Where to Eat in Changlun

Where to eat in Changlun, hour by hour

Changlun is a highway town. It sits on the north-south trunk road a short drive from the Bukit Kayu Hitam crossing, which means it feeds two very different crowds: people who live here, and people who are passing through on the way to Hat Yai.

That shapes the timetable more than anything else. Mornings belong to the kopitiam trade, roti and kopi from early. The middle of the day is rice and lauk, ordered by the plate. From late afternoon the stalls come out along the main road, and by mid-evening most of the town has eaten and the shutters start coming down. Plan around it and you will not find yourself hunting at nine at night.

What it costs

A plate of rice with two or three dishes runs to single-digit ringgit at a kedai makan. Stall food at dusk is cheaper still. A sit-down meal with a view costs more, because you are paying for the sitting as much as the eating.

Our own numbers, so you can place us on that scale: the four-person sharing sets are one price for the whole table, the afternoon sets start at RM20 a person, and the pineapple juice is pressed after you order it rather than poured from a carton.

A shared rice set laid out for four, one of the fuller ways to eat in Changlun — The sharing sets are built for four. One table, one bill, and nobody ordering the same thing twice.

The table on the hill

We are up the slope from the town, inside a working MD2 pineapple estate. The restaurant is called the Skydeck and it is open-sided, with ceiling fans and a west-facing edge that looks down the valley. The kitchen is halal certified.

It is a different proposition from eating in town, and worth being honest about which one you want. In town you eat quickly and cheaply. Up here you take an hour over it. Most people come for lunch, stay for the view, and are surprised by how long they sat.

Before you drive up

Two things catch people out. We open Saturday to Wednesday, 11am to 7pm, and we are closed Thursday and Friday. The road up is sealed but it climbs through the fields, so take it slowly and park at the top.

Weekends fill from around four in the afternoon, and the edge tables go first. Call ahead if you are a group, or if the western edge is the seat you actually came for. The chalets and the event spaces run every day, so a closed kitchen does not mean a closed gate.

An open-sided dining pavilion with the valley behind it — The pavilion is the quiet end. It is where most groups end up once the plates are cleared.

Making a day of it? Kedah Tourism lists what else is nearby.