Dining and Drinking

Johor Bahru was once merely a conduit and brief stopover for tourists travelling to or exiting out of Singapore. Today, however, it offers a cornucopia of attractions of its own, luring sand, sea and sun-seekers, eco and agro-adventurers, shoppers, golf-crazies and, last but not least, the dining and drinking crowd. This fortuitous transformation occurred only recently, in the 1980s and 1990s, and coincided with the intensive development of its natural allurement and the growing disparity between the value of the Malaysian ringgit and the Singapore dollar.

In the Hotels

Depending on where you stay, you may not have to venture out to dine, as some of the best dining options reside within reputable hotels. The best Japanese restaurant in the city, ASKA, is located within the Hyatt Regency, which also spots a popular and aesthetically furnished Coffeehouse with good-value buffet dinners, and the Mediterranean Il Pocolo offering open-air dining in beautifully landscaped compounds.

The Puteri Pan Pacific has great choices too. The Hai Tien Lo Chinese Restaurant boasts of a delectable dim sum menu besides good Cantonese cooking. The Selasih Restaurant is highly regarded for its Malay cuisine. The Paolo Restaurant features standard Italian grub, while the lobby-level Newsroom Cafe is nearly always crowded for sought-after buffets and an appeasing menu.

Another hotspot of upmarket culinary action is the Eden Garden Hotel, home to the longest café restaurant in Malaysia, the Salt 'n' Pepper Cafe Restaurant, where vintage views of the Johor Straits complement a mixed spread of Western and local dishes. Sharing the same vista is the adjoining Palm Bistro, an unparalleled locale to watch the sun setting over the bustling Causeway to the company of high-tea or a glass of wine. Next door, the expensively upholstered Lotus Garden Shark's Fin and Abalone Restaurant is a top-rate Cantonese restaurant specialising in treasured Chinese delicacies. For Thai food, the Sukhothai within the same premises offers inexpensive Thai buffet dinner daily on top of a comprehensive menu.

Elsewhere, worthwhile options include Nan Yuen Chinese Restaurant and Sushi Kappo Kasuga Japanese Restaurant in the Grand BlueWave Hotel, and the Crystal Court and Sushi Kappo Kasuga Japanese Restaurant in the Crystal Crown Hotel.

On the City Streets

A seafood meal, cooked the local Chinese style, is a time-honoured obsession particularly among weekending or day-tripping Singaporeans. In Johor Bahru, chomping down on succulent chilli crabs comes with a variety of unusual venues. At the Straits View Palace Marina Seafood Restaurant, one sits on the upper deck of a wooden structure on a hill, looking out to the Johor Straits. The expansive Seafood International Market and Restaurant combines a resort club atmosphere with from-the-tank freshness, while flying golf balls are always within sight at the Hollywood Seafood Restaurant. The high-priced Eden Palace Seafood Restaurant features the novelty of dining on an anchored barge.

For the local majority however, value-for-money seafood fare can be had in less glitzy locales. Several well-regarded restaurants are found in Taman Sentosa and along the Jalan Stulang Laut straits-front. The open-air Ocean Garden Seafood Restaurant and the air-conditioned New Hong Kong Restaurant are both of decent standards. Or drive to the fishing town of Kukup, or Asia’s most southerly land point, Tanjung Piai, where freshly caught harvests of the sea are served in restaurants on stilts.

A walkabout downtown will invariably lead you to the busy thoroughfare of Jalan Wong Ah Fook. Around Jalan Meldrum, the humble chicken rice is given a masterful twist in the hands of Swee Kee Restoran, while Restoran Alif Laila and Cafe does a great dish of the spicy tandoori chicken. Within hailing distance lies House of Sundanese Food, a recent addition to the local dining scene.

Some outstanding Malay-style dishes can be found in this city, such as ikan bakar (barbecued fish) and ayam panggang (barbecued chicken), at Restaurant Z.Z. and Restoran L.C. Catering, and first-rate mee rebus (noodles in thick gravy) and otak-otak (barbecued fish cakes) at Gerai Mee Rebus.

Food centres offer a cross-section of popular Malaysian hawker fare and there are many to be found in shopping centres and residential townships. The Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker Centre ranks among the most popular and also the most congested at all times. The air-conditioned Menara Landmark Food Court features a good selection of hawker stalls in clean comfort.

Downtown Johor Bahru is dotted with many Western-styled cafés. Nearly every established coffee and fastfood chain has a representation here, including the likes of Starbucks, Dome and TGI Friday’s. The Coffee Company is a home-grown version which offers coffee, beers and an eclectic food menu under one roof. The Lavender Cake Shop serves delicious cakes and pastries in unique purplish furnishings and its mooncakes are among the best that one can ever buy. Coco Fresh Beverage Chain Store is a juice bar, noted for its wide range of uncommon and tasty concoctions. Kang Seng Bird's Nest and Desserts serves nourishing Chinese desserts and delicacies at a price.

Back home, you can tell your friends you sampled pizza, sushi, sizzling steak, tandoori chicken, dim sum, ostrich soup, gado-gado and more. In fact, you will have done it all in one place—Johor Bahru.

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