Kolo Mee in Kuching: Oriental Park’s Char Siew Breakfast
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For a morning around India Street, I would choose breakfast before wandering the old town. Oriental Park Kolo Mee sits in the lane between Lorong Market and Lorong Gertak, near the former Cathay Cinema. It is the sort of stop that makes more sense on foot than as a place to spot while driving past the main road.
The order I would start with is plain white kolo mee. Here the noodles and char siew do the work: curly egg noodles are drained and tossed with pork lard, then topped with minced pork and slices of barbecue pork. Keeping the first bowl simple leaves the pork and noodle texture in focus, instead of hiding everything under a sweet sauce.
Google Map / Oriental Park · Choy Siew FangThe char siew is not just a token topping bought to finish a bowl. Oriental Park makes its own, and its barbecue preparation is one of the details that separates this breakfast from an interchangeable noodle stop. I would take a bite of the pork on its own before mixing the rest of the bowl, then decide whether a red-sauce order would suit me next time.
The place also has a history tied to the cinema neighbourhood. When cinema trade faded, the family behind the stall moved from selling sweets into kolo mee instead of leaving the site. That change explains why a small coffee-shop breakfast still belongs in this tucked-away corner of Kuching: the business adapted to a different sort of morning customer rather than being built as a tourist attraction.
There are white, red and dark-sauce versions. I would choose white for a first bowl, red for someone who wants the sweeter char-siew-sauce direction, and ask about dark sauce if that is the style they usually enjoy. This is a pork-based breakfast, not a vegetarian or halal recommendation; the meat and lard are part of the dish rather than optional garnish.
Leave some flexibility for the queue and for the stall selling out. On a weekend or public holiday, I would come early rather than build a late brunch around an exact closing time. Find parking outside the lane, walk in, and continue towards India Street after eating; trying to turn the narrow approach into a convenient drive-up stop misses the point of this old-town route.
Oriental Park / 国泰东方古早味
Ground Floor, Lorong Gertak, 93000 Kuching, Sarawak; in the lane connecting towards Lorong Market, near the former Cathay Cinema.
Open Oriental Park in Google MapsOne bowl, a drink, then a walk is enough. I would come here for the house-made pork and a straightforward kolo mee breakfast, not for a long menu or a polished cafe setting.
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