For a proper steak dinner, book The Carvery at Abell Hotel. For pasta, pizza and a big shared table, book The Junk on Wayang Street. For a plate under RM20, go to the Steak House stall in Petanak Market, and for a late brunch, Commons in the Old Court House. Mains in the sit-down rooms run RM30 to RM80, and a hotel steak starts near RM100: The Carvery prices chilled sirloin at RM46 per 100g, so a 250g cut comes to roughly RM115 before service charge.
A RM60 steak in Kuching is a competent steak, not a great one, and the imported-beef markup on a coastal city in Borneo is real. That makes ranking less useful than sorting by what you are craving: a steak, pasta or pizza, a brunch, or the cheapest plate in town. The table gives each place’s area, so you can also sort by where you are staying. Prices below are late 2026 listings and diners’ receipts, and opening hours were checked on Google Maps in October 2026.
The Short List at a Glance
| Place | Area | Price band (per person, RM) | Order | Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Junk | Wayang Street, old town | 30–70 a main | Pasta or pizza to share, lamb shank | Missing orders, dark rooms |
| The Carvery | Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (Abell Hotel) | 115–150 for a steak | Sirloin or strip loin from the chiller | Doneness and freshness vary |
| Primal Steakhouse | Saradise | 100+ with a drink | Ribeye, porterhouse to share | One visit great, the next ruined |
| Howdy Grillhouse | Brighton Square, Jalan Song | 40–70 | Pork ribs | Lukewarm plates, hard parking |
| Zinc Restaurant & Bar | Jalan Tabuan | 60–120 | Laksa pizza, tapas, pork belly | Kitchen swings between visits |
| Ken’s Kitchen | Saradise | 60–120 | Duck confit, ribeye, trout | Slow mains, dim indoor tables |
| Oinks! | Lorong Song 4, Tabuan Heights | 15–40 a main | Bacon Alfredo, pizza, beer | Tough meat on the platters |
| Magenta | Square Tower, Waterfront | 60–120 | Butter prawn pasta | Steep stairs, greasy fried plates |
| Commons | Old Court House | 40–70 | Chilli prawns on sourdough, cake | Western plates are the weak spot |
| Steak House (Petanak) | Petanak Market, Jalan Petanak | 10–20 | Chicken chop, mixed grill | Market seating, evenings only |
Where Can You Get a Proper Steak in Kuching?
Four places treat steak or ribs as the main event, and they differ in what the money buys: a weighed cut at a hotel counter, a big shophouse plate, a suburban steakhouse, or pork ribs with beer.
The Junk (Wayang Street, Old Town)
The Junk is a converted shophouse at 80 Wayang Street stacked with antiques, and it serves dinner only: 6pm to 1am, 2am on Fridays, closed Tuesdays. Its pasta and pizza run about RM30 to RM45 and its rib-eye about RM70, and the portions are big enough that diners ask for half portions or split one main between two. Its lamb shank and prawn pasta draw the warmest comments.
The minus is reliability. Orders that never arrive come up more than once, including a burger a couple waited 30 minutes for in August 2026 before learning the kitchen had run out. Some find the back rooms dark and dusty. Parking on Wayang Street is hard, so a Grab in and a walk back along the Waterfront and old-town lanes works better than a car. The Junk is also the one Western room every tourist list names, so book a weekend table.
The Carvery, Abell Hotel (Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman)
At The Carvery you walk to the chiller at 22 Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, point at the cut, and the price follows by weight: sirloin RM46 per 100g, rib-eye RM52, tenderloin RM60, with soup and salad included. That puts a steak at RM115 to RM150 before service charge. The hotel is open daily from 6am to 11pm with parking on site. The strip loin earns the most praise, and the mushroom soup is the side dish regulars mention. A lunchtime carvery and a grilled-meat buffet run alongside the counter.
The minus is consistency. Diners report beef cooked below the doneness they asked for, and in May 2026 one couple left after being shown frozen wagyu at the table (the counter lists wagyu rib-eye at RM110 to RM155 per 100g). Order one level of doneness above the one you want, and make sure your cut comes from the chiller, not the freezer.
Primal Steakhouse (Saradise)
Primal is the suburban alternative to the hotel steakroom, out at Saradise on Jalan Saradise and closer to the airport than the old town. It opens daily from 12pm to 10pm. Diners name the ribeye, a porterhouse to share and beef ribs, and the garlic bread gets its own praise. Plan on RM100 or more with a drink, since mains are priced like the hotels’.
The minus is how far the kitchen swings. Within the same few months, one diner called the steak the best they had eaten and another sent back a lamb dish that was dry and hard to cut, while an earlier visitor returned a grey, overcooked dry-aged côte de boeuf. Primal suits a steak craving more than an anniversary booking.
Howdy Grillhouse (Brighton Square, Jalan Song)
Howdy is the ribs-and-beer room, a Western-themed grill on the ground floor of Brighton Square on Jalan Song, open daily 11am to 10pm. Pork ribs are the reason to go, and diners have said so since at least 2016. A rack of ribs is the priciest main, so a person’s dinner lands at RM40 to RM70 with a drink. The chicken chop, Howdy Burger and Philly cheesesteak fill out the menu.
The minus is the plate arriving lukewarm, a complaint that repeats across years, along with over-salted fries and parking that is hard on busy nights. Groups should book, since a long table is hard to get. The kitchen serves pork, so halal diners are better served by the halal sit-down rooms worth booking.
Where Do You Eat Pasta, Pizza or a Date-Night Dinner?
Four rooms cover pasta, pizza and the table you dress up for, split between the Tabuan Road and Waterfront end of town (Zinc and Magenta) and the suburbs (Ken’s Kitchen and Oinks!).
Zinc Restaurant & Bar (Jalan Tabuan)
Zinc cooks Spanish-leaning plates in a restored Chinese shophouse at 38 Tabuan Road. It opens at 5pm, closing at 11pm on Sunday and Tuesday to Thursday, at 2am on Friday and Saturday, and it is shut on Mondays. The draw is tapas, Iberico pork belly, paella and a laksa pizza, and visitors repeat the laksa pizza most. The last full price list available, from 2019, had tapas at RM15 to RM20 and a pork paella for two at RM70, so budget RM60 to RM120 a head with a drink now.
The minus is a kitchen that swings. A recent two-star review found the pizza cold and the risotto and nachos bland, while other diners in the same season rate the food excellent. Outdoor garden tables are nicer than the indoor ones and fill first, so book ahead. After 10pm the room turns into a bar.
Ken’s Kitchen (Saradise)
Ken’s Kitchen is a chef-run European kitchen on Level 1 of Lot 49, Block D1, Saradise, with an open kitchen and a menu that runs to duck confit, coq au vin, braised short rib, herb lamb rack and a trout that diners call the signature. It serves lunch and dinner with an afternoon break, and it is closed on Tuesdays. Budget RM60 to RM120 a head, the same band as Zinc and Magenta. Book for weekends.
The minus is pace and light. Mains can take a long time (an hour for a ribeye at one lunch, long waits again the following year), and the indoor tables near the open kitchen are dim and leave your clothes smelling of cooking.
Oinks! (Lorong Song 4, Tabuan Heights)
Oinks! is the neighbourhood pork-and-beer bar at 1438 Lorong Song 4, open daily 11:30am to 11pm. With more than 1,300 Google reviews, it has the largest review base on this list. Families of six order bacon Alfredo, pork fried rice, pizza and nachos, and the pork-chop and sausage platters go with beer. Mains are listed at RM15 to RM40, which makes it the cheapest sit-down on the list after Petanak.
The minus is the meat. The platter draws the sharpest comments (a hard pork chop, a one-foot sausage that tastes like a supermarket frozen one), and diners across several years call the bill high for the cooking.
Magenta (Square Tower, Waterfront)
Magenta serves Western and fusion plates on the first floor of the Square Tower, a colonial-era fort on the Waterfront at Jalan Barrack. It is dinner only: 5pm to 11pm, closed Mondays. The butter prawn pasta is the dish diners praise most, the ribeye and rack of lamb come next, and the starters are big enough that couples share one. No current menu prices are published online. Diners split between calling the bill affordable and calling it high for Sarawak, so plan on the upper band of RM60 to RM120.
The minus is that the building does more work than the kitchen. Fish and chips and fried calamari arrived heavy and greasy in February 2026, seafood came overcooked in 2023, and a recent visitor found the seafood platter fresh but the room underwhelming. The way up is a steep spiral staircase that is hard for older relatives, and the upstairs room struggles with air-conditioning on hot evenings.
Where Do You Go for Brunch or an All-Day Table?
Commons (Old Court House)
Commons is the all-day room in the Old Court House quadrangle on Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, with high ceilings, air-conditioning and a long cake display. It opens at 11am daily and closes at 10:30pm, so it is a late brunch, not an early one. The chilli prawns on sourdough are the standout, the cheeseburger edges the fish and chips, and diners also order the Hainanese chicken chop and the spaghetti Bolognese. A dinner for six with beers at RM16 each came to RM327 in March 2025, around RM55 a head. Readers who want a pour-over rather than a flat white can start with the specialty cafes serving proper pour-over.
The minus is that the Western plates are the weakest part of a menu whose local dishes and cakes do better, and you pay partly for the building. There is no on-site parking, with Merdeka Plaza under ten minutes’ walk away, and the menu is a QR code, so bring data.
What Is the Cheapest Good Western Plate in Kuching?
Steak House, Stall 12, Petanak Market
The Steak House stall is on the first floor of Petanak Market on Jalan Petanak, open 4:30pm to 9:30pm Tuesday to Sunday and closed Mondays. The owner has cooked here for about 37 years, and the menu is Hainanese-Western: chicken chop, pork chop, bacon and omelettes, and a mixed grill of mutton, chicken or pork, all in a sweet or spicy tomato sauce with fries and baked beans. Plates run RM10 to RM20, and a regular chicken chop with fries and baked beans was RM15 on a recent visit. Think chicken chop, not ribeye.
Diners get sentimental about this plate, calling it legendary and a childhood memory. The minus is the setting and the sauce: wet-market seating, a sweet tomato sauce rather than a steakhouse one, and weekend dinners that fill up.
Which Western Places Do People Ask About That Are Not on the List?
Four places people ask about are not on the list. James Brooke Bistro on the Waterfront draws its best comments for the Sarawak laksa rather than the Western plates. Service runs slow and value is the usual complaint, so the Dayak and seafood dinners among the sit-down restaurants worth booking beyond Western food are better uses of a table.
Kantin at The Granary on Wayang Street is mostly a Sarawakian-fusion canteen now, with jungle pasta and pansoh pizza at about RM30 to RM40 a head, and no longer the Western gastropub it was in 2016. SideWalk in Green Heights opens daily from 4pm and has loyal regulars, but recent reviews swing between a perfect ribeye ragout and a one-star bill. San Francisco Grill on Jalan Ban Hock has left no trace online since 2012, so treat it as gone.
So Where Should You Eat Western in Kuching?
Book The Carvery for a steak and The Junk for pasta and pizza, go to Howdy for ribs with a beer, Commons for a late brunch, and the Petanak stall when RM15 is the budget. The honest ceiling is that every steak room here has an off night: The Carvery’s undercooked beef and frozen wagyu, Primal’s swing from best steak to dry lamb. Treat a RM115 cut as a gamble, and order it a doneness level up. The same money goes further on a seafood dinner for two at Top Spot, where a normal feed of butter prawns, steamed fish and midin runs RM50 to RM80 a head.
A RM6 plate of kolo mee still outperforms most things you will pay RM60 for indoors, including the steaks above, and the breakfast stalls worth rearranging a morning for are where the hawker side of the city starts.