Khazanah unit restaurants where 'you can eat side-by-side with animated Lat characters'

PETALING JAYA: Themed Attractions and Resorts Sdn Bhd (TAR), a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, plans to open theme restaurants based on cartoonist Lat's beloved characters in Johor and Kuala Lumpur.

Chief executive officer Tunku Datuk Ahmad Burhanuddin said the restaurants, to be called Lat's Place, would provide an immersive and interactive experience.

“It's the first of its kind in technology. You can eat side-by-side with animated characters,” he told StarBiz during a tour of TAR's first theme park, KidZania, in Petaling Jaya last week.

The first of the restaurants, which will serve regional cuisine, will open its doors by year-end at the Puteri Harbour Theme Park in Nusajaya, Johor. Theme park will also feature the first Hello Kitty Town in South Asia and the world's first Little Big Club, whose characters include Bob the Builder, Barney and Thomas the Tank Engine.


Colourful: Themed Attractions and Resorts Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Tunku Datuk Ahmad Burhanuddin in front of one of the stores at KidZania, Mutiara Damansara. The company plans to open theme restaurants based on cartoonist Lat’s beloved characters in Johor and Kuala Lumpur.
TAR would open Lat's Place in Kuala Lumpur within the next few years as part of the Malaysia Truly Asia attraction, he said.

The company will also look at the viability of establishing Lat's Place overseas.” “We can bring it to Oxford Street (London), Fifth Avenue (New York) or mid-town Tokyo. They can also enjoy Malaysian food,” he said.

Tunku Ahmad said TAR was not looking at creating its own branded theme parks for export at the moment. “If at all we export something, it will be our expertise in managing the parks,” he said.

KidZania, TAR's first theme park, has received over 100,000 visitors since its opening in February this year. It targets 400,000 to 500,000 visitors annually.

The RM80mil indoor edutainment theme park, which originated in Mexico, allows children to understand the world of grown-ups by role-playing over 90 different activities, including pilot, surgeon, judge, policeman, sushi chef, fashion model and reporter.

Kids are also taught about financial discipline. They get 50 KidZos (KidZania's currency) per visit, and they earn kidZos by doing certain activities (such as being a mechanic) and spend it though other activities (such as driving a car or buying toys at KidZania's department store). They can even deposit the kidZos at KidZania's CIMB Bank to earn interest and withdraw it during the next visit!

The kid-centric “city” of KidZania has 37 industry partners from AirAsia to Honda which sponsor its various establishments for three to five years, with each contract valued between RM500,000 and RM1mil.