slothis · English

Old Town White Coffee: Kota Kinabalu's Starbucks

2017-12-03 · Updated: 2026-08-11 · Original (Korean)

This article was translated from the original Korean post with AI assistance. Read the original Korean post →

Having finished a quick meal, I decided to wait out the rain with a cup of coffee as usual. Right next to Fook Yuen is Old Town White Coffee, the pride of Sabah. This coffee shop is such a local landmark that you could easily call it the "Starbucks of Kota Kinabalu." When you search for places to eat in Kota Kinabalu, there are so many posts about their white coffee. I had been meaning to try it, so the timing was perfect.

Exterior of a building with an Old Town White Coffee sign and cars parked in front of it.
A round brown Old Town White Coffee sign installed on the white exterior wall of a building.
Store entrance with a round Old Town White Coffee logo sign and a person standing by.
It must be more famous among foreigners, as the majority of the customers are Chinese and Korean.
A menu board with photos and prices of various coffee and tea drinks.
The price is the same as a meal.
A yellow tissue box with the Old Town White Coffee logo and an order slip holder placed on a table.
To order, you just write the numbers on this piece of paper with a pencil and hand it to the staff. The staff's friendliness is so high it feels more like a restaurant than a coffee shop.
Interior of the store with food posters on the wall and several people sitting at tables.
You can drink outside, but it was too hot so I came inside. I heard you have to wait a long time if you come at the wrong time.
A glass of refreshing iced coffee filled with foam and ice.
A glass of refreshing iced milk coffee with a straw placed on a white table.
White Coffee

My thoughts on the white coffee? It's so sweet it would make a blind person's eyes pop open for a second. If you're someone who usually prefers "one cream, two sugars" in Korea or "extra syrup" at Starbucks, you'll really enjoy this. However, if you drink it before a meal, it might ruin your appetite, so you definitely need to drink it as a dessert. I heard they use good coffee beans, but it's so incredibly sweet that you can't even tell what kind of beans they are—just don't worry about it and chug it down. Since you're in Kota Kinabalu, you should skip Starbucks and visit Old Town at least once. Seriously, it'll make a blind person's eyes pop open.

Exterior of a mosque with a blue dome and four tall minarets under a cloudy sky.

I finished my coffee, but the rain showed no signs of stopping. Just in case, I took a car to the Blue Mosque, but the driving rain meant I couldn't even get close to the mosque. I gave up and headed back to my accommodation, feeling a bit empty. But as I waited for my Uber, I thought about it differently for a moment: giving up this easily seems like a pretty good way to travel, too.


Expenses (conservatively multiply by 300 to get the amount in KRW)

Daily expenses: RM 330.42

Total trip expenses: 2,875,000 KRW + RM 1050.83