Melawati Mall — Attraction in Ampang Jaya Municipal Council

If you are a fan of spicy (hot) food, love the feel of sweat trickle down your forehead and neck or craves Korean super spicy Ramen from cup noodles, this is the place for you.

Mala-mala is a unique Halal Northern Chinese wok stir fried dish. You pick your vegetables, meats and base and they stir fry it for you in a wok with their speciality sauce. The sauce is what makes Mala-mala unique and you can have it with 4 levels of heat. Spice jer (just the spices and no hot peppercorn) good for people with stomach issues and kids Pedas Sikit ( a little heat. A bit of peppercorn to add a little oomph) Pedas Sangat ( very hot. Those who have a thing for spicy food. I must say this is the best balance between flavour and heat with a tinge of tongue numbness) Pedas Gila (Crazy hot. Not for the weak of heart, mouth and stomach. Those with heart problems may want to opt this out)

After you have chosen your level of pain and suffering, you can have your ingredients wok fried with Ramen noodles, pan mee or accompanied with plain white rice and free vegetable soup. So basically this restaurant is also good for vegetarians as well.

To put out the fire in your mouth, there's a fridge full of home made soybean drinks mixed almonds, cocoa or just plain soy. There are also herbal teas to quench your thirst or the cold green tea is alright.

We had the chicken, fish, beef and vegetables with ramen noodles. The heat from the peppers immediately hit my tongue and reminded me of the Korean spicy cup noodles, except with more flavour and added vegetables and meat. The meal was more than enough for 2 pax.

It had a bit of Szechuan flavours, spicy with hint of sour, like a dry tomyam but with some black sauce or oyster sauce. I can't put a finger on it but the taste is unique and delicious. The only gripe I have that it's a bit oily because we choose wok fried with ramen noodles. It would be better for me if it was with plain white rice.

Secondly it took a while for them to cook. I came at 12.30pm with 3/4 filled restaurant and it took about 10 to 15 minutes for them to wok fry. So prepare to wait longer if the restaurant is full.

Would I return? Definitely. There is just too many more combinations to...

One of the typical shopping malls in KL but with a lot of parking spaces. It's very rare to see the parking is full on all 5 levels (2 basements and 3 upper floors) of parking. In terms of parking, I prefer the basement levels as there are less occupied most of the time and people barely go down to B2 level so it's practically empty.

However, the traffic surrounding the mall itself is very heavy. People are stopping by the main entrance that usually resulting in blocking one of the two one-way lane to go around the building and go into the parking spaces.

Traffic gets worse during Melawati Night Market ("Pasar Malam") which fall on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings. So, try to avoid going into the Melawati area if you don't want to deal with the heavy traffic from the Night Market.

The walking or open area of the small are not that populated by smaller shops ("Gerai") making the experience navigating the mall comfortable and not too crowded.

Surau is located in level 3 right next to the South Elevator. The surau is very small and poorly ventilated. The orientation for the male side is a bit tricky as well, as the entrance into the surau is on the front of the line ("Saf") making it awkward to go into the back line if there's people already performing their prayer in the front.

If you don't mind praying on open spaces, going to the central part of the mall on level 5 and 6 would be a great spot since there's not a lot of people going to that level in the first place. Just bring your own praying mat ("Sejadah") and...

Since it was opened years back, from my observation, Melawati Mall has yet to reach it's full capacity on occupancy. During its early days, at most, only 5th and 6th floor that were half or less than half occupied, but now, 6th floor only left with few tenants (thank God for Fitness First) and 5th floor with GSC which generally these two would able to draw foot fall to these floors. Perhaps Melawati Mall could explore alternative in transforming or rejuvenating these floors by opening up to non-traditional, mall tenants, to fill in the vacant spots or lots, or learn more on how Avenue K, or The Linq, on how they transformed, and look at how they are now. I would say that Melawati Mall was ambitious when it was proposed and built as they could stop at 4th floor as it would be better in terms of occupancy but they could do that now. Additionally from what I observed, maintenance wise could be improved for the betterment especially on its structures and facilities especially the flooring and walls of the basement parking (the drainage and gutter covers could be fixed asap instead of leaving it damaging vehicles' tyres every time we enter and exit from the basement parking. Not to far behind their toilets especially the upper floors (I guess due to less foot fall, no immediate action taken to fix the dysfunctional urinals and toilet bowls, bidet etc). Hope they would act immediately and being proactive than reactive, instead of soon to be another white elephant of malls due to these issues, on...