No trip to KK is complete without having seafood and Welcome Seafood Restaurant is popular with both locals and tourists alike. Queue generally starts as early as 5pm for dinner. It has three branches with the closest to city centre being the Asia City branch. Highlights on the menu include kam heong crab (crab cooked in a blend of dried shrimps, curry powder and leaves, shallots and garlic), steamed prawns and stir-fried chilli clams. For dessert, the coconut pudding is an absolute delight.

Welcome Seafood Restaurant (Asia City branch) | Lot G 18, Ground Floor, Kompleks Asia City, Phase 2A, Jalan Asia City, 88300 Kota Kinabalu | +60 8844 7866 | Monday-Sunday, 12pm-11pm

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Little Sulap Café is owner Chrisboy’s way of preserving, sharing, and appreciating Dusun Tatana recipes passed down through generations. Its baby pink exterior is hard to miss.

Choose from among the platters, designed for one person and complemented with rice and an array of dishes. We recommend the Ambuyat Set and the Original Sabahan. The former is served with ambuyat, a white, sticky sago paste, while the latter showcases indigenous brown rice. These platters also highlight local vegetables as well as the famous Ginuring Basung (fried fish). Another must-have is Sulap’s Chicken Wings.

Little Sulap Café | No. 3A, Garden Hotel, Jalan Dewan, Austral Lane, 88000 Kota Kinabalu | +6011 3380 8184 | Monday-Sunday, 10am-10pm

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A café by day and a bar by night, it's a charming place inside an old building and furnished in old school furniture and décor like parasols and old photo frames. The colour of the exterior is painted in blue, like its name which means "blue" in Malay. Local bands perform every Monday and Wednesday.

Biru Biru Café | 24, Lorong Dewan, Pusat Bandar Kota Kinabalu, 88000 Kota Kinabalu | +6012 272 7116 | Monday-Sunday, 12pm-12am

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Featured in Malaysia’s Tatler Dining Guide 2022, Oitom is helmed by chef-owner Raphael Jay Peter Lee, who is part Kadazan and elevates local ingredients like buah kulim and spices to create unique contemporary dishes. Its revolving tasting menu showcases the best produce of each season throughout the year.

Oitom | Lot J-1-1 1st Floor Block J Lorong Pusat Komersil 88/1 88 Market Place Jalan Pintas, Lorong Sri Kepayan, 88300 Kota Kinabalu | +6014 329 9375 | Tuesday-Sunday, 6pm-10:30pm

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Did you know that Sabah is known for its coffee? The oldest coffeemaker here is Yit Foh Coffee established in 1960 by Yong Loong Vun. The factory grounds in Tenom, about a two-hour drive from KK, was expanded in 2017 to include Yit Foh Coffee Park in Tenom consisting of a café and a retail shop. If you're a coffee lover, you will love the aromatic smell of coffee beans being roasted wafting through the air.

Yit Foh Coffee Park | 3km, Jalan Tenom-Sapong, Kg. Chinta Mata, Tenom, 89900, Sabah | +60 8773 7737 | Factory: Monday-Saturday, 8am-5pm; Café: 11am-9:30pm; Beer Garden: Sunday-Thursday, 2pm-11pm, Friday-Saturday, 3pm-12am

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