The capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, has long been known as the center of coffee culture. This city of two million people is home to an institution of real cultural heritage, a conventional style cafe/snack shop that serves copious amounts of coffee and tea along with local delicacies, including the iconic kaya toast with coconut jam, butter and a soft-boiled egg. But here you’ll also find the deep-rooted specialty coffee scene that we’ve been covering for Sprudge’s international community of readers since 2015.
This story you are reading today is actually our third guide to Kuala Lumpur in the last decade; the most recent edition was released in 2019 and covered most of the downtown area between Bukit Bintang and Chinatown. Since then, the city has undergone a major transformation in its pursuit of specialty coffee perfection, with up-to-date places popping up almost every month. Most of this up-to-date class of upscale cafes are located in the suburbs, where rents are cheaper and cafes can benefit from regular patrons who don’t just stop by quickly on their way to work. Rather, these cafes act as a social center where people can taste, chat and learn about up-to-date coffee varieties and processes, becoming the equivalent of the local pub in a Muslim-majority country where alcohol is not a driving force in social life.
The suburb of Petaling Jaya is probably the most celebrated of these coffee districts, with the best shops dotting the octopus-like streets. From miniature, hidden-in-the-wall shops brewing single-origin Ethiopian coffee and baking delicious home-baked goods, to ultra-modern shops openly showcasing international design and cultural influences, to roasteries located on the surrounding streets where visitors can sample many different coffee beans before choosing a cup at the counter.
In between the extremes are a few hidden gems where coffee is the ultimate driving force, and the setting is hidden enough to feel like you’ve discovered a secret treasure trove, but not so far out that the commute will put you off. Petaling Jaya is connected by local metro and train, so getting there is uncomplicated.
The cafes listed in this guide are the places we think are pushing the Kuala Lumpur scene forward, mostly in the suburbs of Petaling Jaya, but with a few closer to the center if you’re low on time.
Half of the coffee roastery
This two-branch caffeine peak is located in the hipster district of Taman Paramount, separated by a low taxi ride. Half of the coffee roastery it’s the hub of the operation, roasting the coffee in-house, selling coffee-related products to the nerdy among us, and resplendent with a sleek, minimalist coffee tasting table where you can sit and watch the baristas create perfection. This is coffee perfection at the highest level, with manual grinders for some beans, electric for others, and a whole host of drippers and filter paper to accommodate flavor profiles. Many of their baristas are award-winning in the Malaysian scene (led by Keith Koay, who has won the Malaysian Barista Award three times), so you’re in the best hands.
The One Half crew are followers of the Nordic “lightweight roast” style, which means everything from Panamanian geshas to less popular Malaysian Liberia coffees roasted with a tender accent. Their Iłajka the branch serves more as a casual environment where you can enjoy great coffee and pastries made by the legendary Doudoubakeand even a clothing and accessories store with rotating Korean-style designers. In front of the house there is a vending machine selling analog films and cameras.
Simply put, this is one of the most trendy and international cafes in KL. If you’re looking for a truly third wave experience, but with a distinct Malaysian influence, make sure this cafe is on your itinerary.
Fading by SB
When you open the door here, you might be mistaken for being transported to a miniature cafe in Koenji, Tokyo. Basic wooden panels, corner windows and a diminutive countertop give a distinctly Japanese aesthetic. There is a still noise at Fading by SBcreated by a well-coordinated team that knows its role and loves what it does. All cups and saucers are purchased from second-hand stores, the furniture is mismatched, and the wooden panels are mostly unpainted and undecorated, giving it an unpretentious, calming atmosphere.
The focus here is on Ethiopian coffees, which are used for both espresso and filter coffee throughout the café. The cakes are baked on site, and the almond cake offered in the store is highly appreciated by the locals. The atmosphere inside is peaceful and serene; you can read a book here and the music is never played too clamorous. (The music in KL cafes can be deafening at times.) Every neighborhood in the world would be cheerful to have a cafe like Fade by SB, but you can only find it here in Petaling Jaya.
Pohutukawa
Pohutukawa what happens when you combine an Ikebana store (the Japanese discipline of flower arranging) and a specialty cafe in the same space. The result is a still central oasis, opening onto a larger room with communal tables for laptop workers and a diminutive counter overlooking the street below, for more reflective souls.
The café makes massive utilize of its espresso machine, but also specializes in pours, which they grind from a rotating selection of international beans. In addition to coffee, Pohutukawa is celebrated for its tea and dessert menu, with everything from roasted cheesecake to grapefruit chiffon Genmaicha cakes on offer.
The second floor location of this cafe is charming and feels like a refuge from the city life below. The Ikebana store extending to the cafe gives the space a unique character, reminiscent of a secret garden of fossilized objects. Ultimately, it’s the coffee that counts, and here it’s delicious.
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They say that location is the best asset of most companies, but in… Wein this case it is the other way around. Deliberately elusive, hidden at the end of a nondescript corridor leading to an English school on the ground floor of a shopping mall in Bukit Bintang, no one would find this place by accident.
But for those in the know, this café run by the inimitable Rain Lee (Malaysian Barista 2022 champion and avid incense lover) is the perfect place to drop by while shopping and enjoy a delicious espresso or pour over. In addition to coffee, they offer dynamite milk pudding and some plant-based meals.
Rain often travels between Malaysia and mainland China and hand-picks the beans to showcase some of the up-and-coming roasteries from across China. If you enjoy experimental roasting and sampling coffee from a country more celebrated for tea, hunt down Kita next time you’re in Bukit Bintang. Please don’t trust your instincts; when you think you’ve gone down the wrong corridor, it’s not true.
Toothless
Toothless they roast coffee behind a car repair shop in Petaling Jaya. You can ask a taxi to drop you off at the front and walk you around – past a car garage and an unremarkable cafe – and Toothless will appear in a glorified shipping container.
Known for light-medium roasting and offering plenty of on-site options along with a separate menu of hand-picked beans from the world’s favorite coffee roasters, you can mingle with the locals while grabbing your own pour and sitting in a little corner in the back.
The shelves are stacked with beans for sale and the staff is extremely genial and learned. They tend to maintain a great balance between neat, washed coffee and more modern-day techniques such as thermal shock or co-fermenting preparations from their guest series.
For those going on a coffee pilgrimage, it would be a good idea to book a hotel in this area as One Half, Fade by SB and Pohutukawa are nearby.
Spirit Bird
Spirit Bird is the perfect place for every coffee lover. Upon entering, guests are faced with a wall of coffee equipment, a roasting/packaging area to the left, and a long, three-tiered table laden with beans, thermoses, and tasting cards. Before you go to the main cafe, you can grab a diminutive cup and drink the coffee that suits you, then, choosing something that suits you, go in and order. Among the countless coffees on the tasting table, there are coffees from Colombia’s Gesha, Kenya, the local Liberica with jackfruit, and additional offerings from Central America, Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The main café is a broad hideout cooled by powerful air conditioners, and its bar is filled with every gadget known to man: AeroPress, V60S, Cake drippers, siphons and of course espresso. At the counter, you can even smell the different beans on offer and taste the different types of water they utilize to show how much of an impact it has on the final flavor. The entire crew is meticulously prepared to answer any questions, will be cheerful to guide you and is patient with beginners.
Ghostbird is almost like a “School of Specialty Coffee” for people ready to open the floodgates and dive into their up-to-date obsession. Located behind Mid Valley Megamall, it makes it uncomplicated to access for those staying in any part of Kuala Lumpur.
For explorers who want nothing more than to spend a month analyzing the coffee scene in KL, we suggest adding the following to your lists: At sea, Contour, Curate, Go away, Ting, Airplane modeAND Baked Things. For even more options, check out Sprudge’s previous KL coverage.
