Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

Updated 12 September 2010 – Click here for the second page that will lead you to the second visit with Lotus Leaf Rice, Fried Lor Bak Gou (Radish Cake) and Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun.

Just the other day I read with much interest, a comment on All About Ipoh about some of the older dining establishments in Ipoh. If you have been a true-blue Ipohan all along (a baby of the 80’s, at the very least) then you might have heard of names like Kok Kee and Kwong Chow Dim Sum, Tho Yuen, and the very famous Chee Seng on Jalan Theatre.

Still standing strong amidst the slew of NEW dim sum outlets; Ying Fa is a hidden gem the youngsters of today have probably never heard of, let alone aware of the existence at one corner of Belfied Street.

Of course, all of the names above are but long gone. For me, I had the fondest memories at Kok Kee; a dim sum restaurant that opens until late at night. The aforementioned restaurant occupied a spacious lot on Hugh Low Street (next to the current Hee Lai Ton Restaurant), and was one of the pioneers among dim sum eateries in Ipoh during the 80’s, aside from the very famous Foh San on Osborne Street, and maybe Ming Court/Yoke Fook Moon …. but I was too young back then to be sure of the facts.

Glad to see the locals (mostly families, or extended families) still patronizing Ying Fa, and not succumbing to the allure of the now legendary Dim Sum Street of Ipoh ….

However, let’s not count the immensely valiant Ying Fa out from this equation. Yes, about four decades of legacy, and amazingly still soldiering on albeit the dwindling of customers due to the other more commercialized and comfortable settings, and the sheer amount of publicity that has been pumped into strengthening the “BIG 3” amongst Dim Sum Restaurants in Ipoh.

Read on to find out why was I enticed by Ying Fa, and what they offer aside from the generic array of dim sum ……..  Read the rest of this entry »