Tribal Stove is absolutely wonderful

Yes it has great food, which thankfully there is a a great deal of in many place. What makes Tribal Stove someplace not to miss is it is the rare combination of great and generally inaccessible food.

I often find great restaurants in tourist destinations. And sometimes it is even local in a sense – but nearly always (not all, but almost) I can get very similar good dishes in any large city across the globe.

Tribal Stove had truly distinctive dishes that were also great. They have quite a few dishes, some of my favorite are wild jungle salad and tapioca leaves. The restaurant serves cuisine from Kelabit Highlands in Sarawak.

Maybe my all time favorite meal. The 3 sample items were great.

The set menu (photo above) of tea, a meat dish with 2 vegetable sides, soup and rice that was US$5 (15 MYR). It was amazing. It would be great at $20. I happened to be lucky enough to get my favorite vegetable there with my first order.

The meet dish in the triple was very good, the rice I didn’t care for. But the two vegetable dishes were amazing – truly great. One the right is Lamud Busaq Keluduh (Bario Wild Flower Salad) – wild ginger flower, petai and wild chives flavored with Bario Higland salt. I believe the dish on the left was Udung Ubih (Wild Tapioca Leaf) – cassava or tapioca leaf pounded and shredded and cooked to perfection over a slow heat. The middle dish was, I believe, beef with crisp vegetables.

I have been trying other dishes which are also great but those 2 are not to be missed (you can get “small” dishes of those for $3, see photo below – two pretty easily make a meal in my opinion). If the prices triple this place is still not to be missed.

There is no restaurant I recommend to travels more strongly than I recommend Tribal Stove. If I could have one restaurant transplanted to my location so I could eat their in my home town it would be Tribal Stove. There is nothing remotely close.

I cannot adequately convey how great the food at Tribal Stove is. And by the way the other attractions around Kuching are also great.

I ate there at least 3 times in 4 days, maybe more.

Desert

Related: Masjid Bahagian Kuching – Treehouse Cabins, Permai Rainforest Resort, Damai (outside Kuching) – Siew San Teng (Tau Pek Kong) Temple and Chinese History Museum, Kuching – Lintang Trail, Bako National Park, Sarawak, Borneo

I think Kari Buaq Kabar (Pineapple Curry) organic pineapple cooked in curry with Bario Highland Cinnamon and maybe that other one is Pumpkin leaf?

I didn’t love the pineapple curry, it was good and worth getting if it were not for all the other amazing things to try. The Pumpkin leaf dish was very good. There was a wild fern dish which was very good and something I think that you should definitely try (how many places can you try it – I also got some at another place in Kuching that I will write about later).

Tribal Stove is located downtown near the river walk. It is directly opposite the Hilton Hotel and next to Tune Hotel.

Address: No.10, 1st Floor, Block H, Jalan Borneo, Taman Sri Sarawak, Kuching, 93100
Hours: Monday – Thursday 11:30 am – 10:00 pm
Friday and Saturday 11:30 am – 10:30 pm
Closed some public holidays
Phone: +6082 234 873
Online: Tribal Stove