Food on Jalan Padungan - Kuching, Malaysia

A few years ago when we first visited Kuching, we stayed at Meritin Hotel on Jalan Padungan. I remembered that there were lots of Food Center (aka coffee shop aka Kopitiam). Food center here meaning small food court where there are few vendors selling their specialties under one establishment. Usually the owner of the food center or restaurant is the one selling drinks and other vendors rent a stall from them to sell their food items.

This time we stayed on an Airbnb at Riverine but we still paid a visit to Padungan area due to the choices of food there. Below are the stories.

Noodle Descendants

188, Jln Padungan, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak

Hubby found this shop on the map and he was intrigued. So on one of our visits to Padungan we went to look for it. 

There are quite a few nice environment with air con establishments on Padungan and when I heard the name I thought this restaurant was one of those. When we arrived there it was just an ordinary kopitiam like establishment. No air conditioner and very simple menu. They pretty much only do noodles. Surprisingly the place was packed and there was even a line of people waiting to be seated. 😕

So we waited and then we were seated. Nobody came to us to even take drinks order. I was surprised because that's usually was done almost immediately. Mind you that the person taking order was an old lady of perhaps 70 years old ? After about some time and still nobody came to take order, I told hubby to go let them know what we wanted. Hubby went there and the old lady told us wait she would come to us. I guess she has her procedures. 😀

I thought to myself that it may take one hour before we even got to eat. Well, it wasn't one hour but only 30 minutes. So not bad at all. I got a meepok which I thought would have different topping but turned out that it's just the type of noodle (wider noodle). But my meepok came with black vinegar. Surprisingly the combination of black vinegar and noodle was awesome. 💪

Hubby's noodle was regular size noodle and we shared a bowl of mixed pork soup. All in all a satisfying meal. Just make sure you are not in a rush.

Tai Pan Corner

93, Jln Padungan, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak

I think this was the location of our breakfast as per Google map. I forgot to take the photo of the stall but we had laksa here with big prawns. Then I also ordered a wonton soup from the stall next to it. 

The food were all awesome. Laksa, kolo mee and wonton were all amazing. But then I'm pretty sure other food centers along Padungan could offer similar taste. I honestly could not tell the difference. In this case, the laksa came with big prawns which was not common but some food stalls do offer.

Hock Hai Dim Sum Cafe

52, Jln Padungan, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak

There were a few shops selling steamed buns on Padungan. I have had my eyes on them especially the big ones. I had big steam bun in Vancouver before with amazing filling like lump of seasoned ground pork, chinese sausage, slice of ham and half of a hard boiled egg. Really a meal of its own.

So I was expecting something like that with this big steam bun. Unfortunately it didn't look like that. The steam bun was a bit flat and when I bit on it I could see that part of the inside was hollow. Not enough filling. 😔