5 MICHELIN Bib Gourmand Restaurants In KL & Penang You Can Now Order On GrabFood

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram for the latest stories and breaking news. 

This Spotlight is sponsored by Grab. 

Bib Gourmand is an award given by the MICHELIN Guide, a food guide by French tyre company MICHELIN, recognising restaurants that serve affordable yet highly rated and delicious food loved by many. 

And if you didn't already know, Kuala Lumpur and Penang are home to many MICHELIN Bib Gourmand restaurants! The best part? GrabFood is the official partner for the MICHELIN Guide 2023, which means you can easily find these top-rated restaurants on the app. Cheers to beating the queue and having yummy meals sent to your doorstep at any time! 

Located on the third floor of Bangsar Shopping Centre is Dancing Fish, a name derived from the restaurant's signature dish — a large deep-fried fish that looks like it's dancing, usually served with sambal terasi and soy sauce.

Dancing Fish offers unadulterated and uncompromised Malay-Indo cuisine coupled with top-notch service since 2010. For the restaurant, it's not just about the quality of ingredients, but also its meticulous cooking methods without using MSG and added preservatives.

Every dish here is cooked with attention to detail. For instance, its signature deep-fried fish is crunchy inside-out — paired with sambal and kicap, it offers a nice flavourful kick. To whet your appetite, try their appetiser plate which comes with charcoal grilled Chicken Satay, Cumi-Cumi Tahu Bakar with Spicy Peanut Rujak Sauce, Seafood Sate Lilit, and Spicy Green Apple with Salted Fish.

Little wonder why Dancing Fish made it into the MICHELIN Guide list.

There's good Peranakan food, and there's authentic and really good Peranakan food — Anak Baba fits into the latter category

Enter Anak Baba, a cosy gem in Brickfields' Little India that serves authentic Nyonya cuisine. Established in 2018, Anak Baba is an expansion from the renowned 486 Baba Low's restaurant in Bangsar. Anak Baba serves similar dishes also found at its subsidiary, but with several additions that made it what it is today.

Lunchtime here is always its busiest period, and it's not hard to see why. Its dishes are affordable, yet offer quality and flavours hard to find elsewhere.

Its Nyonya laksa, for example, boasts a broth that's thick, milky, and overall, packed with flavours. Its nasi Nyonya comprises steamed rice with ladies' fingers in sambal belacan and a savoury side you can choose, ranging from Nyonya classics like ayam sekbak to ikan gerang asam.

Nam Heong Chicken Rice (a different brand from Nam Heong Ipoh) has an unusual fact: it did not start off in 1938 with Hainanese chicken rice, but with Nanyang coffee, kaya toast, and soft-boiled eggs. 

Hainanese chicken rice was only later added to its menu, which boosted the restaurant's popularity in no time. And thanks to its newly added star dish, the humble restaurant continued making a name for itself over the years. To date, it has opened two branches in the Klang Valley — Desa Sri Hartamas and SS2 Petaling Jaya.

Ask locals why they love the chicken rice, and the answers are endless, from the aromatic rice to the tender kampung chicken, as well as sour and spicy chilli sauce.

Meanwhile, the MICHELIN Guide also recommends trying the restaurant's barbecue meats, such as roast pork belly that boasts crispy skin and alternate layers of fat and lean meat.

Thara is fairly new to the dining scene, having just opened last year, but they've hit the ground running, becoming an instant hotspot in George Town and a favourite among the locals. 

It also caught the attention of the MICHELIN Guide, thus earning a spot in the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand list.

While Thara offers Thai cuisine that's not new to Malaysians, the quality of food, service, and ambience is impeccable.

Almost every dish you order from the menu is bound to impress you, leaving you planning your next visit the moment your meal is over. Its miang kham (one-bite wrap) is to die for — it's a traditional Thai dish that features a variety of ingredients all wrapped in betel leaves. While the dish itself is not hard to make, what sets Thara apart is the freshness of ingredients, which is a constant theme in all of its cooking. 

Theeni Pandarams means 'a person who is very fond of food', and that encapsulates the restaurant's mission — to serve their customers well.

The restaurant was started during the pandemic by three locals from a travel agency who had little experience in the F&B industry. Still, it prospered, and for good reasons: fantastic briyani rice on banana leaf, authentic banana leaf rice, and delectable dishes like crab masala, claypot fish curry, and squid varuval. 

Every aspect of the restaurant, from the food to the historic ambience, checks the boxes on the MICHELIN Guide, which already says a lot about the restaurant. So, it's clear you should not leave this restaurant out of your must-eat list! 

Here's how you can find the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand restaurants in your area:
STEP 1: Launch GrabFood
STEP 2: Tap on the search bar and key in 'MICHELIN'
STEP 3: Select your desired restaurant from the list of MICHELIN Bib Gourmand restaurants

So, go ahead and browse GrabFood to choose a restaurant you'd like to try, then sit back, relax, and let the high-quality and delicious grub be delivered to your doorstep for you and your family to enjoy.

Take a look at all of our Spotlight stories to date here.