Motormouth From Ipoh – A Malaysian Food Blog

Friday lunches are the BEST I tell you. I am not going to gloat or anything, but how does a two and a half hour lunch period sounds to you? Music to your ears? Or got your blood boiling yet?

Not to say this is an ideal situation. More like a catch-22 variant, when it’s not always possible to spend our lunch hours wailing away in the restaurant. To be seated for more than two hours during a simple meal sounds rather absurd, especially when it’s fast food we’re having. Not to mention the dagger stares from other patrons in those perpetually-packed eateries. (Foh San comes to mind again, naturally).

Freshly made cream soup, and a choice of iced lemon tea/Coke for the lunch sets @ Folie-Folie Cafe & Grill

After missing a slew of Friday lunches (since before Chinese New Year, I believe), today was the first time we had to struggle and brainstorm for another place for lunch. Ended up at Folie-Folie Cafe & Grill in town, opposite of UOB Bank near Greentown. If you’re one party animal (or maybe not), then you’d probably have heard of Summer Paradise, which opened its doors sometime back in last year. Do correct me if I’m wrong.

Anyway, Folie-Folie Cafe & Grill started operations about half a year ago, situated directly adjacent to the funky bungalow, serving a mix of Eastern and Western fares, from Lamb Chops, Grilled Chicken Chops and Fish & Chips to Katsudon, Japanese Curry, Fried Rice and pastas.

The interior of the outlet exudes a soothing, classy and modern ambience, complete with dim lighting (bane of indoor photography, no doubt),  murals on the wall, and funky ornaments adorning the walls and surroundings. Chic and comfortable, you can imagine hordes of youngsters flocking to this cafe for a full meal, or a light banter over a glass of drink, or even a scoop or two of Haagen-Dazs ice-cream. (RM8 for a single scoop, RM15 for double scoops)

The lunch sets on offer are divided into three different segments; Western, Oriental and Japanese. A total of 29 choices, you’d be hard-pressed for choice if this is your first visit. Price from RM8.80-RM14.80 (USD2.50-USD4.20). Each set comes with a drink of iced lemon tea/Coke, a bowl of soup of the day, and a serving of fresh fruit.

The interesting thing is that, the soup served complements your choice rather well. If you choose any of the Western set, you’ll be served with a bowl of cream soup. For today, it was a vegetable cream soup, either asparagus, broccoli or of similar variety. Sorry, for I was not able to determine the exact ingredients blended into the soup, especially when the soup was not exactly thick in the first place. For the Oriental/Japanese sets, a bowl of seaweed soup was served.

Small gestures of attentiveness to garner higher level of satisfaction. Good start, indeed. I can’t stomach another watery soup from the can, after previous experiences at David’s Diner, Pizza Hut, and every other cafe serves those.

The Lamb Chop can be served with mushroom or black pepper sauce, and I chose the latter for I doubt mushroom sauce can go  far to tamper the gamey taste of the lamb. Not a bad choice, for the RM14.80 set came with two medium slabs of lamb, grilled and doused generously with a slightly piquant black pepper sauce. Crinkle cut fries and a side serving of salad completed the ensemble, with a bowl of watermelon cubes. Especially loving those fatty portions, which melted in one’s mouth, and provided the cuts with much desired flavour. If you love your lamb, go for the fatter cuts, really.

The Honey Chicken was good as well, a sweet and sour sauce coating the fillets of deep-fried chicken. Butter Chicken Chop reminded me of Salted Egg Chicken more than the conventional “Nai Yau Gau”, while the Yakiniku Don was surprisingly good, with tender slivers of beef cooked with a runny omelette, and caramelized onions.

Minor gripe came in the form of extremely diluted drinks. Even the Coke was tasteless, probably owing to the addition of too many ice cubes. The watery iced lemon tea tasted too thin to be a tea in its own right. They could have improved on this aspect, for I prefer my set lunch to be capped with the conventional choice of coffee or tea instead.

All in all, still a satisfying meal. Comparable to a meal at Movenpeak, MP, or even Kon Shong (will write about that soon), all situated within stone’s throw away from each other in Greentown. Parking’s free, and the allocated spaces should be sufficient to cater to a rather large patronage volume.

Address & Contact Number
Folie-Folie Cafe & Grill
116, Jalan Raja Musa Aziz,
30300 Ipoh,
Perak, Malaysia.
Telephone : 605-255 3733

Here’s a GOOGLE MAP TO FOLIE-FOLIE CAFE & GRILL