Korean barbecue on a Kuantan rooftop

On top of a 1970s building on Jalan Besar, Kuantan's main street, an empty concrete roof has become one of the city's liveliest places to eat. Jibungae KBBQ, a premium halal Korean barbecue brand, now occupies 450 square metres there, with views over the rooftops to the Kuantan River, its mangroves, the blue-domed state mosque and the bridge.

Malaysian studio JUJURWORK, which already designed the Ms. Elliot café on the ground floor of the same building, didn't try to copy Seoul. Instead, it drew on three pictures of Korean city life. There's the pojangmacha, the tarp-covered street stall for late-night eating and drinking, which inspires the easy, informal seating. There's the hanok, whose curved roofline becomes an open orange pavilion in the middle of the terrace. And there's the density of Seoul's streets, captured in a stylised skyline screen of Korean lettering and glowing pink, red and orange lightboxes.

One floor down, the indoor room keeps up the feeling of eating outside. A striped tent-like fabric ripples across the ceiling, strung with festoon lights, and orange tarps with cut-outs divide the space above bare cement walls and metal café furniture.

The bold orange, red and black palette is loud and joyful, and it's clearly designed for long, sociable dinners under the sky.

Our summary of a story from Yatzer, published 13 September 2026. Read the original