Went to Ipoh last week for Ching Ming festival and for breakfast, went to the famous Foh San restaurant for dim sum. For old-timers, back in the early to late 80s, one would know that Foh San is one of the best place for dim sum where the workers prepare the food at the open kitchen and you can actually see them at work. All prepared fresh on the spot. Sadly, the food quality is now very poor. Even most dim sum restaurants in KL serve better quality food than Foh San.

Special mention on the chee cheong fun served at Foh san. The skin is poor quality, feels like rubber, hard and elastic instead of soft. My brother-in-law commented that it's the worst he had experienced as he doesn't know if he's having chee cheong fun or something else. Feels like some chewy candy or something. We regretted ordering 3 plates at once, as we should have ordered just 1 plate to try the quality first. This chee cheong fun, to us is the worst quality dim sum we had. I suspect they now pre-order the chee cheong fun from somewhere else instead of making them in the kitchen on the spot like the good old days.

The other food are just so-so. The char siew pao is not the best but OK. The rest are all normal, nothing special.

This would be the last time we will be having dim sum at Foh San. I'm not sure if Ming Court dim sum just opposite the road serves better dim sum. There are some small dim sum restaurants just along the road, 2 of them and there are many people there. I won't be surprised if these smaller dim sum restaurants serve better quality food than Foh San or even Ming Court. I recently related my experience with a friend and he mentioned only chicken rice is worth taking in Ipoh. As for dim sum, KL serves better quality dim sum now.

This post has been edited by ryder_78: Apr 6 2023, 09:53 AM

Foh San has been horrible for past decade man. Ming Court is still decent.

Last month went to Ming Court, so far the food still nice and acceptable

Really horrible. Only the environment open-space concept is nice and good. The quality of the food is just poor.

A special mention is on a small restaurant called "Tai Kar Lok" or Kedai Kopi Lets Rock along Jalan Pasir Putih. We always go to this restaurant for breakfast whenever we are in Ipoh, from the early 80s when I was a kid. The cook is still preparing the dish although he's already quite old now. His son tried to take over for a period of time but failed as the father is a better cook, so the son has gone back to serving drinks while the dad maintains his position as the cook.

Regrettably, for the first time the quality of the food also dropped for unknown reasons. The taufu is not fresh and tasted sour. It's just a sad state some of the restaurants in Ipoh has become. Also, we noted that there are very few tourists in Ipoh town even during the weekends. A drastic drop of tourists where not many people are in town. Previously there are many tourists mostly from Singapore and elsewhere but this year, looks like it has reduced a lot presumably due to Covid.

stop going Foh San for >10 years d..
expensive and not nice.. they just give bigger prawns etc..

Locals don't go there.

We have much better places to go. Ming court for example..just opposite but you have to go early and be prepared to wait.

try look fook (sixth happiness) just about 3 minutes walk, it is wayyyyyy better

Foh San is a tourist trap... hahaha

Since they moved to the new location, we tried and notice this, they no longer do the char-siu-pao in-house, its like ordered from somewhere, frozen delivery and heat up for you. Same as others.

They now sell by name only.

Now that you have mentioned this, yes I think this may be very well the case. I didn't mention this earlier, we ordered the "wu kok" fried dumpling. IT came just slightly warm. As a matter of fact, it felt more like cold to warm. The outer layer of the fried skin is not very crispy and warm, the fillings inside is not piping hot but warm to cold. You can actually put the whole thing inside your mouth instantly and eat it, no problem. Back in the day, the fried dumplings that were served on the table is piping hot. You can't gulp the whole thing down and need to wait for a while for it to cool down, and that too you need to take several small bites since it is piping hot fresh from the oven.

It is sad that most dim sum restaurants now just preheat frozen paos, dumplings or chee cheong fun rolls which are all readily made earlier and serve it to guests. I guess it's the easy way of doing things these days, unlike 30+ years ago when the workers really toil their a@@ off by doing everything in the kitchen from scratch early in the morning, all fresh. I'm not sure if there are some who still do it fresh but it would take a lot of work and effort especially from the workers, no time to rest. Now it's just easy, take everything out from the fridge and just reheat and serve to customers. At least heat the food, the pao, fried dumplings, rice rolls or whatever to piping hot and not warm or worst, cold.

Only the porridge we ordered came hot. The rest are mostly warm to cold, especially the fried dumplings. If the dumplings are freshly fried, it won't be warm to cold but piping hot and come with crispy outer layer.

The restaurant may still survive by the name but it is surprising they can last for such a long time after serving the food of such quality. People still go there, and there's actually quite a lot of people to some waiting outside the queue. I'm not sure if they are first timers. However, if it was me, I won't be returning the 2nd time anymore.

Yes, it is just beside Foh San. I noticed the restaurant when walking from the car parking to Foh San. It is closed and air-conditioned just like Ming Court unlike open air Foh San. I noticed not many people go to this restaurant. I think it is called Yoke Fook Moon.

If you says 30 years ago, maybe still ok. The last time I went was close to 15 years ago. Klang Valley Dim Sum, any well know outlets can easily beat Ipoh Dim Sum 9 streets.

Back in the day which is 30 to 40 years ago, the workers are from the "Baby Boomer" or earlier "Silent Generation" era. Most of them are dead already, especially the boss of the original Foh San restaurant who first started at old corner shoplot area before they moved to the new location where it is located now. Fast forward today, it is mostly operated by Generation Y or perhaps younger Generation Z. People these days are not so hardworking as the older generation so most of the time the easy route is chosen.

In the early late 1970s to 1980s, I think the workers at Foh San or some other dim sum restaurants start their business very early in the morning, perhaps waking up at 4.00am or earlier, they start working in the kitchen maybe before 5.00am already. People changed, practice changed. Nowadays, the food are prepared earlier and frozen for convenience. People these days want to have a better life, to have it easier, sleep late, wake up late etc.