Restoran Omar Khayam @ Jalan Medan Tuanku, KL

Price Range : Mid-range

Cuisine : A fusion of Middle Eastern and North Indian

Recommended For : Large gatherings (meals here are much better shared)

Catphobia-Friendly? : Yeah!  

Omar Khayam has been around, in that same very spot, for at least three decades now and is one of those rare places that still manage to retain the same tastes we used to love from back in the days. For many people, this was one of those places our parents used to take us for those special occasion dinners (The only unfortunate thing is their new decor... long gone are their grand mirrored walls adorned with intricate mosaics, now they are painted a tacky orange-brown).

Damas Sweets @ Ampang Point

Price Range: Mid-range

Cuisine: Middle Eastern (Desserts)

Recommended For: Sweets craving of the Arabic kind

Catphobia-Friendly?: Yeah!

So, evidently, we’re highly inspired by Arabic foods at the moment. You’ve got your mains, you’ve got your Arabic coffee and tea. Now all we need to complete the course: desserts! Baklava and the gang seem to have risen in popularity along with the sudden increase in Arabic restaurants in Malaysia. Ten years back (after a glorious makan trip to Istanbul) it was almost impossible for us to find passable baklavas in KL, passable being delicious and affordable. Now, lucky for us, there are such places like Damas Sweets =)

Mukha @ Taman Tun Dr Ismail

Price Range : Mid-range 

Cuisine : Arabic-influenced cafe foods 

Recommended For: Lengthy lunches and chilled nights 

Catphobia-Friendly? : Quite =) 

Somehow small, kitschy (we wonder how many times we’ve used that word in our blog so far…. Another word count we’re wondering: flavourful) cafes seem to be mushrooming in every nook and cranny of the city, giving us more options to fuel our fondness for mismatched furniture and chalkboard menus (an added plus to the growing number of indie-ish cafes: more places for us to pass baseless judgements on hipsters from the back of our coffee cups. It’s a terribly fun hobby that, try as we may, we can’t quit. We’ll try harder).

Ramadhan Buffet @ Khan Baba, Taman Tun Dr Ismail

Price Range : Mid-range 

Cuisine : Arabic & Pakistani 
Recommended For : You, if you prefer quality to quantity 
Catphobia-Friendly? : Yeah! 


We are grateful that Ramadhan has been a rather blessed one for us so far, and we hope that it is too for all our Muslim readers. As the fasting month approaches the end of its first week, we’re now going on our iftar patrol to check out great places to buka puasa at.

Al-Sinni All-You-Can-Eat BBQ & Steamboat

Price Range	Budget
Type of Cuisine	BBQ & Steamboat (Buffet)
Recommended For	A Middle Eastern-inspired twist on the standard grill and boil offerings
Catphobia-Friendly	Only one lazy cat around (that we know of)

We just got back from this place barely an hour ago and already we’re furiously typing away on our keyboard right now to gush to you all about this superb buffet place! This restaurant came highly recommended by our beloved fellow foodies, Azz & Yeen, and were we glad we went all the way to Bangi to try this place out! Okay, so there are a lot of places in KL that offer the whole BBQ and/or steamboat deal, but there are a few things about Al-Sinni that really makes it stand out.

Zam Zam Arabic Restaurant @ Section 9, Shah Alam

Price Range	: Mid-range
Type of Cuisine	:Arabic
Recommended For	: A family feast
Catphobia-Friendly	: No cats around! Yayness! =)

We woke up one day and found a sudden sprouting of Arabic restaurants in every ceruk in KL. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it was quite hard to gauge which ones were the good ones. We couldn’t resist the Nasi Arab craze and enjoyed going around sampling the now-famous rice dish from one outlet to another. However, for those of you who are in need of a serious carbo fix but are not too keen on the trial-and-error method, we’ll save you some time: head to Zam Zam Arabic Restaurant in Section 9, Shah Alam.