Jalan Alor, Guide to Kuala Lumpur’s Famous Food Street

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There is no shortage of good food in Kuala Lumpur, a melting pot of mouth watering dishes from all over the world. If you fancy a respite from all the shopping mall restaurants or basement food court, take a night time trip to Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur’s most famous night market.

Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

Very much a must do in KL, Jalan Alor (or Jlan Alor) is a fine foodie place to nibble on street food or sit down in an outdoor restaurant and watch the crowds whilst chowing down on cheap eats.

From shakes to satay, durian to dumplings, here is our guide to visiting Jalan Alor, KL’s famous night market in Bukit Bintang:

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Table of Contents

How big is Jalan Alor Night Market in Kuala Lumpur?

Covering a 0.5km stretch of straight road, the Jalan Alor Night Market in KL has around 200 different street food stalls and permanent restaurants (plus the occasional non food stall).

Jalan Alor Food Street is the biggest daily night market in KL but not necessarily the biggest night market in Kuala Lumpur – KL’s Taman Connaught Night Market has at least twice as many stalls but is only held on Wednesday nights.

durian, Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

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How To Get to Jalan Alor Food Street Market

The Jalan Alor Street Food Market is within walking distance of many downtown hotels and can be easily walked from the Pavilion / Lot 10 / Fahrenheit 88 shopping district (around a 10 minute walk from this KL shopping mall hub).

If you are travelling from other parts of the city, the night market and food street is easily accessible by public transport.

To reach Jalan Alor market, take the KL MRT train to Bukit Bintang station and leave through exit F – it is around a 5 minute walk to Jalan Alor.

Alternatively, you can get there by taking by the monorail / MRT KG line to Bukit Bintang station and walk 5 minutes.

Alternatively we found GRAB taxis very cheap in KL / Malaysia and GRAB ride to Jalan Alor would likely be 10 to 20 MYR from anywhere in downtown KL or in the Kuala Lumpur environs.

Jalan Alor is located in Bukit Bintang close to lots of shops and malls so it is a good thing to do after an afternoon of shopping in KL too.

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Jalan Alor Night Market Opening Times

During the day, the area around Jalan Alor food street is quite quiet although most of the permanent restaurants here are open from lunchtime onwards.

Most of the street food / night market stalls start setting up around 4.30pm to 5.30pm and then close late, usually around midnight to 1am. Hours vary depending on the day of the week – many stalls stay open later at weekends.

mango dragon fruit boba milk drink Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

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The best time to visit Jalan Alor Food Street

The main street is open 24/7 so you can visit Jalan Alor any time of the day but if you want to get nice photographs of all the street food stalls without huge crowds, we’d recommend visiting between 5:30pm to 7pm to enjoy the early evening light and scope out all the stalls without too many people.

After 7pm, the street gets a little more packed and it can take a long time to walk along the 500 metres of stalls through bustling crowds.

However, if you want to soak up the atmosphere and night market in full swing, head there between 7pm and 10pm.

Jalan Alor Food street neon sign tiger — *Awesome neon sign down one of Jalan Alor’s side streets*

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The Prices at Jalan Alor Food Market

Is Jalan Alor Food Street expensive? No, compared to Western standards, food prices at both the night market stalls and permanent food street restaurants are pretty cheap.

sweet potato Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur — *Sweet potato stall*

That said, the food on the Jalan Alor street food stalls is much cheaper than the restaurants in the neighbourhood. We also noticed that many of the restaurants here have lunchtime set meal deals (set meal deals are very popular in KL restaurants and mall food courts.

Example food prices include 10 chicken or beef satay skewers for 16 MYR (£2.80 / $3.40 USD or 3.20 Euros), a fresh coconut for 6 MYR, 6 balls of takoyaki for 10 MYR or dim sum at 2 MYR per piece.

dim sum Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur — *Dim sum stall*

The History of Jalan Alor

One of the oldest and most cherished food streets in Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Alor has been around for over a hundred years and became established as a street market and food place in the early 1900s.

seafood Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

Originally home to the Chinese settlers and migrant workers, Jalan Alor’s once seedy side-streets are now one of the most bustling places to visit in Kuala Lumpur at night. A lot of gentrification has taken place in the area over the last 30 years or so.

These days, the area around Jalan Alor (Bukit Bintang) is known as the main entertainment and shopping district for KL so it is nice to see Jalan Alor retain some of the area’s colourful history.

What to expect at Jalan Alor Food Market

We last visited Jalan Alor Food Street in October 2023 on a hot Saturday night and it was BUSY – thousands of travellers (and a few locals) descend into the long tree-lined avenue of Jalan Alor every night, meaning there can be long queues for some of the more popular stalls or restaurants.

Exploring Jalan Alor at sunset or night is a lot of fun – there are hundreds of stalls and restaurants so we’d recommend walking the entire length to see the entire breadth of foods available.

If you don’t like crowds, best to visit Jalan Alor Food Street in the daytime or early evening when the additional street food stalls are just setting up.

Jalan Alor Bukit Bintang is a combination of open air street food stalls plus covered restaurants so it can be visited in all weathers.

As with many other KL restaurants here, the restaurant workers along Jalan Alor can be a little pushy (‘touty’) with their menus, often pushing them in your face, However, as there are so many restaurants here, competition between traders is rife so you can hardly blame them for being enthusiastic.

The Jalan Alor Food Street has permanent restaurants along both sides (with the occasional convenience store like KK Mart or 7-Eleven) plus temporary street food stalls and huts lining the street during the night market in the evening.

A wonderful experience to enjoy even if you aren’t hungry, Jalan Alor Food Street is easily one of the top things to do in KL.

Food Stalls at Jalan Alor Night Market Street

From octopus to okra, lime juice to lok lok, there is something to suit all tastes (and budgets) at Jalan Alor in KL.

Sit down on one of the dozens of restaurants that are open most of the day or pull up a chair at one of the street food stalls that open up for the night market.

Some of the foods you can get at Jalan Alor Night Market (with example prices) include:

Fruit shakes and freshly squeezed juices e.g. 20 MYR for a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice or 12 MYR for fresh orange juice

smoothies juices Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

Durian stalls – Follow your nose, the durian stalls aren’t hard to find! Seriously, durian is sooo popular at Jalan Alor – probably the most durian stalls we’ve ever seen.

Expect to pay around 35 MYR per Kilo of durian fruit at Jalan Alor (although there are different grades of durian so prices vary)

Muslim Mongolian BBQ stalls – a nice place to ‘meat’ and eat at Jalan Alor

skewers Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

Steamed dim sum and lok lok stalls – around 2 MYR per item

Apam balik – a kind of Malaysian peanut pancake, these cost 2 MYR each

Coconut ice Cream – We’re nuts for coconuts! There are lots of Coconut ice-cream and coconut stalls along Jalan Alor. On average, an actual whole coconut seemed to be around 6 MYR whilst coconut ice-cream served with toppings and in a coconut husk started from 12 MYR.

coconut durian ice cream Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

Thai dishes like Thai green curry or Mango sticky rice – 14 MYR for the mango sticky rice.

Chicken, mutton and beef satay – these sublime smokey skewers are widely available at Jalan Alor night market. Expect to pay around 1.5 to 2 MYR per skewer; many have minimum order quantities like at least 15 skewers per order.

satay and tiger beer Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

Bingsu dessert – the Korean shaved ice dessert had several stalls here with flavours like coconut or durian toppings.

Japanese food at Jalan Alor – several stalls were selling takeaway dishes like takoyaki octopus balls (6 for 10 MYR) or Japanese fried dumplings.

Peanut mochi balls – 5 balls for 12 MYR.

Fried fish – lots of the permanent restaurants were selling fish but some stalls were selling it by weight; so make sure you know what you are buying weight wise beforehand to avoid an unexpectedly large bill.

Putu Piring (steamed coconut cake) – 1 set consisted of 3 pieces for 5 MYR

Please note all these Jalan Alor Food Street prices and foods available were correct as of our visit in October 2023.

Is Jalan Alor Night Market just food?

Yes, primarily Jalan Alor night market is mainly restaurants and street food stalls – however, we did spot a couple of non food / souvenir stalls selling items like socks for 3 MYR a pair.

There are also several convenience stores along Jalan Alor Night Market selling all manner of items including healthcare products.

Can you buy alcohol at Jalan Alor Night Market?

Yes, you can buy beer and alcohol at all of the sit-down restaurants along Jalan Alor Food Street – note that due to Malaysia’s licensing laws, none of the street food stalls sell alcohol so you must be sat down in a restaurant.

A small bottle of Carlsberg beer at Jalan Alor generally costs around 12 MYR per bottle or 25 MYR for a large bottle.

Things to look out for

Is Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang safe? Yes, generally it is a very accessible street and safe to walk around at night.

Its once seedy side has now ebbed away (although nearby Changkat Bukit Bintang at night is quite ‘interesting’, a popular pub street in KL with massage shops galore).

We would highly recommend a trip to Jalan Alor Food Street at night but do be aware of the following:

Jalan Alor at night can get very busy especially at weekends meaning large crowds can gather particularly at the start and end. As with any big city, be aware of your valuables and look out for any pickpockets.

fruit Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

We noticed lots of beggars / mothers with children asking for money from diners at restaurants in Jalan Alor – many are genuine but there were also reports in summer 2023 of KL being flooded with ‘fake’ beggars who fly in from other countries just to make money.

Flower sellers can be pretty persistent- they have small bouquets of roses which they try and flog to couples dining.

menu Jalan Alor food street night market - Kuala Lumpur

Restaurant workers are VERY keen that you dine in their restaurant (due to intense competition) and often follow you down the street thrusting a menu in your face – just smile and politely decline if you don’t fancy that restaurant. It can grind you down a little after several times though.

Skewers and sticks – many of the foods here like lok lok and fried potato spirals are served on large pointy sticks. Look out for anyone with low flying skewers so you don’t get a prick on the rear.

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Other things to do nearby

If you are visiting Jalan Alor in KL’s bustling Bukit Bintang district, there are many other things to do nearby, all within a 10 minute walk of the famous food street:

Changkat Bukit Bintang AKA Pub Street

The home to KL’s biggest nightlife scene (also known as KL’s pub street), Changkat Bukit Bintang is a bustling Bukit Bintang Road at night packed full of British style pubs and bars, with names like ‘Fish and Chips bar’ and ‘Gravy Baby’.

Here you’ll find happy hours galore, many of which are on all day until 9pm (which is coincidentally the time they stop selling alcohol in convenience stores like 7-Eleven, smart!).

As well as multiple bars, clubs and restaurants, Changkat Bukit Bintang is a great place to see the Menara KL Tower at night – it is also home to dozens of massage parlours (!). A very interesting place to visit in KL at night.

Graffiti Alley

One block away from Jalan Alor running parallel to the night market and food street, Graffiti Alley is KL’s street art central with numerous buildings (including hotels and bars) covered with incredible artistic scenes.

The colors are bright and there are several streets and alleys literally covered in cool creative scenes and marvellous murals (plus one street has fluorescent neon clouds hanging over it).

If Graffiti Alley sounds up your ‘street’, it is probably best to visit it in the daytime before going to Jalan Alor night market as the area is dimly lit in places and feels a little sketchy at night.

Also, some of the art is a bit rubbish and many of the streets back out onto restaurant rear entrances so there is quite a bit of garbage and grime.

Dunian Durian

Hidden away in a quiet side street next to Jalan Alor Food Street, Dunian Durian is easy to spot – it has the largest durian statue outside that we have ever seen (a popular photography and posing spot too!)

Whilst Jalan Alor has multiple durian stalls, if you want to enjoy your durian sitting down (or even a durian pizza or durian shake), this is a covered durian restaurant that is open until late – note the prices at Dunian Durian are more expensive than the durian stalls at the night market.

Go Shopping

There are several big Kuala Lumpur shopping malls within a close distance of Jalan Alor – the nearest malls are Plaza Low Yat, billed as the biggest IT / technology mall in Malaysia plus Sungei Wang Mall, chock full of independent traders and food stalls like Pappa Roti over several stories.

For a little more glitz and glamour, head to Pavilion Mall, KL’s premier shopping experience or nearby Fahrenheit 88 or Starhill Malls.

All these KL shopping malls also have ample food options should you not be able to find anything to eat at Jalan Alor (or it is too busy to get a seat).

The Commons KL

Just one block away from the craziness of Jalan Alor, the Commons KL is a food hub and restaurant space that has several upmarkets bars and food outlets (plus a cigar lounge) with local and international food.

Restoran Mon Chinese Beef Roti

A personal recommendation but we discovered this newly opened roti restaurant and stall on the way back from Jalan Alor (it is literally 30 seconds from the start of the night market).

This Chinese style beef roti was one of the best and most flavourful rotis we’ve tried in KL. Beef rotis at Restoran Mon Chinese Beef Roti are just 6 MYR, chicken rotis 5 MYR (prices correct as of October 2023).