Originally Posted by
helvetic
If I visit KL again, which I'm not planning on doing as I was generally very disappointed by the city, I'd probably stay at the Aloft or Element, or suck it up and book the St. Regis.
But overall, I just really didn't like KL so will avoid the city in the future. Plenty of other better destinations in Southeast Asia (HK, Singapore, BKK to name just a few)
I can definitely see where you are coming from, and yes, KL is not like Singapore in that the best places are not catalogued in glossy tourist brochures and accessible to the one-time visitor. Frankly speaking, Tourism Malaysia is a joke. You really need local knowledge to make the most out of a stay in KL.
As someone who spends a third of their life in KL, and have been doing since 2017, I am still discovering nooks and crannies of interesting life and delicious food all over the Klang Valley. KL itself is not where it is at, and even the food at places like Jalan Alor has declined tremendously. You should be considering areas outside of KL. Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Damansara, Petaling Jaya, etc. are prospering little townships where the locals hang out during the week (no one comes into town for entertainment except on weekends due to the utterly insane traffic), and the outskirts house lots of little nondescript restaurants which heave with four sittings a night. Just last week, I discovered a gorgeous chicken rice in PJ that would objectively knock the socks off any chicken rice in Singapore, including Tian Tian.