Malacca (Melaka) is uber kids friendly! And uber friendly too!
It’s Lm 2nd time to Malacca. I think she is 马 clashes with 马六甲. Both times she fell sick and she is a strong girl who seldom falls sick. Thankfully she recovered really fast within a day. And thankfully we stayed very near to a medical centre with 24hrs A&E so doctors and medications are easily available. Contrary to the big news currently about the Singaporean man who passed away in JB due to slow response from their medical care and requesting for payment before treatments, our A&E experience was fast and pleasant in Mahkota. There was no patients when we arrived on their National Day public holiday, got registered within 5 min, no asking for any deposit, and was able to see a medical officer within 5 min.
Waiting to see the MO
After that we got called to make payment and medicine to collect at the pharmacy. Whole process probably less than half an hour.
A mental note that I should probably have a habit to do a Google to see where is the nearest pd or hospital at the destination that you are traveling to in future. Here’s the address of the A&E that we went to in case anyone needs the info when travelling to Malacca.
Mahkota Medical Centre
(Private Hospital)
No. 3, Mahkota Melaka, Jalan Merdeka, 75000 Malacca, Malaysia
Note: Hospital is just beside Hatten Hotel
Next, I want to mention about the hotel that we stayed in. Cheap and good and fantastic location.
Hotel
This trip is a last min getaway hence there wasn’t many accomodation choices when I do the bookings. The popular Hatten Hotel was not available on agoda and I came across Imperial Heritage Hotel (IH) which is really cheap and location seems fantastic. In fact, IH location is so much better than Hatten that I most probably will never stay in Hatten. I do not like to go places that all other Singaporeans are at…
IH is just located in front of Dataran Pahlawan Mega mall and is just a straight walk all the way to Jonker. You can see Hatten is located further away hence I don’t find them fantastic.
The straight road to Jonker. Equatorial Hotel is on the right.
Below IH there is a Nasi Padang which we went for supper at 1am. Prata is good, curry yucky though… The fried chicken wings looked yummy but I didn’t have chance to order…
We got a huge room with comfortable bed.
Their pool isn’t great though. Water is cold and looks dirty. Just enough for young kids to splash around the jacuzzi since there is no bathtub in the rooms.
Yaya, she’s sick, so only a foot soak for her.
Breakfast area
I think this is like my 5th or 6th trip to Malacca already so this current trip is more on finding attractions for the kid and eat and eat and eat. It seems like within a short span of 2 years, there has been quite a lot of new buildings up here now. Plenty of hotel choices now, I have stayed in Jonker Street before, very good location but very noisy, not a place to stay if you are driving actually. Stayed at outskirt of city centre before, cheap but need drive everywhere. And stayed near the Little India area before. Quite a long walk to Jonker. Think staying near the malls is still a better location.
Address: Imperial Heritage Hotel
No 1, 1, Jalan Merdeka, Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Malacca, Malaysia
Food
Day 1
We try not to eat back the same food that we have eaten before. Stopover in Kulai for Bak Kut Teh Breakfast.
Verdict: 3/5. Kids-Friendliness: 4/5.
They serve in individual bowls. Not worth a stopover for…
Address: Restoran Sze Hwa Bak Kut Teh
Jalan Seruling 1, Taman Sri Kuali Baru Dua, 81000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Reach Malacca and wanna give a special mention to Amy’s Nyonya House. The restaurant is full without reservation hence we were not able to dine there for lunch. Lm was not well reaching Malacca and she puked all over the restaurant upon stepping in. I felt so embarrassed hence would like to thank the staffs there for cleaning up her mess. Thankfully her puke totally has no smell at all and mostly all water as she had only plain rice and coconut juice earlier on.
We had lunch instead at this Bayonya Restaurant just outside our hotel after checking in first.
Verdict: 2.5/5. Kids-Friendliness: 4.5/5.
No wonder there’s no crowd.
Address: Bayonya Restaurant
164, Jalan Taman Melaka Raya, 75000, Melaka, Melaka, 75000, Malaysia
Dinner at Tong Sheng Restaurant. Super long queue. Think took us 2 hours before being able to eat.
Verdict: 3/5. Kids-Friendliness: 2/5. Overhyped not worth queueing so long for it.
Fresh Milk Crab
Cheese Beehoon
Only these 2 dishes are nice. Never ever order the salted egg tofu, it’s terrible!
Address: Restoran Tong Sheng
No. 377 & 378, Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka, Malaysia
Opening hours : 5.30pm-11pm (closed on Mon)
Day 2
Chendol at Tan Kim Hock. Not that we want to come to tourist trap but just that it is beside the wanton mee. Look at the durian on top of the chendol. It’s durian dodol. What happened to fresh durian puree? Disappointing.
Verdict: 3/5. Kids-Friendliness: 4.5/5
Somewhere online recommended the wanton mee here. We came for breakfast. Also ordered Fried Carrot Cake.
Verdict: 2.5/5. Kids-Friendliness: 4/5
I’m not too sure why all the food in Malacca that we have eaten this time round tasted terrible so far. 😢
Address: Medan Selera Cheng Ho Hawker Centre
Opening hours: 7am-11pm
Popiah for lunch. BEST food so far! The bak you is so fragrant.
Verdict: 4.5/5. Kids-Friendliness: 1/5
More ingredient and more evenly spread chili sauce will be good.
Look at the queue!
Address: Bunga Raya Popiah (In front of Madam King’s dept store)
78, Jalan Bunga Raya, Kampung Jawa, 75100 Melaka, Malaysia
Opening hours: 1pm-8pm
Further in front of the Popiah, we saw a shop selling coconut drink and a Hee Kiaw noodle stall inside. We went inside for the Popiah and noodles for lunch and coconut shake to quench thirst. Satisfying lunch here. I can’t find the address, it’s just straight down from Popiah stall towards The Shore. You will see alot of coconuts at the shop.
Verdict: 4.5/5. Kids-Friendliness: 4/5
Can’t have enough of the coconut shake.
Dinner. Chicken rice balls are not our choice. So far we still only prefer our Singapore hainanese chicken rice. However, the sick girl requested only to eat fish ball and plain rice, so she is queen and we found fishballs here.
Verdict: 3/5. Kids-Friendliness: 4/5
The satay house opposite the Famosa Chicken Rice balls. Our satay came from here.
Address: Famosa Chicken Rice Ball – Jonker Street
28, Jalan Hang Kasturi, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia
Opening hours: 9.30am-5.30pm (Mon- Thu) , 9.30am-7.30pm (Fri-Sun)
Around round of durian chendol at San Shu Gong while waiting for grandparents to be back from night market shopping. The crowd was madness.
Verdict: 3.5/5. Kids-Friendliness: 4.5/5
Sick girl’s appetite was back! Verdict: 3.5/5
San Shu Gong Food Industries Sdn Bhd
33, Lorong Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia
Opening hours: 10am-10pm
Day 3
Breakfast cum lunch. Famous Mee sua and oyster omelette. We managed to find seats immediately. However, got to wait 1 hour for the food to be served. At least we could sit down.
Verdict : 4/5. Kids-Friendliness: 2/5
Address: Pin Pin Hiong Restaurant
786, Lorong Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia
Opening hours: 7.30am-2pm (closed on sun)
Ended off with another round of chendol at a shop few doors away from Mamee museum that sells Smelly tofu, rojak and fried squid too.
Verdict: 3/5. Kids-Friendliness: 3/5
And so this is the end of the Malacca food journey. Next post I’ll share about the attractions that we did this round.