Tea terraces on Mount Brinchang, above the night-market town where Cameron’s food scene clusters

Where to eat

Where to eat in Cameron Highlands

Cameron’s food is shaped by the cold: steamboat is the ritual, strawberries are the sweet, and tea and scones are the highland tradition. Here’s where to find the best of each.

Photo: Bonito Coquito / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The photo above is Brinchang tea country — illustrative highland scenery, not a specific restaurant.

Eating in Cameron is shaped by one thing: it’s cold. At around 1,500m the evenings have a real chill, which is why steamboat — a pot of soup bubbling at your table that you cook fresh vegetables, meat and noodles in — is the signature meal, and why a hot tea and a scone hit differently up here. Add the strawberries the highlands are famous for and the Brinchang night market, and you’ve got the whole food story.

The steamboat ritual

If you do one meal in Cameron, make it steamboat. The best places use charcoal-heated pots and vegetables picked that day on the surrounding farms — the cold makes it taste twice as good. These are the names that come up again and again:

OK Tuck
One of the longest-running steamboat names in Cameron, in Tanah Rata — old-school charcoal pots, fresh farm vegetables and a homely feel locals keep coming back for. Dinner mainly.
Cactus View Restaurant
A Brinchang favourite that consistently tops the “best steamboat” lists — the pots have a grill plate in the middle, so you can grill meat while the soup bubbles.
Cameron Organic Produce Steamboat
Brinchang. The owner grows the vegetables, and you can taste it — about as fresh-from-the-farm as a steamboat gets. Non-halal.
De Kayangan Steamboat & Grill
An eat-all-you-like buffet steamboat that’s popular with Malay and Muslim families — the easiest halal steamboat to know about if that matters to you.
Gonbei (at Cameron Highlands Resort)
Steamboat with white-tablecloth polish — the restaurant at the luxury resort does a refined version. Pricey, but a treat for a special night.

Steamboat is usually a dinner affair and priced per person or by what you order — confirm the price and whether it’s halal before you sit down. Names and details last checked June 2026.

Strawberries, scones & cafés

The other half of eating in Cameron is sweet and slow. The strawberry farms — Big Red and Raju Hill among them — run cafés doing strawberry waffles, ice cream and fresh-cream desserts with fruit picked on site, and you can pick your own to take away. For the highland’s tea-planter tradition, the BOH tea centre at Sungai Palas serves scones and a pot of tea on a deck looking over the plantation — the classic Cameron photo stop. Down in Tanah Rata, long-running cafés like The Lord’s Café (known for its scones), Lemon Button and Barracks Café cover coffee, cake and an unhurried brunch.

The Brinchang night market

Brinchang’s Pasar Malam (the Golden Hills night market) is the cheap, fun end of eating in Cameron — punnets of fresh strawberries, grilled corn, roast sweet potato, satay and strawberry waffles, all under the cold night air. It runs in the evenings, busiest on weekends and during the school and public holidays, so it’s worth checking locally for the night you’re there. Bring cash, and go early before the best stalls sell out. See the full Brinchang night market guide for the days, hours and what’s worth buying — or the Brinchang town guide for the area it’s in.

Frequently asked questions

What food is Cameron Highlands known for?

Steamboat (hotpot) above all — a simmering pot of soup you cook fresh vegetables, meat and noodles in at the table, which is exactly what you want at 1,500m where the evenings are cold. After that it’s strawberries in every form (waffles, ice cream, fresh cream), tea and scones from the plantation cafés, and the produce-stall snacks of the Brinchang night market.

Are there halal food options in Cameron Highlands?

Yes, but check per place. Many of the classic Chinese steamboat restaurants are non-halal, while De Kayangan and the Malay restaurants and stalls — concentrated in Tanah Rata and at the night market — are halal or Muslim-friendly, as is the dining at the bigger hotels. If halal matters, confirm with the specific restaurant before you sit down.

Where do you get the strawberry desserts?

At the strawberry farms themselves — Big Red and Raju Hill among them — where the cafés do strawberry waffles, ice cream and fresh-cream desserts using fruit picked on site. The Brinchang night market also sells strawberry waffles and punnets of fresh berries in the evening.

Is steamboat open for lunch?

Mostly it’s a dinner thing — the steamboat places come into their own once the evening cold sets in, and many open only for dinner. On weekends they fill up, so arrive early or expect to wait.