US$7 Best Halal Sabah Seafood – Ikan Bakar Kak Mia

grilled fishs and spicy salads

I like seafood so much more than meat that I can say that I can eat it every day. This is probably because I was born and raised in Korea, a peninsula country surrounded by sea on three sides, and grew up eating a variety of seafood-filled dishes that my mother makes almost every day.

my happiest lunch time for seafood

Coincidentally, one good thing is that Malaysia, where I live now, is also a peninsular country, so there are many seafood-based dishes and the prices are not expensive.

What’s more, I like cheap street food, so whenever I go to day time wet market or night market called “pasar malam” in Malay, I always buy a plate of fresh fish, squid, shrimp, etc. Even better, because it’s so cheap.

Furthermore, I think it would be even better if you go to a restaurant where you can eat seafood at an affordable price without taking the time to prepare and cook the seafood yourself.

So, the restaurant I’m posting on my blog today is literally a street restaurant, but the quality is really ridiculously good.

grilled fishs and spicy salads

Best of all, it’s an affordable place to eat a lot of delicious, varied and fresh seafood, and you won’t have to worry about making a big hole in your pocket.

As I said earlier, Malaysia, where I have been living for over 10 years, is a peninsular country that refers to West Malaysia, and East Malaysia is also located on the island of Borneo. Borneo has two Malaysian states. One of them is the Sabah state, which is located east of Borneo and is quite close to the island of Palawan in the Philippines.

In fact, the Sabah state is very famous for Mount Kota Kinabalu (Mount KK in short). To explain some food backgrounds, I write a little about my past trip there. For anyone who likes to climb high mountains, there is no one who hasn’t heard of this highest mountain in Southeast Asia.

assorted grilled fish

Personally, I have not yet climbed this Kota Kinabalu mountain. but I was once planning to climb the KK mountains. However, in the end, we ended up giving up climbing the mountain because we had spent all our travel expenses while diving on the world famous diving site “Sipadan” in Sabah.

deliciously charcoal grilled mackerel

Already, it has been almost 10 years from now when we traveled to many Southeast Asian islands for diving every few months. With those memories in mind, I was really happy to find a Sabah restaurant in an alley in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

As usual, I entered an alley where some classy(?) locals would hardly pass with curiosity, but when I saw that there were about 5 or 6 local restaurants, I instinctively reviewed them one by one.

And the restaurant located at the end of the alley is the Sabah(Masakan Sabah in Malay) restaurant, where various fish are placed on wire mesh over briquettes and grilled.

People like me who love fish dishes can’t help but taste the freshly grilled fish right away. I enjoyed it alone with the red-eyed fish and a fresh, crunchy, moderately spicy mango salad. And recently, to eat them again, I went there with my husband and son.

This time, we ordered a fish called Kembong, which is a tropical mackerel in Malaysia, and a fish with big red eyes.

I also ordered a mango salad as a base, a seaweed salad that was soft and bouncy like jelly fish commonly eaten in Sabah, and a spicy squid salad colored with squid’s black ink.

We ordered a total of 5 dishes, and the fish costs RM8 (US$7) for local mackerel and RM5 (US$1.2) for red fish.

delicious snack time along with coffee

All the salads here are already pre-prepared on a plate the size of an adult’s palm, and they are laid out one by one in a glass case.

cuttlefish salad

Salads are also reasonably priced and start at RM5 (US$1.2) per plate.

big eyed red fish

Just the squid salad alone costs RM7 (US$1.4).

delicious jellyfish seaweed

What I liked about this place that day was that my son (Berry), who loves fish dishes, also enjoyed these colorful and flavorful fish dishes just like the locals.

cockles salad

But Berry couldn’t eat the spicy three salad dishes very well.

mango and seaseed salad

As I’ve already mentioned the prices individually, it’s really unbelievable how cheap it is since the total price of all these dishes was only RM32(US $7)! That also included 3 iced water. Simply incredible! ?


That day, after having already had lunch at home, we visited to eat Saba food as a snack, and eventually we ended up having lunch again.

dried salted fish salad

Fortunately, we didn’t order rice. Otherwise, we would not have eaten all of the rice.

assorted grilled fishes

One more thing, this Sabah restaurant is a halal restaurant. So Muslims can come and dine, and the majority of the guests are from Sabah.

deliciously prepared assorted seafood salads

They come in three or three times and lay out a few fish dishes and a few salads on the table.

spicy chili sauce

You can also see side dishes placed on a bowl of white rice, dipped in soy sauce, chili sauce, etc., and eaten with bare hands.

lunch time

This place is located in an alley in the middle of downtown Kuala Lumpur. Get off at Bukit Bintang MRT Station in the city and walk towards the luxurious Papillion shopping mall, before reaching the mall, you will see the Grand Millennium Hotel. Then, turn to the alley on the left just before the hotel and go straight for about 20 meters.

the alley

And just about 20 meters away, there is the first restaurant, and if you turn left from there, you can’t miss the five local restaurants unfolding. If you are traveling to Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Bintang downtown is a must.

bakso stall

The place is very lively at night and on the weekends it is full of people. Most people go to a nearby night market called Jalan Alor.

saba restaurant

This Jalan Alor is also a must-visit place when traveling to Kuala Lumpur, but the food here is so expensive that you will realize how cheap the food at Sabah Restaurant today is. So, whichever you choose, have a fun and delicious trip here! ??


Ikan Bakar Kak Mia

Jln Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang, 57100 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur


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