JB old town food walk: Kam Long, Hiap Joo, Hua Mui, IT Roo and the streets between them

Johor Bahru's old town is a compact grid — Jalan Wong Ah Fook down the middle, Jalan Trus, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Jalan Dhoby and Jalan Segget running off it — and almost every famous JB dish lives inside it. You can eat the whole list on foot in a morning, provided you respect the closing times: most of these are morning-to-afternoon shops that sell out.

This is the order we use when family visits from Singapore.

9:00 — Kaya toast at Kin Hua or Hua Mui (Jalan Trus)

Two old kopitiams a few doors apart. Restoran Kin Hua is the toast-and-eggs one: charcoal toast, kaya, soft-boiled eggs, kopi, out the door in twenty minutes. Restoran Hua Mui has the same breakfast but is better known for its Hainanese fried chicken chop, which they serve from opening (8:30 am) — order it at breakfast if you are only passing once. Hua Mui closes at 5 pm.

10:30 — Hiap Joo Bakery (Jalan Tan Hiok Nee)

An eighty-year-old bakery still using a wood-fired brick oven. The banana cake is the item — dense, dark, not too sweet — sold in boxes; the coconut buns are the sleeper. Open 7:30 am to 5:30 pm, closed Sundays, and on a busy day the banana cake is gone by early afternoon. Buy it now and carry it; it keeps for two days.

Jalan Tan Hiok Nee itself is the "hipster" lane — Bev C for sea-salt chocolate tart, Roast & Coffee for lava kaya toast — fine for a coffee stop, but the bakery is the point.

11:15 — Kam Long Ah Zai curry fish head (Jalan Wong Ah Fook)

The most-cited dish in JB. A claypot of fish head in a thin, hot, lemongrass-and-curry gravy with ladies' fingers and tofu, eaten with rice. Roughly 8 am to 4:30 pm daily; the queue builds from 11 am on weekends, so this is the one to time. About S$9 per person on Singapore guides' estimates, i.e. RM30-ish for a pot.

12:30 — Herbal roast duck at Ya Wang (Jalan Segget)

If you still have room. Duck roasted with a herbal rub, chopped over rice, with a bowl of soup. 8 am to 6 pm, closed Wednesdays. Pork on the menu, so not halal.

Afternoon — Jalan Dhoby

IT Roo Café (10 am–9:30 pm) is the other chicken-chop institution — grilled, black-pepper sauce, chips — and it is open late, so it doubles as the dinner option if you stay in town. Along the same street: Bei's Pastry for Chinese snowy mochi and floss buns, The Ice Cream Project for dessert, The Replacement Lodge for a café breakfast the next day.

Then go where locals eat dinner

The old town empties after the day-trippers leave. For dinner, do what JB does: head out to a neighbourhood food court. Ours is Century Street Food Court in Taman Century, next to KSL City Mall — 80 stalls from 4 pm to 2 am, and our own Apam Balik Jalil stall for a crispy peanut pancake to finish. Guide here.