Potager wins Malaysia's only new Michelin star for 2027

Potager, a French restaurant tucked into Kuala Lumpur's Bamboo Hills, becomes the only new one-star entry in the Michelin Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2027, unveiled on 4 November.

The guide's fifth edition now lists 159 establishments: one Two-Star restaurant, nine One-Star restaurants, 60 Bib Gourmand addresses and 89 Michelin Selected entries. Inspectors added 16 new names to the Bib Gourmand and Selected categories this year, a growth pattern echoed by Thailand's own Bib Gourmand expansion for 2027.

Potager is run by Fukuoka-born chef Masashi Horiuchi, who built his menu around classical French technique applied to Malaysian produce. It joins six other Kuala Lumpur restaurants at one star: Akar, Beta, Chim by Chef Noom, DC by Darren Chin, Molina and Terra Dining. Penang contributes two of its own, Au Jardin and Auntie Gaik Lean's Old School Eatery.

A French-trained chef from Fukuoka just took Malaysia's only new star, while nasi kandar finally earned its place at the table.

Dewakan holds its two stars

Dewakan, chef Darren Teoh's tasting-menu restaurant built around Malaysia's endemic and foraged ingredients, keeps its two stars for a fifth consecutive year. Michelin also named Teoh the first chef featured on its new Mindful Voices platform, which spotlights kitchens working with local and underused produce.

No restaurant moved up to three stars in this edition, leaving Dewakan as the ceiling of Malaysian fine dining for another year. Inspectors cited consistency across its tasting menu, built on ingredients such as petai and wild ferns sourced through the restaurant's own foraging network.

Nasi kandar finally gets a Michelin entry

The bigger shift sits lower down the list. Nasi kandar, the rice-and-curry hawker format associated with Penang and with Tamil Muslim food culture across the peninsula, enters the Michelin Selected category for the first time in the guide's five years. Inspectors had previously left the dish's street stalls out of the selection entirely, despite its place as one of the region's most recognisable everyday meals. Amuse has already mapped where to taste the dish properly across the city.

The Bib Gourmand list, reserved for good food at moderate prices, grew to 60 addresses from 58 last year. Most of the new entries are hawker-style operations in Kuala Lumpur and George Town, continuing a pattern of the guide widening its net beyond white-tablecloth dining since its 2022 launch in Malaysia.

The next Kuala Lumpur & Penang selection is expected in November 2027, when inspectors will test whether any one-star kitchen, Dewakan included, can push further up the ranking.