For those who prefer to stay in less “touristy” area in Kuala Lumpur (KL), you can consider staying in Chow Kit area. It is named after a 19th century Chinese merchant called Loke Chow Kit. It is a great place to explore the everyday life in KL, away from the buzzing malls.
Chow Kit area marked in the map
The Ladies Cue introduces two new hotels in the Chow Kit area:
The The Chow Kit, an Ormond hotel boasts 113 rooms, a buzzing restaurant which acts as the heart of the hotel and a yoga rooftop looking over the surrounding city.
MoMo’s Kuala Lumpur, Ormond Group’s new playful hospitality concept, is home to 99 guest rooms and is an exciting hangout in the city, providing a fun and laid-back multi-dimensional space where visitors and locals can collide in harmony.
Ormond Hotels Debuts Its First Boutique Property, The Chow Kit, In Kuala Lumpur for 2020
Opening in the heart of old Kuala Lumpur, The Chow Kit – an Ormond Hotel, will boast 113 rooms and suites in the eponymous Chow Kit neighbourhood. Known for its bustling market and local businesses, Chow Kit will now be home to the first property from Ormond Hotels.
With two further sites set to open in Melbourne and Dublin by 2022, Ormond Hotels is rethinking the notion of luxury for the contemporary traveller. Ormond Hotels believe that life’s greatest luxury is one lived with comfort, purpose and balance. In a world filled with excess, extravagance no longer evokes desire, so Ormond Hotels has edited out the unnecessary and is focusing on what matters the most. This new, simplified, luxury boutique concept prioritises great service, design and price ensuring that Ormond Hotels’ guests enjoy the highest quality essentials alongside thoughtful, beautiful design.
The Chow Kit will be Kuala Lumpur’s first design-led, experience-driven hotel inspired by an area of the city that is famously rich in character and history. The Chow Kit will pay homage to its neighbourhood, offering guests a magnetic and alluring hub that reflects its location by marrying tradition with modernity, blending cosmopolitan finishes with cosy comfort, making it feel more like a home than a hotel. The hotel is a travellers’ sanctuary for exploration and inspiration, bringing new energy to old Kuala Lumpur. Located just five minutes from Chow Kit’s famous market, The Chow Kit is in the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s most authentic neighbourhood, untouched by skyscrapers and corporate suits.
Both the architecture and interiors of The Chow Kit have been developed by Brooklyn-based design practice, Studio Tack, who was inspired by the late-night revelry that lurked in the shadows of Chow Kit’s alleys and bars in the 1970s and 1980s. The Chow Kit is Studio Tacks’s first project in Asia.
Whilst The Chow Kit will feature carefully selected, modern amenities any 21st-century guest would expect of a boutique hotel, the building honours and reinterprets the past, with local materials showcased throughout. This is also apparent through the hotel’s Art Programme, where carefully curated artworks will feature throughout the public areas and guestrooms; individually selected from private collections and commissioned from local artists in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
Stripping back the excess and focusing on what matters most, guests will experience a fusion of local Malaysian culture and modern design without compromising on service, amenities or location. Guest rooms will offer a reflection of the layered history and culture of Kuala Lumpur with thoughtful design touches that make guests feel at home. Each room will exude mystery and elegance whilst remaining light and peaceful. All guestrooms will feature plush beds, an open wardrobe and desk space, a smart TV, bespoke toiletries and a self-pick-up room service concept
The public spaces at The Chow Kit will effortlessly blend the energetic, gritty atmosphere of its location with the serenity expected from an upscale, boutique hotel. The romantic lobby invites guests to linger from day to night and will feature rich fabrics and textiles that would have been traded in old Chow Kit. Packed with deep, tufted banquets, lounge chairs and layered rugs, the lobby will be reminiscent of a casual social parlor where secrets are divulged and stories exchanged. The lobby will be a place where locals and guests collide, creating an energy that is intimate, relaxed and infectious.
The Chow Kit Kitchen
The Chow Kit Kitchen will be the heart and soul of the hotel. It will be a place of social and physical nourishment, where people come together and collectively participate in the most basic human function – to eat. Inspired by the local Malaysian kopitiams, traditional cafés, the restaurant will be a democratic space welcoming people from various walks of life. Nestled within the ground floor, it will be centrally located so that its energy and liveliness pulsate throughout the lobby.
Open all-day, guests will be able to enjoy an à la carte breakfast, including both continental and Malaysian inspired dishes, a quick business catch-up over an express lunch menu or family style sharing plates, based on reimagined Malaysian favourites for dinner. Hero dishes include the Tomato Laksa Soup, Rendang Beef Burger and The Chow Kit Fish & Chips, with tandoori marinated fish. The bar will offer signature cocktails from 11am to midnight and the venue will host regular restaurant pop-ups, featuring guest chefs and mixologists from around the world, throughout the year.
The ground floor will also be home to The Library, a beautifully wallpapered space designed for complete privacy. It will be perfect for private dining parties, of up to ten people, or small meetings. It will feature furniture that is as beautiful as it is functional with a large wood and marble table adding character and warmth.
An intimate mezzanine space will be located above the hustle and bustle of the ground floor providing an escape from the action below. A glazed wall overlooking the lobby will provide an important sense of light and calm, encouraging guests to lose themselves in a moment of solitude. The mezzanine space will also be easily converted into additional meeting and event rooms.
The Chow Kit’s rooftop has a dedicated yoga pavilion which will host a series of weekly yoga and meditation sessions.
Guests of The Chow Kit will also be able to access a curated list of things to see, eat and do in the neighbourhood, which can be used to build their own tours. In addition, the hotel will also offer themed walking food and culture tours of the eclectic Chow Kit, giving guests a quietly authentic experience of this unique neighbourhood.
Gareth Lim, CEO of Ormond Group, says of the opening of The Chow Kit, “The Chow Kit is the perfect introduction to our new brand, Ormond Hotels. The property embodies a romantic vision of simplified luxury for the 21st century traveller. The Chow Kit will showcase great design and service whilst demonstrating a strong connection to an often overlooked part of old Kuala Lumpur, and we’re confident it will be an interesting addition to the city’s hospitality scene.”
Ormond Hotels is a collection of thoughtfully designed hotels, inspired by local stories and honest materials. Their meaningful design creates spaces that function in timeless style – spaces that welcome everyone, whether they are guests, locals or nomads. A warm bed, a cold drink, a reservation at the best new local restaurant – Ormond Hotels is about service that matters. Every experience with Ormond Hotels is delivered with purpose and simple elegance, thoughtfully designed to leave a lasting impression.
The opening of The Chow Kit comes in tandem with the opening of the neighbouring MoMo’s, a second new social hotel brand from Ormond Group, created for a more value-conscious, lifestyle traveller.
Instagram: @ormondhotels
Address: The Chow Kit, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Chow Kit 50250, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Chow Kit Kitchen Opening Hours:
Breakfast: Monday – Friday, 06:00am to 10:30am / Saturday – Sunday, 07:00am to 11:00am
Lunch: Monday – Friday, 11:30am to 14:30pm / Saturday – Sunday, 11:00am to 15:00pm
Dinner: Monday – Sunday, 17:30pm to 22:30pm
Bar: Monday – Sunday, 11:00am to 00:00am
Studio Tack
The Chow Kit has been designed by Brooklyn-based collective, Studio Tack. Founded in 2012, Studio Tack is a design and development group based in New York City. They specialize in hospitality, pursuing unique opportunities to create uncommon and lasting experiences. With an emphasis on collaborative design, they strategically partner with dynamic developers, designers and artists from across the country to ensure every property speaks to its locale and culture. Studio Tack represents a diverse group of people and thinking with backgrounds in architecture, interiors, real estate, construction, branding and creative direction. The Chow Kit is Studio Tack’s debut project in Asia.
MoMo’s KL, Kuala Lumpur’s New Hotspot in The Heart of The Chow Kit Neighbourhood for 2020
MoMo’s, Ormond Group’s new playful hospitality concept, will launch its first property in central Kuala Lumpur within the eclectic Chow Kit neighborhood on 1st December 2019. Home to 99 guest rooms, MoMo’s KL will be a newly renovated, exciting hangout in the city, providing a fun and laid-back multi-dimensional space where visitors and locals can collide in harmony.
MoMo’s celebrates creative collaboration whilst offering a design-led lifestyle hotel at a value-for-money price point. Alongside micro rooms, MoMo’s KL will provide guests with a dynamic social space that engage with creative communities and urban nomads. The hotel has been designed to inspire memorable moments, through fun creative programming and a unique food and beverage offering.
MoMo’s hosts will ensure that guests have unrivalled access to Kuala Lumpur’s hidden gems, experiencing the city as a local would. Stepping away from the traditional notion of front-of-house staff, hosts are on hand to greet guests on arrival, make them a coffee or cocktail whilst checking them in for their stay. Embracing Asia’s open house culture, MoMo’s prides itself on its informal environment in which guests are encouraged to relax and have fun, feeling totally at home.
On the ground floor, MoMosita’s – a new casual concept from leading Malaysian F&B operators Christian Bauer and Eddie Chew of Troika Sky Dining, is a fun, gritty, self-serve dive bar serving an array of Mexican dishes and snacks, alongside draft beer and bottled cocktails. The food offering includes Cauliflower and Lentil Tostada’s, Tacos with Chicken, Beef, Lamb Barbacoa or fish and both savoury and sweet Churros. Open in the evenings throughout the week, with late night music programming on Fridays and Saturdays, MoMosita’s is the ultimate low-key hangout for guests and locals to let loose and mingle.
Reframing the hotel narrative from being a place to get a good night’s sleep to each hotel acting as a springboard to guests’ city experiences, MoMo’s KL encourages guests to live, play and stay. The traditional lobby is replaced by a social space that acts as the central hub of activity, The Playground. The Playground, located on the ground floor, is the hotel’s main events space which will host a series of weekly events from performance art, workshops and exhibitions to DJ sets and live gigs. The Playground was conceptualized to encourage the best creative minds from the city and abroad to mingle.
The micro-rooms feature bespoke amenities, plush beds, smart TVs and a safe with a self-pick-up style room service facility. Inward facing rooms look out onto a large gallery lightwell which provides the rooms with a curated moving image space. The design palette throughout the rooms and the communal spaces are made up of simple, honest materials with raw concrete, laminated timber and combed plaster featuring throughout. Notes of dusty pinks, washed greens and aged brass are consistent throughout the furnishings, fabrics and ornaments that bring MoMo‘s design focused, yet approachable, character to the fore.
Sydney based interiors and architecture studio, Akin Atelier, has led the design of MoMo’s Kuala Lumpur bringing founder, Kelvin Ho’s, renowned style to this unique property. The Australia based architect and interior designer has brought MoMo’s KL to life using the multi-faceted and playful character of Kuala Lumpur as the inspiration for the design. The public spaces have been conceptualised to feel like an experiential gallery where food, art and music are expressed in its rawest forms to elevate and juxtapose them from the simple rooms.
Gareth Lim, CEO of Ormond Group, says,“MoMo’s is bringing a fresh personality to Kuala Lumpur, offering young, culturally driven travellers a design focused and value-concious experience. Social interaction is central to MoMo’s ethos and look forward to being part of the regeneration of the Chow Kit neighbourhood.”
MoMo’s will open next door to The Chow Kit – An Ormond Hotel, another new launch from Ormond Group. A second MoMo’s hotel is slated for a 2022 opening in Melbourne, Australia.
Instagram: @stayatmomos
Address: MoMo’s Kuala Lumpur, 316 Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Chow kit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia