Ipoh Restaurants and Dining

(Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia)

The city of Ipoh is better known for its cuisine than for its attractions. With 70 percent of its population hailing from the Canton and Hokkien regions of China, its delicious dining is based on traditional Chinese recipes with a Malaysian twist. Malay and Indian restaurants and eateries provide enough variety to keep even the fussiest gourmet happily well-fed.

Dining options in the city of Ipoh run from upscale restaurants in the five-star hotels through the gamut of Chinese, Indian and Malay speciality eateries, to the city's food courts, markets and famous street food hawkers. Most outlets are in centre of Ipoh, and visitors will be surprised and pleased by the across-the-board high quality and flavours of the ingredients and the low, low prices.

What to Eat, and Where

Dim sum restaurants are all-time favourites both for breakfast and lunch, with the best being based around the Jalan Leong Sin Nam. A particular breakfast dish well worth trying is the Cantonese 'hoi lam kai fan' - flat rice noodles with minced pork, sauce and mushrooms.

'Yim gouk kai' is a local dining speciality in Ipoh and is salted, herb-dressed paper-wrapped chicken, steamed for several hours to bring out its unique flavour. For a snack, the ever-popular satay, skewered meat with peanut sauce, is available just about everywhere.

Famous for its fruit farms, Ipoh rewards its diners with luscious fruit for dessert, including guavas, pomelos (a type of huge grapefruit) and durian, admittedly not every visitor's favourite fruit. Kaya puffs - flaky pastries filled with coconut jam, are also favourite desserts for those dining out.

Ipoh's 'white coffee' is hugely popular in the city. The coffee beans are roasted in palm oil margarine, giving the coffee a unique flavour and texture, and providing the perfect way to end a restaurant meal.