Ho Kow Hainan Kopitiam Review + Kwan Chai Hong Lane, Petaling Street

Hi guys, today I'm going to be sharing about Ho Kow Hainan Kopitiam in Pasar Seni.

I first discovered Ho Kow Hainan Kopitiam when my friend Caryn brought me back in December last year.

It was fully packed, and rightly so! The food and prices were good. My friend Bo was spending her last week here in Malaysia, and I decided to bring her there + to take some pics to share here on my blog as well.

Founded from a humble stall along Lorong Panggung, Ho Kow Kopitiam has been operating for over 60 years now. A kopitiam (if you're not familiar with the term) literally translates to coffee shop, and is a place where Malaysians usually have breakfast.

Address:

1, Jalan Balai Polis, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur 

Operating hours:

Daily (7:30 AM – 3:00 PM)

Contact:

03-2856 8287

This kopitiam is super popular and the queues are ridiculously long. When I first went with Caryn we waited around 30 minutes, while on my 2nd visit with Bo, we had to wait more than an hour. They have a list and you get a table based on who comes first.

Since the staff said that it was gonna take around an hour till we got our seats, Bo and I decided to go to the lane beside Ho Kow.

There was a tiny coffee shop that sold drinks/poached eggs:

And further in, you have the Instagrammable Kwan Chai Hong lane!

Kwan Chai Hong was a project set up by five entrepreneurs in the area who wanted to breathe new life into that section of Chinatown. Here you can take lots of pictures with murals and the brightly coloured buildings, which is exactly what Bo and I did while we waited to be served.

After an hour of taking pics, we came back and were shown to our seats. The interior is very vintage but very clean/chic.

Downstairs is where the food is made + where most of the seats are:

However, there is also an upstairs section which isn't as crowded. If you want to sit upstairs, they can accommodate you, but you'll have to wait longer for those seats to be cleared.

Upstairs they have this set up where you can take pictures:

As well as some illustrations documenting their shop's growth over the years:

Even the menu itself was vintage-looking/on brand:

They cover most of the bases: dimsum, toast, noodles, nice, etc. They carry lunch items as well, and their selection of drinks is like any other kopitiam.

Coming to a "glamed out" kopitiam, I expected the prices to be higher (like Oldtown's), but actually is not. Its very cheap and really is kopitiam price, similar to the local ones I used to frequent in Ipoh.

I had the fried mee hoon and a butter + peanut toast. The mee hoon was freshly cooked + the sambal was super good. I actually asked them to give me more.

The butter and peanut toast was just enough for one person + was perfectly done. The butter was not greasy and went perfectly with the peanuts. It kind of reminded me of an apam but on white bread.

I also got some cheese dimsum which I kind of regretted getting because I was already so full after the mee hoon and the toast lol. It was good though!

Bo had the nasi lemak ayam goreng, and she said she liked it as well.

She ordered a side of potato curry with it too:

If you're in town and you have time, I definitely recommend dropping by Ho Kow. The food is good, the price is affordable and the area is filled with Instagrammable spots. The only bad thing I would say is the waiting time.

Thanks for dropping by my blog, see you in my next post!