Wanjo Nasi Lemak Kampung Baru Kuala Lumpur

Okay..., come to Kuala Lumpur must of course try their nasi lemak. One of the most popular / famous places is Nasi Lemak Wanjo in Kampung Baru.

We walked from KLCC which is about 5km away. We enjoyed the walk but don't be like Tony. Take the LRT or a taxi 😂

Wanjo is just 10 minutes walk from Kampung Baru LRT station.

As far as nasi lemak places go, Wanjo is a huge space, the largest that I know of. It has a canteen type of atmosphere but serves only nasi lemak. Air conditioned and clean, Wanjo has come a long way from its street side push cart days in 1963 💪 (Note: Air con section has a RM1 surcharge.)

There was a constant queue but it moved fast.

The serving station was well laid out and staff well drilled, hence the quick clearance. So, don't be put off by the long queue - you will get your food in almost no time 🤭

Pardon me if it was not pretty 😅 It was lemak rice with fried egg, rendang chicken and rendang beef with plenty of sambal plus some token fried ikan bilis.

Wanjo uses good quality fragrant rice with most grains loose (no lumps), whole, tender, nutty, with just the right amount of moistness, grease, sweetness and coconut flavour.

The sambal was robustly sweet (onion), spicy hot but not overwhelming and had an underlying anchovy umami. There's also a trace of zest, perhaps from tamarind. I like its "power" - flavour and aroma-wise.

The rendang beef cut into meaty chunks was moist tender, slightly chewy, and smothered with a savoury salty mildly hot spice coat.

The rendang chicken was a winner. Tender succulent meat blanketed with savoury spicy sauce that didn't take away the natural chicky flavours and sweetness of fresh white chicken meat.

Pricing was very pocket friendly in my opinion (in today's market).

Worth a try if you are a nasi lemak lover visiting KL. Today, we had only rendang because we had no tummy space 😬 Need to come back to try other dishes like my favourite bergedil, beef spleen, sambal squid and fried paru (lung). They also have sambal cockles (kerang).

In Klang Valley, you can also try Village Nasi Lemak in Petaling Jaya and Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa also in Kampung Baru (but I have not been here since 2015).

Over in Malacca, you can check out Nasi Lemak Ujong Pasir which I like a lot. Another one is Ah Ho Nasi Lemak but this is non Halal.

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Recently, Singapore chef Bob, a media personality compared Nasi Lemak Wanjo favourably with their Singapore counterparts. The lemak rice and sambal really do give Wanjo the edge. (But, if you don't like sweetness in your sambal, this likely won't suit you.)

The sides (lauk) are a little harder to compare as Wanjo is heavy on rendang dishes while in Singapore the sides are mainly deep fried. Personally, I prefer rendang type sides 🤭 This reminds me to go re-visit Mana Lagi in Johor Bahru soon.

For fried sides, my favourite is Nasi Lemak Wak Kentut of Kulai, Johor.