Kim Joo Kolo Mee: Since 1958, Vinegar-Tang Noodles in Kuching's Old Town
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A little after seven in the morning, the steam is already rolling off the noodle boiler at 73 Ewe Hai Street, in the narrow lanes behind Carpenter Street. On the wall of this small kopitiam hangs a framed business licence from the British administration era — Kim Joo has been at this address since 1958, and the regulars ordering their 'special' without looking up are on the third generation of doing so.
The kopitiam did not start with noodles. Lai Jit Lai, the grandson who now runs the noodle station, says the shop originally poured hot drinks and toasted bread for its morning trade. It was his mother — a Teochew and, in his words, a real food maestro — who brought in the noodle dishes about sixty years ago, and she cooked them for three decades before he took over. Somewhere along the way the shop's name became the dish's name: in this corner of the old town, folk just say 'Kim Joo' and the bowl is understood.
What the regulars come for is the kolo mee 'special' — springy noodles with a sharper, sour-salty finish, because this kitchen finishes with vinegar where most stalls use red oil. Travellers notice the same thing in their reviews: 'a bit sour taste but acceptable.' If that first bite catches you off guard, follow it with the 'Zheng', the mixed pork soup with offal that Kuchingites order as the classic pairing, and one of the handmade char siew pau steamed fresh each morning. Breakfast here is less a menu than a sequence.
Lai's rules are simple and he does not bend them: the water in the boiler is changed constantly through the day, the lard mixed into the noodles is never more than two days old, and the salted vegetables were dropped from the broth years ago because they made it too salty. He credits the discipline to a stint with a Japanese company and keeps the stamina for a hot noodle station with early swims and years of tai chi.
Kim Joo sits right behind the heritage shopfronts of Carpenter Street and opens daily from 6:30am until about 2pm except Mondays. If it is your first visit, I would start with the special, a char siew pau, and a bowl of Zheng, then give the vinegar a moment — it is the house signature, unchanged across three generations.
Address: 73 Ewe Hai Street (behind Carpenter Street), Kuching
Open in Google Maps<p><strong>Reference:</strong> The historical and dish details were checked against <a href="https://followtotravel.com/kuching-food-guide/" rel="nofollow ugc">Follow To Travel’s 2026 Kuching food guide</a>. KuchingHub has removed the guide’s third-party photographs here because permission to republish them could not be independently established.</p>
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