I came across TAPAK when I was out exploring the streets for supper options on my first night in KL. It was just a stone’s throw away from my hotel (Le Apple Boutique Hotel KLCC), located at an open-air carpark next to Corus Hotel on Jalan Ampang.
TAPAK is the brainchild of 4 high school friends and it’s the first hipster food truck park in Malaysia that only started business a couple of months back. The food truck scene in Malaysia has been growing in popularity in recent years unlike in Singapore even though we do have a slightly similar concept at Timbre+ (Ayer Rajah Crescent).
But seriously, nothing beats having REAL food trucks on one platform. That brings a variety of fare to foodies like us without having to go through the hassle of travelling to different places to try out different food trucks. Some of these food trucks don’t even operate at the same place everyday.
Anytime you need to find somewhere for supper or for a get-together with family or friends, this is one alternative place to go because TAPAK operates 7 days a week from 6pm to midnight (till 3am on Fridays and Saturdays). And it’s very convenient to get to whether it’s by public transport (nearest LRT stations are KLCC & Ampang Park) or private car as there’s a huge carpark space next to this food truck park.
I spotted 7 food and 2 beverage trucks when I was there. They were lined up in a U-shape along the perimeter of one end of the carpark area. These were just some of them –
Tonga Licious Cafe Food Truck that serves up shakes
Mamamia Cafe Food Truck that specialises in fried chicken wings
Dapurnomnom sells fusion eats like chicken rice/pasta bowl, meatballs, hotdog & grilled cheese
The dining area at TAPAK
You can choose to dine here as there are tables and chairs provided. I was here on a Wednesday night just before 9pm and it was very quiet. Overall, it seemed like a nice place to chill out but the feel wasn’t quite there on a weekday evening. When I came by again on the weekend, it was busier and there was music blasting away in the background – a much welcoming atmosphere.
I ordered takeaways to bring back to my hotel room to enjoy.
Got this Chicken Boxing + Fries Set for RM8 from Mamamia Cafe. It came with 4 fried chicken drumlets tossed in a sauce of your choice (I picked buttermilk) and dressed with curry leaves & bird’s eye chillies and served with a side of crinkle cut fries topped with a dollop of mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce.
As the chicken drumlets weren’t drained enough after deep-frying, there was a lot of oil at the bottom of the plastic container. The chicken drumlets weren’t very crispy but were well seasoned. The buttermilk sauce coating was very delicious and moreish. There was a lot of flavour in the sweet-savoury sauce which was further enhanced by the aromatic curry leaves and spicy chilli. Other sauce choices include black pepper, sweet spicy, cheese, gravy and butter if you aren’t a fan of buttermilk.
The fries were those straight from a packet. Nothing to shout about but still good to munch on.
This was the Milky Butter Chicken Rice Bowl (RM6) from Dapurnomnom. Very creamy, milky and fragrant. I could taste evaporated milk in the sauce. Butter flavour wasn’t very strong though. The chicken cubes didn’t do justice to this rice bowl as they were quite hard to bite into. The rice was just plain and it would have been better if more sauce was doused over the rice to give it more flavour.
The Sarawak Kolo Mee (RM6) from MuZzy Food Truck came in a very small portion. The noodles were very springy with a nice chewy bite. In it, there were braised minced beef and shredded stewed beef which tasted a little gamey. Even the accompanying side of soup which was redolent of beef flavour was quite gamey too. Chicken version is also available if you’re a non-beef eater.
Just needed a bit more of that black sauce to toss the noodles with, otherwise it would be a bit bland. I liked the addition of chilli that gave a nice spicy kick.
Overall, the portions of food from these food trucks aren’t huge so you might need to get at least two dishes to fill yourself up if you have a bigger appetite. Prices aren’t cheap by local standards for such portion sizes but for the novelty of having something different from the usual, it is worth the try. ??
TAPAK
2A Persiaran Hampshire
Hampshire Park (Off Jalan Ampang)
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: (+60) 016-554 7670
Website: https://www.tapak.co
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tapak.ft
Opening hours:
6.00pm to 12.00am (Sun-Thu)
6.00pm to 3.00am (Fri-Sat)