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Sabah's Local Food & Restaurant Guide

Discover the best food in Sabah

Find local dishes, restaurants, cafes and food guides across Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tawau and beyond.

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Explore where to eat Discover Sabah food

Hinava: strips of lime-cured mackerel with red chilli, shallot and young ginger on a banana leaf

Local dishes

Discover Sabah’s food

Hinava is a Kadazan-Dusun dish of raw fish cured in lime juice and tossed with chilli, shallot, ginger and grated bambangan seed.

Explore all 11 dishes

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Explore by location

Every town in Sabah eats a little differently. Start with the place you're visiting.

Local food

All Sabah dishes

What to eat in Sabah

Sour, fresh and surprising: six dishes that taste of Sabah.

  1. Tuaran mee: fried egg noodles with char siu, egg and greens in a takeaway box

    01Sabahan Chinese (Hakka)

    Tuaran Mee

    Tuaran mee is a Sabah noodle dish of hand-made egg noodles fried hard in a wok until springy and slightly crisp, served with char siu, choy sum and egg roll. It comes from the town of Tuaran, north of Kota Kinabalu.

  2. Ngiu chap: a bowl of beef noodle soup with sliced beef, tendon and beef balls

    02Sabahan Chinese (Hakka)

    Ngiu Chap

    Ngiu chap ('mixed beef' in Hakka) is a Kota Kinabalu beef noodle soup with brisket, tendon, tripe and beef balls in a spiced broth, served with noodles either in the soup or dry on the side.

  3. Pinasakan: whole mackerel in a yellow turmeric broth with chillies, served in a bowl on a woven mat beside fresh turmeric, shallots and dried chillies

    03Kadazan-Dusun

    Pinasakan

    Pinasakan (pinaasakan sada) is a Kadazan-Dusun dish of fish, often mackerel scad, simmered without oil in a sour broth of takob akob fruit, turmeric and salt until the liquid reduces and the fish keeps for days.

  4. Linopot: rice parcels wrapped in leaves, stacked in a basket

    04Kadazan-Dusun

    Linopot

    Linopot is rice, usually hill rice or a mix with sticky rice, wrapped in a doringin, tarap or banana leaf into a neat parcel. It is the traditional Kadazan-Dusun, Murut and Rungus way to carry and serve rice with side dishes.

  5. Tuhau: chopped wild ginger relish with red chilli in a jar and a small bowl

    05Kadazan-Dusun

    Tuhau

    Tuhau is a pungent Kadazan-Dusun and Murut relish made from the stems of a wild ginger (Etlingera coccinea), chopped and mixed with chilli, lime or vinegar and salt. It is eaten in small amounts with rice and fish.

  6. Beaufort mee: egg noodles in glossy gravy with char siu, chicken and greens

    06Sabahan Chinese

    Beaufort Mee

    Beaufort mee is a 'wet' fried noodle from the town of Beaufort in south-west Sabah: springy egg noodles tossed in a hot wok, then finished in a garlicky gravy with char siu or chicken and crunchy greens.

Restaurants & kopitiams

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Restaurant directory

We list places researched from public sources, clearly marked as not yet visited. We recommend a place only after an editor has been there, and none has been visited yet.

Cafes in Sabah Browse by cuisine

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Day-by-day food trips

A traditional Kadazandusun meal of leaf-wrapped rice parcels and side dishes on banana leaves

Eat like a local

The food Sabahans actually queue for

Skip the hotel buffet. Sabah's best meals happen at tamu markets, Kaamatan stalls and family kitchens in Penampang, where lunch is a spread of small sour dishes around a leaf-wrapped rice parcel.

  1. 01Brave the tuhauWild ginger relish with a smell that divides the room. One spoonful with rice is enough.
  2. 02Order pinasakanSour braised fish cooked without oil, the dish visitors most often miss.
  3. 03Go to a tamu at dawnWeekly village markets where the best kuih and pickles sell out early.

Sabah food map

Explore Sabah by food

From Kudat at the northern tip to Semporna in the south-east, pick a town to see what to eat there.

South China SeaSulu SeaCelebes SeaKota KinabaluSandakanTawauSempornaTuaranPenampangKundasangRanauBeaufortLahad DatuKudatKeningau

Schematic map, not to scale. Select a town to see where to eat.

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