We asked ChatGPT for the best nasi lemak in KL. Where did its answers come from?
EasyFound · · 8 min read
Mostly from food blogs, top-ten lists and food guides written about the stalls, not from the stalls themselves. In our Malaysian test, a plain 'best nasi lemak in KL' question drew the same four famous places in English, Malay and Chinese. Smaller stalls got in when the question asked for something specific, like late-night hours or a fiery sambal. Make your specific fact easy to find.
ChatGPT's "best nasi lemak in KL" answers came mostly from what other people wrote about the stalls: food blogs, top-ten ranking sites, news and food guides, and place listings. In our Malaysian test, a plain "best nasi lemak" question drew the same four famous places every time, in English, Malay and Chinese. Smaller stalls reached the top only when the question asked for something specific.
So if you run a nasi lemak stall, you are unlikely to win the general question. But a customer asking "I'm hungry at 2am in KL, where can I still get good nasi lemak?" is asking a different question, and that one is still open.
Where does ChatGPT get its nasi lemak recommendations in KL from?
ChatGPT took its nasi lemak picks from third-party writing far more than from the stalls' own pages. We asked eight chatty nasi lemak questions twice each and classified every link in the 16 answers. Of 59 links, only 4 went to a restaurant's own website.
| Kind of site | Links | What ChatGPT used it for |
|---|---|---|
| Food blogs | 14 | Signature dishes, prices, late-night spots |
| Top-ten ranking sites | 12 | The "best overall" order |
| Place listings (Waze, Apple Maps, directories) | 10 | Opening hours and directions |
| News and food guides | 7 | Sambal, signature dishes, a stall feature |
| Travel guides | 5 | Background and visitor tips |
| Restaurants' own sites | 4 | Hours, location, a dish description |
| Reddit, JAKIM's halal sites, other | 7 | Local opinion, halal checks |
That's a different pattern from our earlier test of Malaysian business questions, where businesses' own sites were the largest source for local recommendations. For food, ChatGPT mostly repeated what writers and listings said about you.
Asked directly where such picks come from, ChatGPT itself said "mostly from publicly available food guides and reviews" in one of our title-test answers. The guides part matched our data. Review sites such as Tripadvisor turned up in its searches, but it never linked one.
Does ChatGPT name the same nasi lemak places in English, Malay and Chinese?
ChatGPT named the same four well-known places, which we call Place A to D, in all six answers to the plain "best nasi lemak in KL" question. That held in English, Malay ("Nasi lemak paling sedap di KL kat mana?") and Chinese. Place A came first all six times; the next three shifted order slightly, and the fifth pick changed.
The nasi lemak shortlist seemed to exist before ChatGPT searched. In 15 of 16 answers, ChatGPT's own web searches already contained the name of a famous place. OpenAI says ChatGPT search "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries" (OpenAI). Here, those rewritten queries looked like "best nasi lemak Kuala Lumpur 2026" plus three famous names.
Our reading: the search confirmed a list it already knew. Even the Chinese answers searched in English, as our Malay test also found.
When does ChatGPT recommend a smaller nasi lemak stall?
Beyond a rotating fifth pick for the plain question, ChatGPT named smaller places when the question asked for something the famous four couldn't obviously answer. The specific questions drew nine places that never appeared for the plain one.
| What the customer asked | What changed in the answer |
|---|---|
| Best nasi lemak in KL (6 answers) | The same four famous places every time |
| Still open at 2am (4 answers) | Late-night and 24-hour stalls, from food blogs and listings with hours |
| Halal-certified | One answer put a café first, citing its record in JAKIM's halal directory |
| Near KLCC | Stalls a short drive away, plus two restaurants in the mall |
| Really spicy sambal | A small night stall came first in both answers, backed by one news feature |
The detail decided it. A small stall known for one thing beat the famous names once the customer asked for that thing. We saw the same split for freight forwarders: short questions drew the big names, detailed ones drew specialists.
What facts did ChatGPT repeat about the nasi lemak places it named?
ChatGPT gave an area or address for almost every place it recommended. Beyond that, it repeated what the question needed:
- Price appeared in 9 of 16 answers, usually as a rough range per person.
- Opening hours appeared in 6, all for the late-night and near-KLCC questions. It flagged doubts too, such as a place "listed as 24 hours" that some customers had found closed.
- Halal status came up only when the customer asked. Then ChatGPT cited JAKIM's portal and said plainly when it couldn't confirm a place's certificate itself. Places it listed on a directory's or ranking site's word were flagged as unverified or "reported".
So a vague or out-of-date listing can count against you. If two sources disagree about your hours, ChatGPT may say so.
Did ChatGPT use TikTok, Instagram, Google Maps or Reddit for nasi lemak?
For food recommendations, ChatGPT didn't cite TikTok, Instagram or Google Maps in our nasi lemak test. None of them appeared even in its search results. YouTube showed up in the results for 9 answers and was never linked, which matches our Instagram and TikTok check.
Reddit sat in the search results for all 16 answers. ChatGPT linked it 3 times, twice to back a stall's spicier sambal. That fits our Reddit findings: it gets linked when people swap real experiences.
What can't this nasi lemak test tell me?
- Whether the famous four are the best. We measured what ChatGPT said, not the food.
- The ChatGPT app, other dates or other dishes. We used OpenAI's API on one evening. The app, with maps and chat history, can differ.
- How much each source mattered. We saw what was cited, not how ChatGPT weighed it.
How do I get my nasi lemak stall into ChatGPT's answers?
Win a specific question rather than "the best in KL". Pick the thing your stall is known for, then make sure it's written down where ChatGPT looks.
- Request EasyFound's free check. See what ChatGPT says when people ask for food like yours, from "Any halal-certified nasi lemak places in KL you'd recommend?" to "Which nasi lemak in KL has the best sambal? I like it really spicy". Then go through it with us on a free call.
- Write your specific fact on a page you control, even a simple one: hours, nearest landmark, your sambal style, what sells out first. Here's how to write a page ChatGPT will quote.
- Keep your hours the same everywhere, including Waze, Apple Maps and food directories.
- If you're JAKIM-certified, check your record in JAKIM's directory is current and easy to match to the name customers know you by. In our test, one café's dishes were listed under its company name, not the café's.
- Invite food writers for the thing you do best. In our test, the small night stall that came first for spicy sambal was backed by one news feature.
EasyFound is an AI SEO service for Malaysian businesses. We check six AI tools in English, Malay and Chinese, and do the work of getting your stall's facts onto the pages they read. The free check below shows you where you stand today.
Would ChatGPT name your stall?
See what ChatGPT says when people ask for food like yours, from 'best in KL' to 'open at 2am', then go through it with us on a free call.
Frequently asked questions
How does ChatGPT decide which nasi lemak places to recommend in KL?
In EasyFound's test on 8 October 2026, through OpenAI's API with web search and location set to Malaysia, ChatGPT built its nasi lemak picks mostly from what others had written: food blogs, top-ten ranking sites, news and food guides, and place listings such as Waze and Apple Maps. Its web searches already contained the names of well-known places in 15 of 16 answers, so it mostly searched to confirm a shortlist it already had.
Can a small nasi lemak stall get recommended by ChatGPT?
Yes, but mostly for specific questions, in EasyFound's KL test. For a plain 'best nasi lemak in KL' question, ChatGPT named the same four well-known places in all six answers. When people asked for late-night supper, a halal-certified place, somewhere near KLCC or a really spicy sambal, it named nine places it never named for the plain question, including a small night stall that came first in both spicy-sambal answers.
Does ChatGPT check whether a restaurant is halal certified?
When asked for halal-certified nasi lemak in EasyFound's KL test, ChatGPT did look for certification. In both answers it cited JAKIM's halal portal, separated Muslim-owned places from certified ones, and said it couldn't confirm a current certificate for the famous places. In one answer it put a café first, citing a record in JAKIM's official halal directory that lists the café's nasi lemak dishes under its operating company. A directory record is what ChatGPT found, not a guarantee, so check the outlet's current certificate yourself.
Does ChatGPT use TikTok, Instagram or Google Maps for food recommendations in Malaysia?
Not in EasyFound's nasi lemak test. Across 16 answers, no TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or Google Maps page appeared even in ChatGPT's search results. YouTube appeared in the search results for 9 answers and was never cited. For opening hours and directions, ChatGPT cited Waze, Apple Maps and other place listings instead.
Sources
Our data: EasyFound, Where ChatGPT's "best nasi lemak in KL" answers came from, October 2026. We asked eight chatty questions, five in English, two in Bahasa Malaysia and one in Chinese, twice each on the evening of 8 October 2026 through OpenAI's Responses API (chat-latest, web search required, location set to Malaysia, no system prompt). That's 16 answers, not the ChatGPT app; API links carry utm_source=openai. A "link" is a site cited in an answer, counted once per answer. We sorted sites by what the page is: food blogs are individual or small-team food writers; top-ten ranking sites publish ranked lists; place listings are maps, directories and apps that list a place's address and hours; news and food guides are news outlets and edited dining guides; travel guides are tourism and trip-planning sites; own sites belong to the restaurant itself. Places were matched by name and anonymised as Place A to Q; restaurants' web addresses are replaced with type labels. Two short versions of this article's title were also asked, twice each, on gpt-5.4-mini. Download the data (CSV). We don't name the stalls, because one test isn't a ranking.
Other sources:
- OpenAI, Searching the web with ChatGPT, help article, read 28 September 2026 (link)
The data is shared under CC BY 4.0: you're free to reuse it, with credit to EasyFound.
ChatGPT changes often; treat these figures as a dated measurement.
Research by Janice Pang, EasyFound.