Potager in Bamboo Hills was the sole promotion in the fifth Kuala Lumpur and Penang selection, as Dewakan held two stars among 159 establishments.
The Michelin Guide Kuala Lumpur and Penang 2027, unveiled on November 4, is a quiet edition with one loud headline. Potager, the French contemporary restaurant at Bamboo Hills in Kuala Lumpur, was promoted to one Michelin star, the only promotion of the year. Dewakan, led by chef Darren Teoh, retained its two stars and remains the only restaurant in Malaysia at that level. No starred restaurant lost its rating.
The fifth edition of the guide lists 159 establishments across the two cities: 80 in Kuala Lumpur and 79 in Penang. Alongside the one two-star and nine one-star restaurants, there are 60 Bib Gourmand addresses and 89 Michelin Selected restaurants. Sixteen establishments are new to the guide, four at Bib Gourmand level and twelve in the Selected category. The guide's leadership framed the edition as the product of a dining culture anchored in inherited tradition yet open to the personal outlook of each chef, a reading the shape of the list supports.
Potager opened in September 2023 and spent two editions on the Selected list before this promotion. The name is the French word for a kitchen garden, and the cooking follows it: executive chef Masashi Horiuchi applies classical French technique to Malaysian ingredients sourced from local farmers and suppliers. Horiuchi brings more than 20 years of cooking in Europe, including time at the two-star L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in London, and the restaurant's own menu runs to a five-course tasting of 90 to 120 minutes or an eight-course tasting of 150 to 180 minutes.
The room doubled its honours on the night. The Michelin Service Award went to Nazahar, who has supervised Potager's service since the restaurant opened and whom the guide credits with nearly a decade of hospitality experience. A first star and the service award in the same edition is a particular combination: inspectors are rewarding the kitchen, and then separately rewarding the people who carry its plates.
Dewakan's retention keeps Malaysia's summit where it has been. The restaurant sits on Level 48 of Naza Tower in Kuala Lumpur, and its name joins the Malay words for god and food, in the restaurant's own gloss. Its cooking is built on indigenous Malaysian ingredients, and this year the guide also made Teoh the featured chef on Mindful Voices, its new platform for hospitality figures. The guide's account of the kitchen describes work with forgotten ingredients such as kulim, preserving and fermenting to stretch seasonal windows, and a nose-to-tail discipline that smokes even fish bones into stock.
The remaining one-star list is unchanged. In Kuala Lumpur: Akar, Beta, Chim by Chef Noom, DC. by Darren Chin, Molina and Terra Dining, alongside Potager. In Penang: Au Jardin and Auntie Gaik Lean's Old School Eatery. Stability at this level, five editions in, is its own kind of news: the guide is no longer discovering a scene so much as keeping score in one.
Three further awards map where the guide thinks the energy is. The Young Chef Award went to Aidan Low of Akar, the chef-owner, born in 1992, whose cooking pairs classical French technique with Japanese precision and house-made ferments. The Sommelier Award went to Joyin Goh of Tangram, a Michelin Selected restaurant, who built a list of nearly 100 wines with an emphasis on smaller producers and accessible prices. The Opening of the Year Award went to Root House by Gen in George Town, Penang, where chef Johnson Wong opened in July 2026 inside the 1926 Heritage Hotel, cooking a contemporary reading of Malaysian Chinese traditions: Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Cantonese and Hainanese.
The most telling additions sit below the stars. In Penang, two nasi kandar institutions joined the Selected list for the first time: Deens Maju, a third-generation family business, and Hameediyah, founded in 1907 and known for its kambing kurma and murtabah. The new Bib Gourmands tell the same story in both cities: 7 Chai Ipoh Hor Fun and Minji Bak Kut Teh, keeper of an 80-year-old family recipe, in Kuala Lumpur; Lemon Koay Teow Soup and Serabai Istimewa, with its coconut milk rice pancakes and palm sugar syrup, in Penang.
That breadth is the edition's real argument. The 2027 guide stretches from a two-star tasting counter on the 48th floor to rice pancakes sweetened with palm sugar, and it treats both as part of one dining culture. Potager's star will take the headlines, and should. But a guide that can hold Dewakan and Deens Maju in the same selection is describing a food city whole, which is rarer, and more useful, than a long list of stars.
Filed from the Tables desk.
The second Philippine selection grows to 127 establishments, as Helm holds two stars in Makati and every starred restaurant from the first edition keeps its rating.
The London seafood group opens at 45 Great Queen Street on November 28, restoring its portfolio to four restaurants on the former Margot site.
The Japanese Restaurant at The Chedi Andermatt was promoted to three stars, leading a Swiss selection of 133 starred restaurants for 2026.
The week's essential tables, in your inbox every Sunday.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime. Read our privacy policy.