Chocha.foodstore@ Petaling Street, KL
Petaling Street, Chinatown of Kuala Lumpur where you can find a collection of stalls and shops selling everything from clothing, household items to delicious local food and drinks. Despite the massive urban development at Petaling street and its surrounding area, one still be able to savour a slice of the old and new coexisting with interesting cafes and eateries that popping up which occupied some prewar buildings at this area.
Chocha.foodstore is one of the hipster cafes that should have a spot on your list.
Housed in the abandoned Mah Lian Hotel, the catchy name of Chocha means ‘sit and drink’ in Hakka dialect. It’s not hard to guess what’s their specialties, wide variety of tea ranging from Black Tea (Lapsang Souchong 正山小种, Darjeeling Autumnal Red Thunder, Yunan Black Tea 古数红茶), Green Tea (Tsukigaze Zairai Sencha, Shizuoka Sencha 静岗煎茶, Long Jing 高山龙井), Raw Pu-Er (Zhou Xin Qiang Raw Pu-Er 周新强生普洱, Lao Hei Zhai Raw Pu-Er 老黑寨古树生普洱), White Tea (Bai Yin Shan White Tea 白莺山白茶),Dark (Mini Tuo Cha普洱沱茶, Aged Liu Bao Tea六堡茶) and Oolong Tea (Ali Shan Cha 阿里山茶, Aged Fujian Shui Hsien陈年水仙, Da Hong Pa 大红袍武夷岩茶, Hei Guan Yin 黑观音). Experience the Chinese tea culture here with some good food such as Shao Xing Mussels and Cincalok Fried Chicken.
Upon entering the cafe, visitors are greeted with peeling torn walls, old wooden tables, and exposed light bulbs. The old shop lot with long narrow layout, an almost unvarnished interior with classic patterned floor tiles and grills from the former Mah Lian Hotel, clusters of vintage glass lamps dangling from the ceiling as well as a sun-drenched central courtyard.
We were seated at the long tables in the courtyard with ample of sunlight and lined with potted herbs and plants. This section definitely provides visitors a pleasant site to hang out and I love this spot because it’s ideal for food photography. ^__^
The artsy spiral staircase donned with old bicycle, dried flowers, earthenware pots and a few stools plays as a perfect OOTD background. For sure I won’t miss the chance and check out my “perfect” OOTD photo. *thick face mode ON LOL
The setting and the atmosphere here are bound to lure faithful followers and their effort to preserve historical building and stop unnecessary demolition is highly commendable.
Pot tea for one or two, sorry I can’t remember what tea we had. 🙁
Other than teas, Chocha.foodstore also offers coffee, natural cultured soda crafted juice, craft beer and wine in their beverage menu.
Sencha 煎茶 (RM16.00)
We can get cold brewed tea here as well where the is tea leaves are steeped in cold or room temperature water for an extended period of time. The process brews the tea leaves slowly and the flavors is extracted gently, allowing for a truer tasting tea.
Other options of cold brewed tea includes Dong Ding Oolong (冻顶乌龙)and Darjeeling Blend.
The food menu focuses on Asian-Chinese delights with a fun twists, think Cincalok Fried Chicken with Summer Salsa to the Ulam Raja Crème Brûlée.
Kerabu Mango Rojak (RM20.00)
An appetizer of local favourites with a creative twist. Comprised of young mango, pineapple, guava, tomato, chopped long bean, crispy Yao Tiao, crushed peanut and sesame seeds. The fruits was fresh and crunchy but it was too salty even before the black vinegar reduction was added.
Cured Fish Rice (RM30.00)
The rice bowl was tasted as good as it looked. The rice was topped with pan seared salty chunks of cured mackerel, perfect Ajitama egg with runny egg yolk, chopped coriander, scallion ginger sauce and a disc of herbs butter. Mixed all ingredients and dug into this fluffy buttery rice bowl that showcased satisfying dimensions of flavors and textures.
Aglio Olio Duck (RM24.00)
Featured housemade noodles studded with spiced duck confit, garlic confit, cherry tomatoes, chilies and furthered perfumed with Thai basil and lemongrass. The flavors was not too shabby but mere generic.
Chinese Pesto Flat Noodles (RM22.00)
The housemade flat noodles had the al-dente texture that I fond of, sufficiently blanketed with rich ulam pesto with a flavour profile that’s similar to Hakka Lui Cha. Charred capsicums, semi-dried tomatoes, crushed peanuts and sesame seeds supplying an invigorating flavors to the dish. Definitely not a bad vegetarian option.
CFC (RM26.00)
Everyone love fried chicken! Chocha’s fried chicken is one of the popular choices in their menu. The Cincalok marinated chicken pieces were nicely fried to a golden crunchy perfection but the Cincalok (fermented small shrimps) flavor was rather subtle though. Served with tomato chutney and pineapple salsa to balance out the meatiness as well as for provide a refreshing element to the dish. It was good but lack of that “wow” factor.
Verdict: The setting and ambience are really captivating, making it one of the best historic jewels in Petaling Street. For Instagram enthusiast, I’m sure your followers will certainly drool over your double-tap worthy food photos of this cafe. Food taste wise, overall was a satisfying meal but some of the dishes were a bit over-seasoned with salt.
Chocha.foodstore (No signboard but the cafe is in this Mah Lian Hotel)
56, Jalan Petaling, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603-2022 1100
Operating Hours: 11.00am to 11.00pm (Tuesday to Sunday)
Facebook: www.facebook.com/chocha.foodstore/
This post is very interesting as I often cruised this area at midnight! Yeah what was I doing?? Oh well, it was those rounds for feeding the homeless and I noticed this hotel but had no idea it has an interesting decor with popular food. Good to bring my foreign friends to see & enjoy.
You looked like a Korean movie star!
TM, thumbs up for your gesture of feeding the homeless and Petaling Street has a few interesting cafes that I have yet visit, will definitely share more with you after visiting.
PS: I’m on cloud nine lah reading your compliment 😛 *blush
Nice place for photoshoot!
Nice #OOTD sure must come into the picture lor… hehe
But the food prices quite high also hor…
Melissa, thank you for your compliment 😛
I don’t deny that the prices are quite high =.=”
这家Café我去年意外闯入过,当时餐牌食物选择有限,所以我只是点了饮料。看过你这篇的分享,有几道食物都是我的菜耶!Chinese Pesto Flat Noodles是Café版的板面?Anyway看到Pesto就充满食欲,特别是你说像擂茶,我爱死擂茶了!!
Eugein, 其实现在的食物选择也不是很多但你应该可以找到刚你口味的。
High Five to the love for 擂茶!
I’m actually not a big fan of these traditional, heritage-type looking shophouses as cafes. Great for photo-taking though. Prefer modern, contemporary styled ones. RM20 for a plain fruit rojak seems a bit pricey. Looks like you weren’t bowled over by the food.
Kris, I like both heritage and modern style cafe interior but most important is the food of course. Food here was above average for me and agree with you for that rojak’s price >_<
I’ve not been to Petaling Street for ages.
Love your OOTD shot. It is indeed perfect. Very, very nice <3
Merryn, thank you for your compliment, let’s post OOTD together, hehe ^__^
I remember lepaking at Petaling Street when I was studying in UM many years ago!!
I guess it has changed much now…
This cafe is actually quite unique, 很休闲叹茶的地方!
Hayley, PS was my lepak place too as my college was there 😛