Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 1, 2021 - March 7, 2021

When anyone mentions Taman Billion in Cheras, the Western food restaurants in Jalan Siput Akek invariably come to David’s mind. The housing estate on higher ground, which comprises only landed properties, is adjacent to the Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2) and Jalan Cheras.

These two thoroughfares are also the two main entrances into Taman Billion and, whichever one you take, the first road you arrive at in the deve­lopment will be Jalan Siput Akek — the only commercial street there.

The road is lined by a row of 4-storey shopoffices, housing mostly F&B outlets, as well as trading companies and shops offering various services. The landmarks include Charis Christian Centre and Western food restaurants — such as Kafe Kaki Corner, Samosa Café & Catering and Rendezvous Steak Garden — that have been around for about two decades, apart from other cafés and Chinese restaurants there.

David, who used to stay in the neighbouring Taman Cheras, says his parents first brought him to a Western food restaurant in the area in the 1990s, when he was in primary school. While it was not his first visit to such a place, he remembers it as “a street with many Western food restaurants that my family frequented once a month”.

“In the 1990s, Western food was relatively more expensive, so it is something my  middle-income family could not afford to have very often. So, it was a pleasant surprise for me then that my parents made going to such restaurants a monthly affair. Obviously, this was a Western food experience at a fraction of the price,” he says.

“I vaguely remember that there were more Western food restaurants than now. The one that has been around for a long time is Kafe Kaki Corner, which occupies two units. The restaurants there operate only in the evenings and there are also tables and chairs by the street — the Malaysian version of al fresco dining.”

Jalan Siput Akek is derived from “siput akek” or “siput akik”,  the Malay name for a small snail often used to make decorative items. The road is split into two parts — one allows two-way traffic and the other, only one way. The latter is located directly in front of the shopoffices and is where the al fresco dining is held.

If one enters Jalan Siput Akek from MRR2, one will first see Charis Christian Centre on the right and, farther down the road, a playground on the left. All the shopoffices are on the right, and the end of the street leads to the junction of Jalan Siput Sedut and Petronas Batu 5½ Jalan Cheras. From there, one can exit Taman Billion via Jalan Cheras.

On weekday afternoons, Jalan Siput Akek is rela­tively quiet. While street parking is almost full, there is no traffic congestion, unlike other commercial streets in many housing estates. There is more traffic in the evenings, especially on the two-way road, but the congestion is not too bad. It is believed that the crowds are there for dinner, as most of the restaurants open only in the evenings.

Metro Homes Realty Bhd executive director See Kok Loong notes that there have been no transactions in Jalan Siput Akek for the past four years. The last transaction was in 2016, when a shopoffice was transacted for RM1.32 million. In terms of monthly rent, the groundfloor unit of a shopoffice costs about RM4,000, the first-floor unit is RM1,500, and the second- and third-floor units, RM800 each.

“Jalan Siput Akek is located at the busiest junction of Cheras … The businesses there cater for locals only, as access to the area is obstructed by a flyover [on MRR2] and the MRT track [on Jalan Cheras]. Business prospects are average because the younger generation would rather go to the shopping malls nearby such as EkoCheras Mall. The limited availability of shopoffices there does not attract the crowd,” See says.

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