with dishes designed for big tables; Hokkien migrants perfected wok-frying with soy, lard, and dark noodles; Hakka kitchens leaned on sturdier, slow-braised fare; and Hainanese migrants filled the kopitiams (a local term for “coffee shops”) with chicken rice, chops, and butter-kaya toast.
In a city that constantly finds itself struggling with cultural preservation, the survival of certain restaurants is symbolic. These dining rooms are more than places to eat—they are remnants of the past. Families gather here not just for food but for familiarity: the same recipes, the same tables, sometimes even the same waiters, decades on. The fact that so many of these institutions are still thriving, with seats full on most days, is telling about KL’s relationship with traditional grub.
RADII has put together a list of seven legacy Chinese restaurants throughout Kuala Lumpur that are still serving dishes fit for any foodie.
Sek Yuen
If there’s one restaurant that embodies old KL, it’s Sek Yuen. Founded in 1948, it began as a modest Cantonese eatery and today stretches across three shop lots. Despite the growth, it has resisted modernization in some ways: the decor looks charmingly dated, and service is still carried out by senior staff in white shirts.
The pipa duck, a signature dish consisting of a splayed and deep-fried duck until crisp, is a must-order. There are also elaborate dishes like the eight-treasure duck or suckling pig that require pre-ordering. Eating here is to walk into a time capsule; it’s a reminder of how Cantonese KL tasted decades ago.
Yut Kee
Opened in 1928 by Hainanese immigrant Jack Lee, Yut Kee was originally a humble kopitiam serving colonial workers and office clerks. Nearly a hundred years later, it has moved to a brighter corner shop on Jalan Kamunting, but the essence is untouched.
This is not banquet dining, but rather, KL kopitiam culture at its most iconic. Roti babi, a deep-fried bread stuffed with pork and onions, is still made the same way. The Hainanese pork chop remains a throwback to a time when Chinese cooks adapted Western ingredients into their own repertoire. And of course, the marble cake, sliced off in generous slabs, flies off the counter daily. On weekends, the queue out the door tells you all you need to know about its continued relevance.
Kim Lian Kee
Few dishes scream “KL” louder than Hokkien mee: dark, glossy noodles stir-fried with pork lard, prawns, and cabbage over intense wok heat. Founded in 1927 by Ong Kim Lian as a stall that grew up on Petaling Street, Kim Lian Kee has since expanded to many parts of the city.
What hasn’t changed is the method: charcoal fire, fierce wok hei, and plenty of lard. There are copycats all over the Klang Valley, but many KL-ites still say this is the original and the best. The restaurant has come to symbolize how migrant kitchens defined what later became “Malaysian” food.
Hakka Restaurant
The simply titled Hakka Restaurant has survived not just decades but entire shifts in the city. Originally set up in 1956 in the state of Ipoh, it later relocated to KL’s Jalan Raja Chulan, where it still sits today in the shadow of the city’s skyscrapers. Despite the modern surroundings, its approach is rooted in family cooking.
Here, recipes passed down through generations still fill tables: braised pork belly, bean curd cooked in a claypot, stir-fried greens, and seafood platters. It is the kind of place KL families book for wedding banquets or three-generation birthday dinners—a reminder that food is one of the strongest ways families maintain continuity even as the city rushes ahead.
Restoran Oversea
Opened in the late 1970s, Oversea is not as old as Sek Yuen or Yut Kee, but it has become a defining name for KL’s Cantonese banquet culture in its own right. From roast meats to crab dishes, from “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall” soup to elaborate wedding menus, it helped standardize what a “KL banquet” looked like.
The flagship shop in Imbi, KL, eventually expanded into a chain, but its roots remain in that golden age of the ‘70s and ‘80s when Chinese banquet dining became aspirational. For many, a “dinner at the Oversea” still marks a special occasion, especially for those family occasions like Chinese New Year or wedding banquets.
Soong Kee Beef Noodles
If banquet dining is one side of the Chinese KL story, the other is humble street noodles. Soong Kee, which dates back to 1945, has been serving the same dish for eighty years: chewy noodles topped with minced beef sauce, accompanied by springy beef balls in soup.
The beauty is in its consistency. Generations of office workers, students, and late-night wanderers have eaten here, often at the same tables. In a city where noodle shops come and go, Soong Kee’s survival makes it one of KL’s great culinary constants; a testament to how one dish, done right, can outlast everything else.
Restoran Pik Wah
Pik Wah doesn’t shout its legacy from the rooftops. Tucked within the historic Chin Woo Stadium, it’s one of those restaurants that regulars keep to themselves since its inception in 1971. The menu hasn’t changed much: comforting Cantonese fare, claypot tofu, steamed fish, and stir-fries that feel like they’ve been perfected over years of repetition—because they have.
The room is retro in the best way, the waiters still recommend dishes table-side, and the kitchen still carries the atmosphere of the ‘70s and ‘80s. In recent years, it has even made the Michelin list—proof that hidden institutions can finally get their flowers.
Why Legacy Matters
What ties these seven spots together isn’t just longevity, but resilience. Each has navigated a changing city from colonial times to the 1990s economic boom, and now today’s skyline of malls and towers. They have adapted and expanded when they had to (Yut Kee moving premises, Oversea expanding into a chain), while staying the same as they see fit (especially with the dishes).
For KL’s Chinese community, these restaurants are vessels of nostalgia, holding onto flavors and patterns that connect the present with the past. For outsiders, they are windows into the layered history of migration and adaptation that defines the Chinese diaspora in Malaysia’s capital city.
While time doesn’t stop for anyone—which means novelties like new malls, new cafés, and new fusion menus will continue to appear—these legacy restaurants remind us that sometimes hard work and consistency pay off.
Cover image via Facebook/Sek Yuen Restaurant.
