My Own Private Shopping Center

The Phloen Chit center is located on the same side as Soi 4 towards the Phloen Chit BTS stop near the expressway.  I jokingly call the Phloen Chit center my own private shopping center because every time I go there (usually 7pm or later) I seem to be one of the few people in it.

It is a 4+ story shopping center with Villa Market which is a supermarket I frequent in the basement.  Besides a supermarket the Phloen Chit center contains quite a few specialty shops, a discount clothes store, a McDonalds and about a dozen or so restaurants which take up mos of the basement, the ground and the first floor.

Mr. Lee’s Creation

I finally went to Phloen Chit center in the afternoon and I was surprised to see that most of the restaurants were more or less busy with customers.  I wanted to try one of the restaurants so I could write about it on this blog and the illustration on the Mr. Lee’s Creation menu caught my eye so I decided to give it a try.  Lee Cafe is located on the ground floor and one end of the cafe is looking out to the street so it’s pretty inviting.

The menu states “Modern Chinese Cuisine” which I noticed there was a lot of noodle dishes and some Thai foods as well.  I ordered the fried chicken spring rolls as an appetizer which was recommended by the waitress and a steak with Cantonese sauce and rice.  I thought the fried spring rolls were delicious.  The Chinese steak was good compared to your average  Chinese restaurant in the USA but it wasn’t anything to rave about although the sauce was quite tasty.

Overall Impression

Lee Cafe is a quality restaurant with clean food, nice atmosphere and friendly service but the food is nothing spectacular.  This is not a knock on Mr. Lee or his creation but Lee Cafe is not a place that you will tell all your friends about unless you’re a lonely blogger like me.  I’m not making it a priority but I would go back and try another one of Mr. Lee’s creations if I was hungry and in the area and definitely re-order the friend spring rolls.

The cost of my meal which included another mango icee (ordered 50% of the time at all restaurants) was around 300 baht (~$9USD) which is a little spendy for your average meal in Bangkok so if you decide to eat in Lee Cafe rather than your average 50 baht street meal and drink, make sure you are hungry for more than just food and want Lee Cafe’s pleasant atmosphere.

China Town:  What a Novel Concept ?

If they need more criteria for classifying big cities in the 21st century they may as well use China Towns as one.  It seems regardless  of which corner of which hemisphere you find yourself on you will encounter a China Town.   Being from San Francisco, China Town is something which all too familiar.

Every website and Lonely Planet guide had Kuala Lumpur’s China Town as one of the “must go” places in Kuala Lumpur.  Most travelers who find their way in Kuala Lumpur will have likely seen their fair share of Chinatowns in the past.  Whether you agree with KL Chinatown’s “must go” status depends on your style and goals of your trip.

Getting to China Town in Kuala Lumpur

China Town is not too far from the Petronas Towers.  Ask a taxi driver and they will say it is far but in decent weekday traffic (I wasn’t there on the weekend so I don’t know if it’s worse) it took less than 10 minutes to get to Petronas Towers to China Town.  If the taxi driver has trouble understanding just say, “Petaling Street.”  Petaling street is the the main Chinatown street which would me more aply named Peddling Street.

Cheap Chinese Food, Knock Offs, Beer & Cheap Hotels

Chinatown was the main area in KL for backpackers and bargain hunters (wait, aren’t they the same?).  Chinese food is world renowned for being cheap and Petaling Street is no exception.  You can find a number of Chinese food restaurants with inside and outside dining if you turn off the main street.  I actually didn’t feel like eating Chinese food at the time and I stepped outside Chinatown and found some of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had.

The main street is essentually jam packed with venders selling all kinds of junk, from life-sized gun cigarette lighters, to samurai swords to of course designer knock-off merchandise.  It is one of the few places in KL where it felt like Bangkok as the venders were somewhat pushy.  The stuff there I would say was mostly junk which was really no different from anything you can find in Bangkok or I’m sure most other SE Asian cities.  Most of the guides stated the KL Chinatown had some of the best prices on these “goods” but I didn’t even bother asking because I’m on an anti-junk phase at the moment.

All the Kuala Lumpur travel guides listed Chinatown as the primary area for cheap lodging.  I saw a lot of tourists and backpackers in the area.  There were hotels and guesthouses all around which I didn’t check out personally but I’d assume some of them offer temporary 6-legged roommates if you know what I mean.

All China Towns the Same ?

I haven’t been to every single Chinatown in the world but I’ve been to a few.  From San Francisco, to New York to Yokohama Japan to the Disneyland of Chinatowns,  Hong Kong (I guess you could call Hong Kong a Chinatown?)  I can’t really see the allure of traveling far and wide for the purpose of visiting a Chinatown.  For the China Town’s I’ve been to, I would consider San Francisco’s to be the best, even better than Hong Kong if you consider you can find tons of junk as well as some nice stuff in a 6 or so block radius.  Some may even say that San Francisco’s Chinatown has been run by Chinese longer than Hong Kong anyways?

Overall Impression

For me, Chinatown in KL was a complete waste of time.  I live in Bangkok and didn’t need to save a couple bucks to get cheap stuff I could get in Bangkok if I even wanted the stuff.  I haven’t been to Bangkok’s Chinatown yet so I cannot compare the two.  Fortunately, Chinatown was very close to the rest of  “downtown” Kuala Lumpur so it was only a pit stop on my whirlwind tour of Malaysia’s capital.