Tucked away in a residential area of Kuala Lumpur, on a short street lined with quaint restaurants, is Kedai Coklat. This chocolate café, owned by CocoRaw Chocolates, serves a variety of drinks, pastries, and cakes featuring chocolate. CocoRaw started in 2016, though their website provides little additional information. At first, we assumed it was a raw chocolate maker, but instead it seems they are chocolatiers using chocolate to create a range of inventive treats. There are some reference on instagram to Malaysian grown cacao, but it wasn’t clear what kind of chocolate they use.
Kedai Coklat’s creations look stunning. One of their fun creations is Roti Kaya: a chocolate bar with kaya (coconut-pandan jam) served on crunchy sourdough toast. They also make several nama-style chocolates flavouring local ingredients, such as teh tarik. Occasionally, they sell moon pies, two chocolate cookies sandwiching marshmallow, all coated in chocolate, which look delicious.
When we visited late in the day, the display case was nearly empty. We did order several hot chocolates. Unfortunately, it really needed more chocolate, in my opinion, it was too watered down. If they make a hot chocolate with the same gusto they put into their beautiful desserts, this place would be a winner!
Bangsar, once a rubber plantation area, is now a trendy residential neighbourhood. The Bangsar Sunday Market, which we unfortunately missed, sounds like a highlight worth adding to your itinerary. To get there, take the Kelana Jaya Line to Jalan Bangsar LRT station; from there, it’s roughly a 10-minute walk through a residential area. Nearby, despite its unusual name, the WTF Restaurant next door comes highly recommended by some local residents. Just across the metro line is Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur’s “Little India,” full of Indian restaurants and shops.
Kedai Coklat, 78, Lorong Maarof, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. Open Tuesday to Sunday 12:30pm to 10:30pm. Closed Mondays https://www.cocoraw.me
