Meldrum Walk in Downtown Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Meldrum Walk in Downtown Johor Bahru

Just a short 5 minutes stroll away from modern City Square Shopping Centre in the direction of Singapore, you slip into a completely different realm of street foods, colours, movement, sizzles, clanking, chopping, banter, pressing bodies, pungent spices, and aromatic cooking smoke.

This semi chaotic cacophony assaulting all your senses at once on all fronts is Meldrum Walk - a kind of paradise for foodies who dare. 



The BBQ chicken stall

The fried kway teow stall

The clay oven at the tandoori chicken stall



Satay stall

The air here feels warmer from the heat of so many bodies and the cooking fires.

Fried carrot cake

Fried kway teow

Another fried kway teow stall. There are 3 such stalls here, each with their own following

Cooking sizzles and smells aloft. The aromas rush up through your nose straight to those primeval centres in our brain, creating that heady pleasure.

Very popular Indian curry stall

Your are eyes busy trying to take in all the colours and movements and your mind goes racing unconsciously, "What shall I eat?" This is a more fascinating spread than any hotel buffet.

Kambing (mutton) soup

The popiah (spring roll) stall

Freshly pressed sugar cane juice



BBQ stingray

Fried oyster omelette

Foodie Alice in gastronomic Wonderland asks, "Where should I start?" Cheshire cat says, "In this culinary haven, any stall takes you to foodie's paradise." 

Meldrum Walk by day before it awakes into a gastronomic carnival at night fall.

If you get there early enough, you get to see the interesting sights of how the hawkers set up their food carts. Like cars in a factory, each food cart has the same basic design; however, each hawker displays their stall front and food in their own special way. These carts remind me of flower buds that bloom in full glory at night fall.

Hungry customers start to trickle into the lively alleyway around 5pm and by 6pm the flow increases to a flood. Every food stall is packed and you have to be quick, if you want a chair and table to eat at! Fortunately, in this convivial, friendly place, sharing a table with perfect strangers is perfectly normal and fun J

The tandoori chicken stall

The hawkers are busy but they still manage to keep their graciousness and sense of humour, and are very friendly. If a passer-by stops to snap a photo of the hawkers, they would often time pose for the camera and flash a cheerful smile. This makes the dining experience fun and comfortable, which I believe many diners and tourists would appreciate a lot.

Words and pictures can hardly do Meldrum Walk justice. Go and experience it for yourself. 

But be warned, this is a place for intrepid foodies only. Is this the place that separates those who "live to eat" from those who "eat to live"?

(Special thanks to fellow blogger Yvonne Lew whose blog post led me to this food paradise and inspired me to blog about it.)

Address: Meldrum Walk in downtown Johor Bahru

Map: http://g.co/maps/9m437

GPS: 1.460045,103.764673
Hours: 5:00pm to midnight

Non Halal and Halal sections available

Date visited: 12 Feb 2012, 13 Feb 2012, 18 Feb 2012

Herbal Soup @ You Kee XO in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah

A lot of good things have already been said about You Kee XO's excellent roasts. It is worth pointing out that You Kee is also famous for its specially brewed herbal soups.

Outside at the shop front of You Kee XO restaurant, you will see these two giant size earthen urns standing prominently side by side. If you wonder what these are, they are the urns used to make You Kee XO's famous herbal soups.

The herbal soups are brewed in smaller pots inside these large urns which are fired by slow burning charcoal at the bottom. The small pots of herbal soup are retrieved from inside the giant urn when a customer makes an order.



The waitress uses a special fork to lift the pots of hot soup from deep inside the giant urn.

This pot of delicious herbal tonic for RM13



The herbal soup is finally served at the table. The piping hot soup is reputed to cool you down especially on scorching hot days, like the day that we had our soup.

Generous amounts of meat and plenty of herbs were used to brew the soup.

The final outcome is this delicious, tasty and fragrant herbal tonic.

Today, I had pork soup. I definitely must come back to try out the many other flavours of these delicious soups.


Restaurant name: Restoran You Kee XO Enterprise

Address: 93 Jalan Pendekar 2, Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Sukdai, Johor Bahru (branch in Taman Johor Jaya)

Map: http://g.co/maps/5dsth

GPS: 1.516666,103.653613
Hours: 10:00am to 10:00pm
Non Halal

Date visited: 3 Feb 2012

Johor Chicken Rice @ Seng Kee in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai 成記雞飯 皇后老店

Seng Kee Chicken Rice 成記雞飯 (Skudai 皇后老店) | 2, Jalan Nakhoda 7, Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, 81300 Skudai, Johor ☎ +6018 243 8999 🕘 9:30am - 9:30pm

✍️10 Nov 2024. Seng Kee Chicken Rice at Taman Ungku Tun Aminah is likely the oldest chicken rice place in Johor Bahru. It's over thirty years in the business now.

KL Hokkien Mee 福建炒麵 @ Ban Kee 万记 in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai, Johor

KL style black Hokkien mee 福建炒麵 in JB? No kidding.

Ban Kee 万记 has been frying KL style Hokkien mee for many years and operating in different parts of JB before finally settling down here in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah (TUTA).

Ban Kee has a faithful following who trail them around JB to this shop in TUTA. Word of mouth and in these days of the internet, social media, brings in new fans to Ban Kee. Early birds mill around the shop before it opens for dinner at 6:00pm and more stream in to fill the seats quickly once the shop opens.

Ban Kee has always been a family business and now a new generation is taking charge of the wok.

This medium size plate for two persons costs RM8

So how authentic is Ban Kee's black Hokkien noodles compared to the KL version? Having lived in KL for several years and eaten at several Hokkien mee eateries in and around KL, I feel Ban Kee's version is less heavy on the lard and less salty than their KL counterparts. Ban Kee's also has more of that natural sweetness which Johoreans seemed to prefer. In other crucial aspects like the trademark fat, pale yellow noodles, Ban Kee's is very similar to their KL cousins.

Personally, I like Ban Kee's version with its lighter and fresher feel on the taste buds. I know die hard KL black Hokkien mee connoisseurs will disagree with me.

This is the place where I'll bring friends who crave the KL black Hokkien mee to get their fix without having to travel all the way to KL.

When you are at Ban Kee's, try also their delicious fried bee hoon with braised pork belly.

Restaurant name: Restoran Ban Kee 万记

Address: 108, Jalan Pahlawan 2, Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai

Map: http://g.co/maps/q7gs7

GPS: 1.522098,103.664171

Hours: Noon to 3:00pm and 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Non Halal

Date visited: 10 Feb 2012