Latibule Coffee, Ara Damansara

Latibule Coffee is Ara Damansara’s cosy new neighbourhood hideout for soothing caffeine and sweet carbs.

Comfortingly inspired by Japanese kissatens and Taiwanese coffee bars, Latibule’s chilled-out corners charm with classic touches like teacups and a turntable, ruffled pendant lights, plus banker’s and stained-glass lamps.

Friendly co-founder Sam acquired an appreciation for lever espresso machines while exploring Taipei, so Latibule specialises in dark roast coffee pulled manually and meticulously for a smooth fullness of body and balanced intensity of flavour.

Sip the Sibeh Dirty Latte, a satisfying Brazil Fazenda espresso of slippery acidity poured over luscious freeze-distilled milk, splashed with fruity coffee oil.

Latibule’s latitude of delightful drinks includes Taiwanese-inflected wintermelon milk, silkily layered with house-set black tea jelly; Japanese-style melon soda for summery, fizzy fun with ice cream and strawberry; and enlivening einspanner brewed with bold black tea instead of coffee, finished with frothed cream.

Fans of flan, try Sam’s own-baked egg pudding, naturally custardy with a rich caramel kick. Cheesecake and chocolate temptations are also available.

Latibule is a lovely space to spend time browsing a book on Tokyo storefronts while nineties Cantopop divas sing on the speakers.

Curio L5, Tun HS Lee Road

Lined by a white pergola with pond plants overlooking Chinatown’s time-worn milieu, Curio L5 is KL’s new rooftop roost for nonconformist coffee, jazzed up with Japanese whisky, Pahang durian and more.

Curio L5 is the Curio family of cafes’ third space, unearthing fresh levels of uniqueness, springing from its first modest roastery up a spiral staircase on Ipoh Road to its Ampwalk basement hideout.

Test-running now on the fifth floor of Tun HS Lee Road’s +n by UR-MU art museum, Curio L5 embraces experimentation, exclusively featuring four light-as-a-cloud beverages that float with flair amid leafy life aquatic.

Soak in the intoxicatingly immersive skyline while sipping on Speakeasy, harbouring half a shot of Suntory, sweetly submerged with Ethiopian Yirgacheffe La Lesa, hawthorn and dill, blanketed with passionfruit foam.

Musang King rules too, blending Ethiopian Sidamo with Raub-cultivated durian puree by Dooran Dooran, mango and coconut water.

Other concoctions pay homage to Malaysia’s eternal sunshine, making memories with the Midsummer’s dream of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Gedeb with pickled watermelon rinds, clarified watermelon juice and sour plum powder, and the Daylight of dusky, gold-dusted Costa Rican Canet Mozart with roasted rice and red dates.

Asylum Coffeehouse, Bangsar

Cafe lovers will easily last an hour in this Asylum raised in Bangsar: Singapore’s Asylum Coffeehouse has soft-launched its first Malaysian offshoot, serving Singapore-roasted coffee with Penang-baked cookies.

Sip on the signature Keluak espresso-based blend or the Castillo experimental series filter, paired with chunky-soft NY-style cookies by Kheng Cookies.

Also try the made-for-Malaysia PB&J Latte, blended with peanut butter milk and jelly jam, served in an airy, bright and cheerful space on Kemuja Road.

Angtara, Bukit Bintang

Sin Chew Kee Road’s friendly new Angtara features crowd-pleasing Malaysian flavours that span sambal ikan bilis on sourdough toast to ayam masak merah with nasi lemak. 

For those of us who can’t resist Thai-inspired stir-fried basil chicken with a sunny egg and rice, Angtara is worth a stop for spice-seekers, satisfying with deep, dark herbal tea, brewed in-house.