Vivacity Megamall on Jalan Wan Alwi is Kuching’s biggest shopping mall, a bit over 800,000 sq ft of retail spread across five floors, plus a multi-storey car park. If someone in Kuching says “meet me at the mall” without naming one, there’s a decent chance they mean Vivacity.
I live about twenty minutes away and end up here most weeks: the cinema on a slow Sunday, the food floor when I can’t be bothered cooking, occasionally the karaoke room because my daughter has decided that’s this month’s thing. I’ve already ranked which Kuching mall is for what, so this piece sticks to one question: what does an actual trip to Vivacity involve?
TL;DR
- Vivacity opened in late 2015 on Jalan Wan Alwi in Tabuan Jaya, a five to ten minute drive from central Kuching, and is owned and run by Kuching developer Coramax.
- Weekend afternoons (2pm to 5pm) are the worst window: parking queues can back up onto the main road and marquee food stalls run 45-minute-plus queues.
- The food options run from Sushi Zanmai (plates roughly RM3 to RM20), Oriental Kopi and Soru Yokohama ramen on Level 3 to Richeese Factory on the ground floor, alongside food-court stalls doing kolo mee and nasi campur under RM10.
- Rock N Roll Karaoke runs the karaoke rooms upstairs, open until 1am most nights and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, with rooms from about RM40 and a weekday K-Lunch deal at RM19.90 a head for two hours plus a meal.
- TGV Cinemas anchors the entertainment floor with eight screens including Sarawak’s first IMAX, and weekday matinees noticeably cheaper than weekend evening screenings.
- Weekday mornings before noon are close to empty, the best window for anyone doing an actual errand rather than a hangout.
How Big Is Vivacity Megamall, and Where Is It?
Vivacity sits on Jalan Wan Alwi in the Tabuan Jaya area, a five to ten minute drive from most of central Kuching depending on traffic. It opened in November 2015 and has been marketed since as the state’s largest mall. At roughly 820,000 sq ft of lettable space across five retail levels plus basement and multi-storey parking, that’s a claim I’d back without much hesitation: nothing else in Kuching feels quite this large to walk end to end.
The mall is developed, owned and managed by Coramax, a Kuching-based property group that has been building residential and commercial projects here since the 1990s; the Jazz Suites tower attached to the mall is theirs too. That matters if you ever need to chase someone about a leaking skylight or a broken escalator: this is a Sarawak company running the mall, not a faceless operator based elsewhere.
What Is Vivacity Actually Known For?
Ask around about what Vivacity is for and the answer I get is fairly consistent: the cinema, the food floor, and the simple fact that it’s the biggest thing going. A typical visit works as a circuit: park, eat, catch a film, maybe pick up a few things on the way out.
Families default to it when Kuching’s afternoon downpours make an outdoor plan pointless. Teenagers treat the karaoke floor and food court as a real hangout, in a city that doesn’t have many other indoor spaces built for lingering.
What Are the Big Anchor Tenants?
Everrise runs the anchor supermarket on the lower ground floor, the kind of weekly-shop stop most residents nearby use rather than driving across town for groceries. Parkson holds down a department store across three levels, senQ and Harvey Norman cover electronics and appliances, while MR DIY and Popular Bookstore handle the household odds-and-ends and stationery.
A run of Malaysian fashion chains, Padini and Brands Outlet among them, fills out the ground floor.
The layout follows a rough logic once you’ve been a few times: lower ground for the supermarket, pharmacies and ATMs, ground floor for fashion, the middle levels for electronics and household, and the top floors for food, the cinema and the karaoke rooms. A short visit usually means picking one level and sticking to it rather than working the whole building.
What’s on the Food Floor?
The food level covers a wide spread rather than one cuisine. Sushi Zanmai runs a conveyor-belt and à la carte menu with plates mostly in the RM3 to RM20 range.
Oriental Kopi has become the queue everyone complains about and joins anyway: a Malaysian coffee-and-toast chain worth the wait, provided you’ve got twenty minutes to spare and go outside peak hours.
Richeese Factory, down on the ground floor, covers the fried chicken and cheese-sauce crowd, and Soru Yokohama brings a proper tonkotsu ramen that didn’t really exist in Kuching a few years back. Below the named chains sit the usual food-court stalls doing kolo mee (Kuching’s tossed egg noodles), nasi campur and fried noodles for under RM10, which is still where I end up more often than not.
Is There Karaoke at Vivacity?
Yes. Rock N Roll Karaoke runs a karaoke outlet across Levels 3 and 4, open until 1am from Sunday to Thursday and 2am on Fridays, Saturdays and public-holiday eves. Room rates start around RM40, and the weekday K-Lunch deal (RM19.90 a head for two hours of singing plus a main course and a drink, 11am to 2pm) makes it a sensible option for a family or a small group rather than a solo singer’s habit.
Rooms fill fast on Saturday nights. A walk-in can mean a wait, or a smaller room than you wanted.
What About the Cinema?
TGV Cinemas anchors the entertainment side of the mall, running the usual mix of Hollywood, Malay and Chinese releases across eight screens, including Sarawak’s first IMAX. Ticket prices sit in the standard Malaysian multiplex range, cheaper on weekday matinees than weekend evenings, and it’s rarely hard to get a seat outside a genuine blockbuster opening weekend.
When Should You Go, and Where Should You Park?
Weekend parking is bad. By early Saturday afternoon, cars queue back onto Jalan Wan Alwi waiting for a bay to open in the multi-storey car park, and the marquee food stalls, Sushi Zanmai and Oriental Kopi especially, run queues past 45 minutes at peak. There’s no route around either problem: arrive before noon or accept the wait.
The mall runs 10am to 10pm daily, and weekday mornings are close to empty; if you’re here for errands rather than a hangout, that’s your window. Parking in the basement and multi-storey levels is RM3 for the first two hours and RM1 for each hour after, plus SST, with pricier premier bays (RM7 to RM10 for the first two hours) if you want to park nearer the lifts.
If you’re not planning to browse, the ground-floor entrance nearest the main road is the quickest way in and out.
What Other Services Does Vivacity Have?
Beyond the shops and food, Vivacity carries the errand-run layer that makes it a one-stop for a lot of residents: a row of bank ATMs and deposit machines on the lower ground floor, telco stores (CelcomDigi, Maxis and U Mobile, all on Level 2) for SIM and bill queries, and Guardian and Watsons pharmacies for anything minor. You can knock out three or four small tasks in one visit, provided you time it against the parking reality above.
How Does Vivacity Compare to The Spring?
The honest comparison in one line: Vivacity is bigger and newer, The Spring is older and still busier with a crowd who’ve never switched habits. I’ve made the case for The Spring separately and on its own terms, rather than turning this piece into a versus. Pick Vivacity for the cinema and the food floor, and don’t be surprised if half the people you know still default to the other mall out of pure habit.
Last updated: July 2026. Mall layout, food floor tenants and karaoke details checked against a visit in June 2026; parking rates and cinema pricing should be reconfirmed on-site as these shift.