What has changed in Kuala Lumpur in the past year?
 

My plan is to head back to Kuala Lumpur for a day or two in January 2024. I was last in Kuala Lumpur in January 2023. My plan is to eat and maybe shop. Any new malls or street food stalls that are worth visiting? Any new transit expansion since January 2023? Any new sightseeing places?

Thank you!

And people complain KL is changing too fast :D. There's a new mall that opened a month ago, The Exchange at TRX. It's located at Tun Razak Exchange (the 106 floor tower with a square and flat rooftop). The Exchange is pretty much a luxury mall if you are into that sort of thing, but otherwise most of the shops inside are available at other malls with a few exceptions e.g. Seibu as anchor, a korean eyewear store - Gentle Monster, and to be opened in February, Malaysia's first Apple Store.

There's a new transit line that just opened as well - the Putrajaya Line which connects Putrajaya in the south all the way to Kwasa Damansara in the northwest. The line was opened in October 2022 but the underground portion / interchange station at TRX station wasn't opened in January 2022 (I believe). If you are a train enthusiast, you can even travel from KUL airport to downtown KL for cheap (~RM13-16) by taking the KLIA Transit to Putrajaya and changing to the Putrajaya Line and head into the city from there. Takes a bit more than an hour. Hope this helps.

Very valuable information! I'm so glad I asked. The KLIA Express can be expensive as I take it regularly now.

What about the Pavilion? In another Hyatt thread, someone mentioned this mall, but I thought there was only one and that's at Bukit Bintang.

There's a slight discount on the KLIA Express if you buy return tickets (RM90 from the their app). Otherwise it's RM49.50 one way from their app. But one of the most economical means is the KLIA transit + Putrajaya line if you have time to spare.

Problem with Malaysia is that we use the developer's name for their shopping centers, township/condo development etc. There are 3 Pavilion shopping centers now. The first one at Bukit Bintang (which most people would refer to as the Pavilion). The second one is in the suburb of Bukit Jalil. I haven't been to that one before so I can't give any recommendations. It's not the closest to the city center.

And finally Pavilion Damansara Heights which opened back in October. I wouldn't recommend you making your way to Damansara Heights for the mall either. Most of the occupants haven't moved in yet and it's still empty and pretty much just caters to lunchtime office crowds. Access is terrible and the bridge linking the MRT station (Pusat Bandar Damansara station) is not open and you have to make a trek from the station along the highway (with a secure pedestrian pathway, not literally on the highway) and then up through some unfinished construction and parking lot). There's a free shuttle that runs from Semantan station to the mall too.

If you are into malls, most people would go to Pavilion Bukit Bintang / Lot 10 / Starhill (Bukit Bintang station), Suria KLCC (KLCC station), The Exchange at TRX (Tun Razak Exchange station), Gardens/Mid-Valley (Abdullah Hukum station, please do not take the KTM Commuter to Mid Valley station as there are construction work on the KTM Commuter line since 2010s? and they are only running at 45 minute frequencies), and 1 Utama (Bandar Utama station, about 20-25 minutes on the train from KL).

I'm in KL for 24 hours next month. Any suggestions for a great Malaysian restaurant?
I have a dinner rez at Beta KL one night, looking for a lunch resto suggestion. Thanks.

Depends how local you want to go. For something more upscale, you can try Bol on Jalan Sin Chew Kee. If you prefer something quick and casual, maybe try Serai or Madam Kwan (both are chains and they can be found in most malls), or Limapulo on Heritage Row. Or if you want to go somewhere *really* local, then you can go to some hawker centers like ICC Pudu (not the best area for a tourist), a vegetarian restaurant behind a Chinese temple on Jalan Ampang (opposite Corus Hotel, near KLCC), banana leaf (Indian) restaurants in Brickfields or Bangsar (Sri Nirwana Maju in Bangsar is popular) or sometimes any food trucks that you see along the road.

I've been there a few times. I'm pretty sure there is one by the food court at the Pavilion Bukit Bintang. It's definitely more expensive than street food, but you get AC and it's in a restaurant setting. Good food! Totally recommend everyone to try it once!

What are some good Chinese food by ICC Pudu?

Yes, I am, and I've already been to KL numerous times over my life so there's no point to necessarily go back to the touristy places like the Petronas Towers.

Gotcha, but apparently there is a Hyatt Place there. I intend to check it out. Now everything makes sense. I had no idea there were three malls with the same name. Whenever I hear Pavilion, I assume the one by the JW Marriott and Bukit Bintang station.

Is there a good food court at the Pavilion Damansara Heights since you mentioned the lunch crowds?

I like the lala (clam) noodles at ICC Pudu along with the roast duck/pork noodles. I think the lala noodles at ICC Pudu is much better than Lai Foong (who recently won a Bib Gourmand). There's a steamed hor fun (flat rice noodles) with fish, and the KL style pork noodles at ICC.

I don't think anything worth making the trek for as you can find them in other places e.g. Oriental Kopitiam and Grandmama's (an option for @SFO777 as well). There are some homemade food stalls along the road, but you can probably find similar stuff around KLCC, Pavilion BB etc.

The underground and southern sector of the Putrajaya line opened only in March of this year. A geeky bit of knowledge I possess simply because i lucked on the new transport link in its first days of operation. Since then I've been a fan. It's certainly not the fastest way to get to KL Sentral, but if you are going elsewhere in the city it can be a wash with KLIA Express + LRT/Monorali/taxi. My targets are usually Ampang Park or Titiwangsa. Apart from the low fare, the other attractions are a relatively seamless transfer between lines at Putrajaya (it helps if you are cash-free enabled), and near certainty of getting a seat.

The interchanges on the line work well, though Ampang Park is a pain as the LRT station is completely separate and the transfer between it and the MRT is a messy walk and a fresh ticket/tap in. Titiwangsa enjoys what might be the only ticket-integrated interchange between the ancient monorail and LRT/MRT.

As for malls, the city still offers older and grittier shopping centres which host interesting services and retailers who could never hope to get established in the shininess of the Pavilions. Sadly the leader of this pack, the quirky and wonderful Ampang Park mall, was sacrificed for the eponymous MRT station.

Ampang Park was supposed to be an integrated interchange (i.e. no tap in/tap out like they do at Pasar Seni). But when Mahathir became the PM for the second time in 2018, he had his then Finance Minister axe the seamless interchange.

Mahathir is rather car-centric (launched Proton, built the North-South Expressway etc.). The metro/trains he built during his tenure is more of "we have a public transit system but not really kind of thing". He deferred the KL-Singapore HSR (which was ultimately canceled by the Muhyiddin administration), canceled the much needed MRT Circle Line, cut frequency to the Shah Alam LRT line *AND* halved the moving stock size (from 6 train set to 3 train set).

With Anwar's administration, he has explored the possibility of reinstating the HSR, approved the MRT Circle Line as well as the construction of the Shah Alam LRT line stations that were canceled during Mahathir's administration at a higher cost. Welcome to Malaysia :)

Ampang Park will be integrated in the future, but future could mean at the very minimum 5 years. There will be a development on top of Ampang Park station, just that it hasn't been built yet. One of the terms for that development is the developer need to build an integrated connection at Ampang Park. Currently, it's a nice and small urban park. How long that'll last is anybody's guess. You'll see tactile paving on the floor at Ampang Park MRT station and it just leads you to a wall. That wall is supposed to connect to the LRT line. The Kelana LRT line is the busiest line in KL's transit system and it just doesn't make sense it's not connected to a new MRT line.

There are other malls around the city - the grittier mall, like Low Yat Plaza, Times Square, Sunway Velocity, and Sungai Wang. These new malls that pop up are pretty much cookie cutter type of malls with the same tenants all over. Like you said, independent retails will never set their sight on those malls simply because they can't afford rent at these swanky places.

Times Square is like a dump. Nothing interesting inside, especially on the top floors. There is nothing up there. It's almost like no one wants to set up shops up there. Of course, this was in January 2023. Hopefully, things have changed since then.

As i remember, the Ampang Park mall had to go because of that proposed integrated interchange. There was a version of separate LRT and MRT stations which would have left the shopping centre intact, but when the tap-free interchange was initially opted for, the mall had to go ..... and we got a (long-term temporary) skate park in return.

Thanks very much nov11 for the great suggestions. Probably leaning towards more upscale and Bol looks wonderful.
FWIW I'm staying at the Grand Hyatt so close to KLCC.

Don't think much has changed although it still wows first time tourists that there's a theme park in the mall ;)

Yes, that was the original plan. Making it something like Nu Sentral integration between Kelana Line and the monorail (which is horrible). But they bulldozed Ampang Park so they can make it an integrated interchange. But well, Ampang Park was torn down for nothing (for now).

You are most welcome. Let us go how it goes. I have only been there for dinner so I don't know if they have a different lunch menu. Other more upscale suggestions include De.Wan 1958 (the Linc is probably closest to GH KL) and Bijan :)

I had a quick look at the Pavilion Bukit Jalil Mall yesterday, will go back later today and look around more. https://pavilion-bukitjalil.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavilion_Bukit_Jalil
It's big, not as big the one at KLCC but I will need some time to explore it. Mainly checked out "The Food Merchant" supermarket. There is no Godiva from what it looks like unlike KLCC.

Any specific questions, let me know and I can go to check it out.


According to their website the Bukit Jalil mall is "Spanning five retail floors with a total of 1.8 million square feet of retail space".
Wikipedia entry: "On 3 December 2021, it had opened its sister mall in the southern suburbs of Kuala Lumpur by the name of Pavilion Bukit Jalil featuring 1.8 Million Sq ft of shopping and Malaysia's first Tsutaya Bookstore along with Malaysia's longest Muji Store. The mall also features a projeection mapping dome at its center court. A third mall under the same name, although significantly smaller at only 1 million sq ft, known as Pavilion Damansara Heights opened to the public on 8 October 2023.[4]"

From the recently opened (September 2023) Hyatt Place Bukit Jalil you might get a view of the mall like this from the 15th floor:


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...45cea54dd.jpeg
View from 15th floor of Hyatt Place Bukit Jalil to Pavilion Bukit Jalil



https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...90c4e876f.jpeg
entrance
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b8372e873.jpeg
center of the mall