The place gave a cozy vibe with wooden booth and wooden seating with cushion top. They use the rooster bowls which seemed to brought to popularity again. The menu was pretty big and there were quite a few things we wanted to try. So in the end we ordered quite a few things. Lots of carbs from fried rice, fried vermicelli (char bee hoon) and fried rice noodle (char kway teow). From the appetizer's menu I picked the malay shrimp roll and added some protein with coffee ribs. Last minute added the sambal eggplant dish.
The fried vermicelli came out first so that one got devoured fast and furious. It was close to 1 pm so we were all pretty hungry. The fried vermicelli wasn't exactly how I liked my vermicelli. It was pretty wet and a bit more bland than I expected. I think what I wanted was something similar to Singapore vermicelli but without the curry powder.
The malay shrimp roll then came out and they looked more like a meat ball instead of a cut up roll. The taste was okay but the flavor seemed like a bit short of something. A bit more salty on the roll and maybe a bit more spicy dipping sauce will bring up a notch. Also I think I expected more shrimp than pork.
The char kway teow had good flavor with wok hei. It came with chinese sausage, shrimp, bean sprout and chives. Very similar to the Penang style char kway teow. But still need a bit more chili to spice it up.
By then we were pretty full already. Each of the noodle dish was pretty big. Then the coffee ribs arrived. They looked dark and shiny. I thought to give it a try because I thought ribs with coffee was pretty unique. But when I gave it a try the flavor was pretty mild. The ribs was tender and fell off the bones. It was a bit on the sweet side but no salt to balance it.
The two last dishes that came out were sambal eggplant and salted fish fried rice. Both were good but we were pretty full by then. The eggplant was more homely than the chinese style one that is usually cooked with more oil and sauce. This eggplant was a bit spicy with dry shrimp and less oily. The fried rice got wok hei and small pieces of salted fish. Not super flavorful compared to typical chinese yang chow fried rice. I think this restaurant didn't use MSG in their cooking. This is probably great news for people allergic to MSG. I am usually okay with MSG as long as it's not overly used.
All in all the dishes were decent. The lady (owner/manager ?) was very friendly and she spoke hubby's hakka dialect so father-in-law was amused. I think we would go back in the future just for that.
Ipoh Malay Cuisine
1316 West 73rd Avenue Vancouver, BC V6P 3E7
604 559 9898
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