The JW Marriott in Kuala Lumpur is located right in the heart of the city in Bukit Bintang.
They also put on a very good breakfast buffet spread, one worthy of a special trip early in the morning to experience first hand.
In this article, I’ll cover the details about what you need to know before you go.
Update: April 2023 (my 2nd visit for breakfast)
I went to the Marriott for another buffet breakfast and the place has had serious renovations since my last visit. The entire restaurant area is unrecognizable compared to a few years ago.
The price is still about the same (70rm per person including service and tax) and the food and overall variety is still about the same too.
Overall, I think it’s a good option for the price. Not amazing, but certainly good value for money compared to alternative breakfast options.
Buffet breakfast price
The Marriott buffet breakfast costs 69.60rm per person.
This is only about 5rm more expensive than it was several years ago, and I still think it’s a good option.
Personally, given the fact that you can literally eat yourself into oblivion, I think it’s good value for money.
I literally didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day because I was so full. But hey, it’s my duty to make sure that I carefully sample all of the different food options so that I can report on them thoroughly here, right?
That’s my excuse for eating too much anyway!
Marriot breakfast times
The Marriott breakfast runs from 6am until 10:30am weekdays and from 6am until 11am on weekends.
I recommend that you get there at least an hour before they close so that you can enjoy the wide variety of delicious foods on offer and relax in a comfortable, air-conditioned environment.
Location
The Marriott is located at 183 Jalan Bukit Bintang, Bukit Bintang.
It’s directly opposite the Pavilion mall, and only a few hundred metres away from the Bukit Bintang MRT station and the monorail station if you’re coming by public transport.
Breakfast food options
The Marriott has a wide selection of food options to cater to just about any dietary requirements or cuisine preferences.
Chinese food
The Chinese food selection was disappointing. Porridge and only a couple of dim sum options.
No har gao. No siu mai. Worst of all, no char siu bao.
WTF?!
You call THIS dim sum?
I was heartbroken for about 10 seconds and then I got to work eating as much of what they did actually have as possible.
To be honest, the visit to the Marriott was accidental.
We were actually out and about early in the morning looking for dim sum and when we couldn’t find anything nearby that was already open, we settled for the Marriott buffet.
I was pretty excited to see that dim sum was on offer, but the selection was a bit underwhelming.
Don’t get me wrong, I still ate my fair share of it, and it certainly wasn’t bad, but I would have liked to have seen some more variety – especially some of the most famous dim sum dishes.
By the way, if you want my recommendation on where to find some really good dim sum, check out the other article that I’ve linked to here where I cover an amazing dim sum restaurant that you might like to check out.
Malay food
I love a good nasi lemak, and the Marriott breakfast buffet didn’t disappoint.
Now, let’s not get too carried away here.
The nasi lemak at the Marriott certainly wasn’t on par with the likes of Wanjo or Antarabangsa, but as part of an all-you-can-eat spread, I think it was about as good as you might hope for.
Western food
As you might expect, there was a decent selection of bread, cereal, yoghurt, baked beans, baked potatoes and various other bits and pieces to go along with it.
Not bad, but nothing particularly outstanding besides the baked potato with cheese which I thought was quite good.
Of course, you can eat all the omelets that you like. It’s pretty hard to mess up an omelet, isn’t it?
In any case, the omelet gets a thumbs up from me.
Vegetarian food
There seemed to be a fair amount of vegetarian-friendly options, including some pretty good hummus and baba ganoush – a couple of things that have really grown on me since I’ve been in Kuala Lumpur.
fruit
The Marriott breakfast had a decent amount of fruit on offer. I only tried the pineapple and the watermelon, which were both good.
I did find it a bit curious that they had a few ornamental dragonfruits on display, but no actual dragonfruit on offer for anyone to eat.
That’s a bit disappointing, as dragonfruit is one of my favourite fruits and something that I’ve become quite addicted to since coming to KL/
Marriott breakfast rating
While I was thoroughly impressed by the buffet at the Marriott, I saw plenty of good buffets at 5-star hotels during my years as a Qantas pilot, so I’m not going to tell you that the Marriott breakfast is the best thing in the world.
It’s good value, the food is good, but not amazing, and of course, you can eat as much of it as you like – something I always like!
| Western food | 8.5/10 |
| Chinese food | 6.5/10 |
| Malay food | 8/10 |
| Value for money | 8.5/10 |
| Overall rating | 8/10 |
Marriott buffet breakfast summary
Despite the shortcomings listed above, the Marriott buffet breakfast is really good and well worth a visit.
Whether you’re a KL local, or you’re just passing through for a few days, you’ll almost definitely come away feeling like you got good food and good value.
Honestly, even if you’re on a super-tight budget, I think it’s still worth considering trying the Marriott buffet breakfast at least once while you’re in KL, especially if you’re in the mood for something nice and some air conditioning.
You could do what I did and just eat so much that you don’t need to eat again until the following day and consider it as spending your entire day’s food budget all at once.
Not a bad strategy.
Safe travels!
Related
The Westin Hotel is a short walk from the Marriott and also offers a very nice breakfast buffet. You can read my review and check out my video in my other article.