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Food guide

Best Food in Kota Kinabalu: What to Eat and Where

The dishes worth planning a KK trip around, from ngiu chap breakfasts to Kadazan-Dusun lunches and seafood by the kilo, and how to fit them into a day.

Updated

A night market stall piled with dried fish, anchovies and peanuts

Kota Kinabalu has the widest range of food in Sabah, but the city's best meals are easy to miss if you only eat near your hotel. This guide covers the dishes that define KK and the kinds of places that do them well.

Plan by time of day: noodles in the morning, Kadazan-Dusun food at lunch, seafood or the night market at dinner.

Quick recommendations

If you eat one breakfast
Ngiu chap, dry, with mixed cuts
If you eat one lunch
A Kadazan-Dusun spread in Penampang
If you eat one dinner
Seafood by weight, or the waterfront night market
If you try one new thing
Hinava, the lime-cured fish salad
1

Start with a noodle breakfast

KK's signature breakfasts are ngiu chap (mixed beef noodles) and Tuaran-style fried egg noodles, eaten in coffee shops before 10am.

Coffee shops open early and the best noodle stalls sell out by late morning. Order ngiu chap dry if you like firm noodles, and add a kopi or teh.

  • Ngiu chap: a bowl of beef noodle soup with sliced beef, tendon and beef balls

    Sabahan Chinese (Hakka)

    Ngiu Chap

    Ngiu chap ('mixed beef' in Hakka) is a Kota Kinabalu beef noodle soup with brisket, tendon, tripe and beef balls in a spiced broth, served with noodles either in the soup or dry on the side.

  • Tuaran mee: fried egg noodles with char siu, egg and greens in a takeaway box

    Sabahan Chinese (Hakka)

    Tuaran Mee

    Tuaran mee is a Sabah noodle dish of hand-made egg noodles fried hard in a wok until springy and slightly crisp, served with char siu, choy sum and egg roll. It comes from the town of Tuaran, north of Kota Kinabalu.

2

Eat Kadazan-Dusun food at lunch

For food you can only get in Sabah, go 15 minutes south to Penampang for hinava, pinasakan, tuhau and linopot.

These dishes are sour, fresh and built for sharing. Order several sides with linopot and pass them around.

  • Hinava: strips of lime-cured mackerel with red chilli, shallot and young ginger on a banana leaf

    Kadazan-Dusun

    Hinava

    Hinava is a Kadazan-Dusun dish of raw fish cured in lime juice and tossed with chilli, shallot, ginger and grated bambangan seed. It is fresh, sour and sharp, and it's served as a side with rice.

  • Pinasakan: whole mackerel in a yellow turmeric broth with chillies, served in a bowl on a woven mat beside fresh turmeric, shallots and dried chillies

    Kadazan-Dusun

    Pinasakan

    Pinasakan (pinaasakan sada) is a Kadazan-Dusun dish of fish, often mackerel scad, simmered without oil in a sour broth of takob akob fruit, turmeric and salt until the liquid reduces and the fish keeps for days.

  • Linopot: rice parcels wrapped in leaves, stacked in a basket

    Kadazan-Dusun

    Linopot

    Linopot is rice, usually hill rice or a mix with sticky rice, wrapped in a doringin, tarap or banana leaf into a neat parcel. It is the traditional Kadazan-Dusun, Murut and Rungus way to carry and serve rice with side dishes.

  • Tuhau: chopped wild ginger relish with red chilli in a jar and a small bowl

    Kadazan-Dusun

    Tuhau

    Tuhau is a pungent Kadazan-Dusun and Murut relish made from the stems of a wild ginger (Etlingera coccinea), chopped and mixed with chilli, lime or vinegar and salt. It is eaten in small amounts with rice and fish.

3

Finish with seafood or the night market

For dinner, choose a seafood restaurant that cooks from the tank, or the waterfront night market for cheaper grilled fish and squid.

Seafood restaurants price by weight. Ask for the price per kilo before choosing. At the night market, prices are lower and the setting is louder and more casual.

  • Latok sea grapes dressed with lime, chilli and shallot

    Bajau

    Latok

    Latok is an edible seaweed (Caulerpa lentillifera) made of tiny green bead-like bubbles that pop in the mouth. On Sabah's coasts it is eaten raw with lime, chilli and shallot as a salad.

4

Make time for coffee

Choose between a specialty cafe and an old-style bakery-kopitiam serving kopi with kaya toast. Both are short walks from Gaya Street.

Afternoons are hot, so a coffee stop is a useful break. Sabah grows its own coffee, mostly around Tenom, so ask whether local beans are on the menu.

Map

South China SeaSulu SeaCelebes SeaKota KinabaluSandakanTawauSempornaTuaranPenampangKundasangRanauBeaufortLahad DatuKudatKeningau

Schematic map, not to scale. Select a town to see where to eat.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most famous food in Kota Kinabalu?

Ngiu chap (mixed beef noodle soup), Tuaran mee, fresh seafood and the Kadazan-Dusun dish hinava are the foods most associated with Kota Kinabalu.

How much does a meal cost in Kota Kinabalu?

A coffee-shop noodle breakfast usually costs under RM20 per person. Kadazan-Dusun lunches are about RM25–50, and seafood dinners vary widely with what you order by weight.

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