Smiling Buffalo

When one visits a holiday destination, it is ill advice to recommend a tourist trap. Smiling Buffalo is exactly that – a tourist trap, but in a good way. This café in Langkawi has become somewhat the locals’ pride, where they can bring their friends from outside the island to enjoy a good cup of coffee over delightful conversations. It has earned its spot among Langkawi’s must-visit places, where a city folk like me, hoping to experience city standard amenities when I’m on holiday on an island, will fit in nicely.

This time around, we brought along our Austrian friend David, who was on a brief stopover in Malaysia before heading home. “Langkawi is a fantastic island!” we insisted, determined to prove Langkawi’s worth as a top holiday destination to a somewhat pessimistic globe trotter who has spent much time in Bali and Phuket.

We brought David to Smiling Buffalo for breakfast. The café serves hearty breakfast meals fit for a king, although their menu can also cater to people like me who may choose to start the day eating like a pauper instead. My girlfriend ordered an ample portion of their big breakfast with sizzling beef bacon strips and juicy, jumbo sausages, enough to keep her satiated till dinner. David, who was a staunch vegetarian, opted for the avocado and sourdough sandwich, while I had the bougie fruity chia seed pudding.

Smiling Buffalo runs like a well-oiled machine with its parts working efficiently. Its manager, Jeff, would typically be seen in the kitchen one minute, then behind the counter the next and later scuttling along the floor talking to patrons to make them feel welcomed. Hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Jeff migrated to Langkawi because, as cliché as it sounds, he “fell in love with the place”. As I brushed shoulders with the locals on my visits to Langkawi, I couldn’t help but compare the locally run food establishments with those F & B outlets managed by outsiders. I found the latter to be more organized with a high bar set in terms of cleanliness standards. I did have an unfavorable experience with one locally run café in the heart of one of the villages, where the lack of running water gave rise to the issue of questionable hygiene.

As I enjoyed a glass of icy cold mocktail under the shade one blistering hot afternoon, Jeff insisted that Langkawi is far from boring. “If you know, you know,” he said, and proceeded to detail out the list of entertaining activities that can be done in Langkawi, starting with a cup of coffee at Smiling Buffalo, then adjourning to Kalut bar and enjoying the fire show at Chenang Beach. There’s a bar called One Love that plays nostalgic 80’s music where you can dance the night away to old school tunes like YMCA and songs by Abba and Bee Gees till the wee hours of the morning.

On my way out of the café around lunch time, I saw a tour bus packed with foreign Chinese tourists driving in to Smiling Buffalo. As the time inched closer to midday, the parking spots were filled up by eager patrons both from the island and outside. There you have it! Smiling Buffalo is one of the must-go to pit stops when one goes on holiday in Langkawi. In terms of its food and coffee, this café produces and runs at a similar quality as those in KL. That is saying a lot in this kind of business. A shrewd businessman would see the golden opportunity to bring F & B establishments from KL to Langkawi. I’m pretty sure it’s a surefire way of setting up a successful and profitable business venture.