One piece of information I did not know about Malaysia before we went is that it’s home to many amazing malls! Asia and the middle east as a whole are populated with gigantic, clean, and modern malls which are filled with shops, restaurants, activities, and more like grocery stores. Our first of many malls in Kuala Lumpur was 1 Utama.
Malls, I have always loved them
I remember going to the Mall of America a few times in my youth and I always found it both impressive and fun. I have now somehow been to 4 malls which are larger! 1 Utama is the winner so far, though, ranking at 6th largest in the world according to Wikipedia, and 4th according to CNN. At 5 million square feet, it’s the largest mall in Malaysia.
1 Utama is technically located in the city of Damansara. We visited a couple times when we came to Malaysia the first time and stayed in Petaling Jaya. Still, it’s not far from Kuala Lumpur so it would not be unreasonable to make a visit there from KL using Uber. There is an old wing and a new wing. Your driver will probably ask which you prefer to be dropped at, but if you are not going for any specific purpose it doesn’t matter because they are connected.
6 Floors to Explore
There are 6 floors – though it’s slightly more complicated than that – but if you have trouble navigating, there are a few directories. We even found a touchpad/interactive map in one area. They also have a website you can check out before visiting.
More Than Just Shopping
Some of the attractions at 1 Utama (and no we did not see all of these) include 2 movie theaters, 2 karaoke centers, a bowling alley, a batting cage, an indoor gym, a kid’s play land, an escape room, a rooftop garden, and a diving center. There is also an indoor rainforest.
You’ll find many stores here that you might find in a mall in the US. There are all kinds of fashion/retail stores ranging from casual to upscale. There are bookstores, toy stores, makeup stores, etc.
Great Opportunity To Sample Food
One great thing about Malaysia (particularly Kuala Lumpur) in general is the selection of food. It’s as diverse as the people there. You can find great food from all over the world here – though especially Asian food!
- Chinese
- Vietnamese
- Japanese
- Korean
- Malaysian
- Thai
- Indian
- Lebanese
Here are a few places we either tried or got photos of:
Korean Food.
It was neat seeing this sign because we were like, “Hey! we have been to Myeongdong” – a neighborhood in Seoul – “this must be Korean.”
Thai Food (So good!).
Pictured here:
- Mango sticky rice
- Red ruby dessert
- Mango salad
- Shrimp pad thai
Taiwanese Food
These are sweet potato plum fries!(Also so good!)
McDonalds
Ice Cream and Desserts
A piece of cheesecake we treated ourselves on our very first visit.
We watched the people at “Sticky” make candy.
And more!
You Get The standard Staples Too
Places like Starbucks seem pretty common all over the world, but this mall even has some options you wouldn’t expect to find outside of the US such as TGI Fridays.
We also had to check out the grocery store even though we could not do much cooking at the time we visited.
We also checked out an herbal remedy store and restaurant (we just checked out the store). I was just getting over a cold and was curious about their remedies:
It was such fun just walking around and exploring the mall in general. It’s pretty kid-friendly.
Top Quality Amenities
The toilets are normal and clean as well.
Our biggest problem with 1Utama was that it was hard to get an Uber to leave. There is quite a bit of traffic in the area and many times they’d end up on the wrong side and then it’d be a while (if they didn’t cancel) before they’d make it to our location. I assume parking here is also a nightmare though.
It’s busy for a reason, though!
