Makan Kitchen @ DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru!

Remember when KayaButter were invited to DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru for their social media challenge called ‘Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar’, we got to sample their famous Makan Kitchen, an eclectic mix of local cuisines, mainly Chinese, Malay and Indian varieties. The first impression that we have for Makan Kitchen is that it is a very grand and spacious restaurant. The high ceilings and the well planned layout of the restaurant makes you feel very comfortable and at ease. The Makan Kitchen can accommodate very large group of people. They have additional three private rooms for special occasions or special groups. This is a good news for companies who wish to do conference or meeting here in DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru. Makan Kitchen is indeed a very opulent and at the same time chic kitchen. You will see some mini kitchens scattered around Makan Kitchen serving you freshly cooked dishes.

As you go into Makan Kitchen,  you will greeted by their friendly staffs who will ask for your room number if you are going for their breakfast or they will just guide you to a table if you are there for lunch or dinner. The 1st counter that you see on your way in is the desserts counter. You will have an array of delicious and beautiful desserts arranged in ways that will entice and seduce you to pick one before you go to other counters. Check out the desserts in the later part of this blogpost. Kaya loves their ice cream selections especially chocolate mint and raspberry flavours. Rather special. Oh ya, you can get fresh fruit juice if you are there for breakfast. You can choose to mix the fruits if you want or you can ask the server to help you to mix a great concoction of fruits juice.

At the left of the desserts counter, there are few counters that serves Chinese food. At the far left end, there is a bar counter that will serve your drinks that you order or coffee if you are there for breakfast. We love the checkered floor that gives the restaurant a very unique feeling.

At the right of the desserts counter, you will find Malay food and at the far right is the Indian food counter. KayaButter love the table in the middle of the collage photo above. We had our breakfast, lunch and dinner there before. Better privacy. 🙂 Behind the table is another room that can cater to a group of 20++ people according to KayaButter’s observation. This blogpost will be about the Makan Kitchen’s dinner buffet. We will start from the right side of the restaurant which is where the Malay and Indian food are.

Seafood on Ice

You will be greeted with this seafood galore as you walk to the Malay and Indian food counters. Lots of crabs, prawns and mussels for you to eat non-stop! 🙂 Too bad KayaButter are not a big fan of seafood, so we don’t try them. We are more interested with their local cuisines.

You can have four types of crackers to start your dinner or as your desserts! 🙂

This is our all-time favourite dish and Makan Kitchen does not disappoint. The chicken meats are grilled to perfection and combined with their thick peanut sauce. It is definitely heavenly. Kaya can’t have enough of them especially the peanut sauce! If you are a big fan of beef, they do have that!

One of the feature of Makan Kitchen is that some of the local cuisines will be cooked fresh and live in front of you. Butter tried the laksa. The broth of the laksa does not fare well. It lacks the sweet, sour and chilli kick that Penang laksa has to offer. The laksa has a lot to improve.

Fried Mee

Ayam Goreng Berempah

Kari Kambing

Ikan Goreng Berlada

Beef Kurma

Chicken Tandoori

All the dishes featured above are what KayaButter considered as the highlight of the Malay and Indian food. Malaysians always love thick and strong flavour gravies. If you visit Malay or Indian Muslim stalls, they have a term called nasi ‘banjir‘. Banjir is a Malay term which means flood in English. The whole plate will be flooded with the gravies. All these dishes has this kind of effect. Just mix them and enjoy the multitude of spices that will tantalise your taste buds. Kaya particularly loves the chicken tandoori. Well marinated and the chicken has the flavours permeates through the meat. 🙂

Let’s go the left side of the restaurant to sample their Chinese cuisines.

Noodles with Assorted Ingredients & Condiments

You can choose your own ingredients and cook the noodles soup yourself or you can ask one of the cooks available to help you to cook. Butter ordered one bowl and the soup is commendable. Kaya tries it and approves it also. The noodles and the ingredients are decent and nothing exceptional except the soup.

Yes, they serve dim sum during your dinner buffet so that you can ease your night cravings for dim sum. The selections are rather limited. They have lots of paos and a few types of dim sum namely siew mai. Kaya and other bloggers feel that the loh mai kai aka chicken glutinous rice that is served in the breakfast buffet is rather nice. It is better than some hotel’s. Do give it a try when you stay in DoubleTree by Hilton there.

You will definitely not miss this big pot when you go to the Chinese food counter. Kaya manages to ask one of the chef whether the soups that they serve come from the big pot. The chef tells Kaya that if they are expecting a very big group, then they will use this big pot. For normal occasions, they will use the stainless steel pot with a cone cover. KayaButter love their soups especially the pumpkin soup. The soup is full of aroma and ends with a sweet note. It is rather special that Makan Kitchen serves soups. A big plus!

Roasted Chicken

Chicken Rice

Tom Yam Fried Rice

Char Koay Teow

Butter Prawn

All the above are dishes that KayaButter love to eat after dining there for a few times during our 5D4N stay in DoubleTree by Hilton JB. The chicken rice is mention-worthy because of its well-cooked rice with good chicken aroma and taste. The char koay teow is above-average and manages to let us cure our homesickness because its taste is quite close to our Penang char koay teow. The tom yam fried rice is good also. We seldom take rice when we go for buffets. These rice dishes manage to entice us to take a second round. Well done!

Next, the desserts counter. It has been known that all women regardless of how full she is, she will always have the extra space for desserts. Some say that they have 2nd stomach for that! 🙂

Chocolate Fountain – Our all-time favourite

See those beautiful macarons!

Butter calls it Mossy Bun since it looks like the Mossy Forest of Cameron Highlands! Haha 🙂

Pancake with Toppings

Assorted Fruits

Assorted Ice Creams – Chcolate Mint and Raspberry stood out!

All in all, Makan Kitchen is definitely a true showcase of our Malaysian local cuisines. An eye-opener and exciting culinary experience for foreigners who wish to try out our Malaysian cuisines in a very comfortable environment. To the locals, you will definitely find comfort in all the familiar food and enjoy your food in a cosy and grand setting. The array of food has some hits and some misses but overall, the quality and the variety of the food is there. The service of the staffs are impeccable, very attentive to your needs and friendly. They always wear a smile whenever you see them. KayaButter is particularly fond of a cute and tall Malay waiter during our time there. We forget to get his name. Hehe 🙂 One thing that we feel can make the dining experience better is that the management needs to put big signboards to inform patrons of what food does this counter serves as the restaurant is big and we get lost in our first experience with them. Many thanks to Grace Chiam for the invite and the warm hospitality, Karen & Lena for the caring to our needs and the Makan Kitchen friendly staffs. Oh ya, there is a staff whom KayaButter believe is either the floor manager or something like that who looks almost like Lee Chong Wei. Do check him out! 😛

Here are the rates or prices for each buffet that Makan Kitchen offers:

Breakfast Buffet: RM38++ per pax (Daily, 6:30am – 10:30am)

Lunch Buffet: RM58++ per pax (Monday – Friday, 12:00pm – 2:30pm)

High Tea Buffet: RM58++ per pax (Saturday & Public Holidays 12:30pm – 4:00pm)

Dinner Buffet: RM88++ (Daily, 6:30pm – 10:30pm)

They do serve ala-carte if you are not interested in buffets.

Here is their latest event for their Makan Kitchen:

contact information

Makan Kitchen
DoubleTree by Hilton Johor Bahru,
12, Jalan Ngee Heng,
Johor Bahru 80000 Johor
Contact No: +607-268 6940, +607-2686944
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/doubletreeJB

business hours

Daily

11:00am – 11:00pm