What Is Sup Tulang, and Why Do Malaysians Queue for It at 1am?
Sup tulang is a thick, reddish-brown soup built from beef or mutton bones — especially the marrow-rich "gearbox" cuts from the leg — simmered for hours with a spice paste of chilli, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and other rempah until the broth turns dark, peppery and faintly sweet. It has deep roots in Malay and Indian-Muslim (mamak) cooking; the "sup tulang merah" (red bone soup) variant traces back to the Arab Street-style cooking that Indian-Muslim traders brought north from Singapore in the early 1900s, when murtabak, briyani and sup tulang merah became staple comfort foods across the Malay archipelago. In Kuala Lumpur, sup tulang became a fixture of the late-night mamak and gerai circuit — the dish you order at 11pm after a long shift, alongside roti or a plate of rice, using a straw or a tap of the bone against the bowl to work the marrow loose. Good sup tulang comes down to three things: how rich and yielding the marrow is, how layered the spice base tastes rather than just how hot it is, and whether the meat has simmered long enough to fall cleanly off the bone.
What Changed When We Re-Checked This List (7 September 2026)
This list was first published in August 2026. We re-verified every entry against Google's day-by-day hours and each operator's own channel on 7 September 2026, and four things had moved:
- Zam Zam Restaurant on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman has closed. Google marks the 135 Jalan TAR listing permanently closed, and the restaurant's own Facebook page has not posted since May 2016. It has been removed from this list and replaced by Kedai Kak Ros in Keramat Wangsa.
- Sup Meletup is no longer 24 hours. The Bandar Tasik Selatan name that traded as "Sup Meletup 24 Jam" now runs 8am–1am daily from a shoplot at Desa Tasik. There is no genuine round-the-clock sup tulang left on this list.
- Two spots have a Monday rest day that most write-ups, including our first version, missed: Sup Salim in Sentul and Ikan Bakar Ampang.
- Two addresses were wrong across the internet. Sup Tulang Janda Baik is in Pudu, not Sungai Besi, and closes at weekends; Restoran Jaring trades in Sunway Mentari, not Mutiara Damansara.
Re-checked again on 12 October 2026: all eight are still trading at the same addresses, Google's day-by-day hours and rest days are unchanged for every one, none is marked temporarily or permanently closed, and Ikan Bakar Ampang's own website still prices Sup Tulang at RM19.90, Sup Tulang Merah at RM23.90, Sup Kambing at RM13.50 and Sup Ayam Suku at RM15.50.
Chow Kit & Sentul — The Old-Town Soup Belt
Sup Haji Abu — Tucked in an alley off Jalan Doraisamy in Chow Kit, Sup Haji Abu has been serving soup since 1961, making it one of KL's oldest surviving soup stalls — a history covered in a 2024 profile by The Star. Google's current listing puts it at 24, Jalan Doraisamy (inside Syed Bistro), open 4.30pm to 3.30am seven days a week; that is half an hour later a start than The Star reported, and it makes this the only spot here you can reach at 3am. One caveat: a similarly named Sup Haji Abu *restaurant* about 700m away is a different business, which is exactly why the stall's own Google name reads "Original Since 1961 *WE SELL SUP ONLY*". Beyond plain sup tulang the menu stretches into offal-heavy variations — cow testicles, lamb tongue, urat — alongside chicken and beef, served with soft white bread or rice.
Sup Salim — A roadside gerai at 16, Jalan Sentul Pasar in Sentul, known for an unusually thick, almost creamy broth; the stall's own account is that the trick is a base of dhal (lentils) cooked into the stock. Its Instagram bio dates the business to 1983, which makes the "14-plus years" figure that circulates in reviews a considerable undercount. It serves kambing, daging, ayam, tulang, urat, perut and paru, priced roughly RM7 to RM12 depending on the cut. It is widely written up as open daily — it is not, and you do not have to take Google's word for it: the stall's own Instagram bio reads "3pm – 1am (Closed on Monday)". That bio also names a second location, Sup Salim @ QR Bistro at KL Last Exit, which the Sentul listing does not mention.
Ampang's Red Gearbox Soup
Johan's Kitchen — At the Medan Selera Taman Kosas food court on Jalan Kosas 1/10, Ampang, Johan's Kitchen — run by Johan Aziz, a former artiste manager turned hawker, with his wife Norhayati Salim — makes a Singapore-style gearbox sup tulang merah: leg bones simmered in a thick, sweet-sour-spicy red gravy, eaten by sucking the marrow out through a straw. The recipe was pieced together from his wife's family recipes and has been covered by Malay-language food outlets including Nasional Kini and a 2025 Kuali feature. Hours are 5pm to 11pm, seven days a week — an early-evening stop, not a 2am one.
Ikan Bakar Ampang — Better known for charcoal-grilled fish, this Jalan Ampang spot across from Gleneagles Hospital also keeps a plain Sup Tulang and a Sup Tulang Merah on the menu. Its own website prices them at RM19.90 and RM23.90 — worth correcting, because the "from RM13.50" figure that circulates for this restaurant is actually the Sup Kambing price (Sup Ayam Suku is RM15.50). It is also closed all day Monday, and the late close is Friday and Saturday only: 5pm to midnight Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday, 5pm to 1am Friday and Saturday.
South KL, Pudu, Keramat Wangsa & the PJ Outpost
Sup Meletup Asli — This is the biggest correction on the list. The Bandar Tasik Selatan roadside institution that everyone still calls "Sup Meletup 24 Jam" has moved into a shoplot at No 4, Jalan 30A/146, Desa Tasik (Sungai Besi) and now trades as Sup Meletup Asli | Tasik, 8am to 1am daily — not round the clock. The following is still there (1,400-plus Google reviews) and the brand has since opened a second outlet at Taman Sri Gombak, both listed on its own Linktree with separate WhatsApp lines. It remains a genuinely long-day option; it is no longer the any-hour one.
Sup Tulang Janda Baik — Widely written up as a Sungai Besi spot open daily 10am to 9pm. Neither is right. Google places it at PPR Sri Alam, Jalan Istana, Pudu, 57100 KL, and the day-by-day hours are 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday, closed Saturday and Sunday. The dark, deeply spiced broth that earned it a TV3 feature is a weekday-lunch trip. Its Facebook page has been dormant since 2016, so treat the Google listing as the live source.
Restoran Jaring — Our PJ pick, with the address fixed: the trading Restoran Jaring is at 48, Jalan PJS 8/2, Sunway Mentari, 46150 Petaling Jaya, inside Mentari Business Centre — the Mutiara Damansara address that older directories carry no longer resolves to a live business. It is a nasi-campur-style Malay restaurant, 4.2 across 1,880 Google reviews, whose sup tulang and sup gearbox come up regularly in those reviews. Hours are 7am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday, and reviewers advise arriving before noon while the lauk spread is still full.
Kedai Kak Ros Sup Tulang — New to this list, and it fills the gap the others leave. A dedicated sup tulang shop at No 3, Jalan 30/56, Keramat Wangsa, 54200 KL, open every day of the week including Sunday. The shop's own Facebook cover artwork prints the hours as "10.00 pagi – 5.00 ptg", matching Google's 10am–5pm daily; the page's older bio line saying 8am–6pm is stale, which is worth knowing if you were planning an 8am bowl. There is a full nasi-campur lauk spread alongside the soup, and the shop takes bulk orders.
Rest Days and Late Nights: Who's Actually Open When
Sup tulang is a late-night dish, which is exactly why hours and rest days matter more here than on most food lists — and why three of the eight will waste your trip if you go on the wrong day.
- Latest close — 3.30am: Sup Haji Abu, Chow Kit (4.30pm–3.30am, daily). The only 3am answer on this list.
- To 1am: Sup Meletup Asli, Desa Tasik (8am–1am daily); Sup Salim, Sentul (3pm–1am, closed Mondays); Ikan Bakar Ampang (Fridays and Saturdays only, otherwise midnight, closed Mondays).
- Evening, to 11pm: Johan's Kitchen, Taman Kosas, Ampang (5–11pm daily).
- Daytime only: Kedai Kak Ros, Keramat Wangsa (10am–5pm daily); Restoran Jaring, Sunway Mentari (7am–5.30pm, closed Sundays); Sup Tulang Janda Baik, Pudu (10am–5pm, closed Saturdays and Sundays).
- Nothing here is 24 hours any more. If you need a bowl between 3.30am and 7am, this list has no answer, and any guide still promising one is quoting Sup Meletup's old hours.
Going on a Sunday? Sup Haji Abu, Johan's Kitchen, Sup Meletup Asli and Kedai Kak Ros are open; Restoran Jaring and Sup Tulang Janda Baik are not. Going on a Monday? Skip Sup Salim and Ikan Bakar Ampang. Gerai hours also shift without notice around public holidays and Ramadan, so a quick check of the stall's Facebook or Instagram before a late drive still pays.
How to Pick, in One Line Each
- You want the classic, at any hour up to 3.30am: Sup Haji Abu, Chow Kit.
- You want the thickest broth: Sup Salim, Sentul — but not on a Monday.
- You want the Singapore-style red gearbox with a straw: Johan's Kitchen, Ampang.
- You are with people who want seafood too, and don't mind paying RM19.90–RM23.90: Ikan Bakar Ampang.
- You want a long-day, low-cost, reliable bowl: Sup Meletup Asli, Desa Tasik.
- You are free on a weekday lunch break: Sup Tulang Janda Baik, Pudu.
- You are in PJ, and it's a weekday morning: Restoran Jaring, Sunway Mentari.
- It's Sunday and everything else is shut: Kedai Kak Ros, Keramat Wangsa.
What We Left Out
A few names came up that we could not verify to our bar. Sup Kambing Gearbox on Jalan Raja Abdullah appears in directory listings as a 24-hour spot, but we could not find independent reviews describing its bone soup specifically. A stall at Selera Jaya 223 in PJ's Section 51A is cited by one source as "stall no. 42" for sup tulang, but we could not cross-check that stall number against a second source. Warung Dusun Sup Gear Box, a 1997-vintage gearbox specialist that comes up in most KL searches, is actually in Bandar Baru Bangi, and Restoran ZZ Sup Tulang is in Johor Bahru — both outside KL and PJ. No verifiable ongoing promo codes or discounts turned up for any of the eight spots, so none are listed here.
