OLDTOWN White Coffee @ City Square — Restaurant in Johor

DN1 BBQ Chicken & Fried Wantan Dry Egg Noodles 炭烧鸡炸云吞干捞全蛋面 = RM16.90 WC6 Old Town Nan Yang-O 舊街埸南洋乌 = RM6.10 Service Tax 6% = RM1.30

This is One of the First Eateries you will see when you come to JB City Square directly from the CIQ. Its also one of the Earliest to Open at 8.00am. Even on a Monday Afternoon, it was quite Popular and Crowded. The Interior is quite a Large Area and Aircon is Comfortably Cooling. There is no Free WIFI however.

Frustrating Entry Experience

When I initially stepped up to the Entrance, there are No Entrance Staff, also No Signages whether I should wait at the Entrance or just Walk In. Other than the Cashier who was busy tending to a Customer, there was No One else. The other Serving Staffs in the Eatery were busy roving about tending to Other Customers within the Eatery. Actually the Cashier was busy not because she was settling a Bill, but because she is also doing Double Duty of taking orders!

After standing and waiting at the Entrance with a Queue of New Customers behind me for what seemed like forever, I got Very Impatient and grabbed the attention of one of those Roving Staffs to get an Allocated Seat instead. I could see the rest of the New Customers that were behind me follow what I did too instead of 傻傻在外面这么等.

WC6 Old Town Nan Yang-O 舊街埸南洋乌 = RM6.10

It took about 4 Mins for this Coffee to be served up. I thought it had a Nice Roasted Coffee Aroma and while its not the Super Strong Smack You Awake type of Strong, it is still noticeably Strong. Bitterness is Noticeable but Not Overpowering.

DN1 BBQ Chicken & Fried Wantan Dry Egg Noodles 炭烧鸡炸云吞干捞全蛋面 = RM16.90

This took about 8 Mins to be served up and served with a small Bowl of Soup. Not alot of Soup I might add. Tastes Sweetish 清甜 with a Dash of Chicken MSG. Doesn't taste like your Regular WTM Soup. Acceptable, but Nothing Special.

Amount of WTM Noodles was Acceptable. The Noodles seem abit Thicker then Usual WTM Noodles. Bite Texture is Soft but Not Nua Nua. Abit on the Oilier Side. The Sauce is definitely Chicken Based, not Salty. I personally wished it was a tad Saltier though.

The Toppings were 3 Small Triangular Pieces of Fish Cake that is Soft to the Bite and Very Light in Fish Taste. There were also 3 Small Fried Wantans with a Nice Crispy Oil Taste. Filling is Chicken and has a Somewhat Bouncy Chew with a Noticeable Scallion Taste. Acceptable Wantan but nothing Special.

The Char Siew they used is Chicken, definitely not 炭烧 (Charcoal Grilled). The Meat Cut they use here is Thigh Meat. Its Sweet but Not Overly So. Overall, this Chicken Char Siew tastes exactly how you'd imagine it to taste. Nothing Special.

One thing I wish they added at least a Stalk of Chye Sim Veggie to add some Colour to the Dish.

Eating this Dish without any Chilli tasted Very Flat. I had to ask for some Chilli because it was not served by default. The Chilli Condiment they serve up is Green Chilli Padi. While its not as Spicy as Red Chilli Padi, it will still Sting and Bite your Tongue if you cannot take Spicy. Adding Chilli and Soy Sauce made this taste very much better in my opinion. So if you order this Dish, don't forget to also ask for their Chilli Condiment.

Conclusion and Closing Thoughts

Paying RM6.10 (S$1.80) I feel is not worth for a Cup of what is basically Kopi-O. This Price is actually on-par with the Kopi-O Price in Singapore. That said though, this IS a Modern Kopitiam situated in a Shopping Mall, so of course there is a Premium to be paid. Overall Acceptable but Nothing Special.

RM16.90 (S$4.80) for a WTM of this Caliber in JB, I feel is not worth the Money. Perhaps you can try the other items in their Menu instead. Don't order this if you are looking to eat WTM.

The Main Issue with this Place however is the Frustrating Initial Overall Entry and Ordering Experience I felt.

Very Frustrating Overall Experience for me. If you do visit this place, I hope you have a Better Experience than me.

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all these 5 stars review that this store has been having recently is ALL FAKE and ASKED by the staff TO customers to review since they KNOW that their food and service IS bad.

when i came to their outlet recently, it was one of the most unpleasant experiences i’ve ever had. can’t even call this a ‘restaurant’, just a store that served overpriced, tasteless and low quality food that provided the lowest level of service available.

firstly, my family and i was standing outside of the store surveying their menu, no one came up to us to ask if we wanted to take a seat or serve us even though ~5 staffs were standing around scattered in the counter and the pickup area. had to walk in myself after close to 10mins of NOT being acknowledged by anyone, and staff at pickup area didn’t come forward when i walked in but just pointed at a random table with his FINGER on where to sit while remaining STILL on his spot, which is RUDE.

i’m a customer that just arrived to your store to eat and you’re already serving me THIS way. is this the way you’re showing ‘service’ to customers?

scanned the QR and placed an order of 4 dishes and 4 drinks and had to immediately walked up to counter myself to make a payment (RM100++), which is mind boggling because usually, in other restaurants we would pay AFTER eating.

food came, ipoh horfun provided with few chunks of chicken meat, 2 pieces of prawn and 5 pieces of chives floating around, noodles was stiff as if just thrown onto the bowl without being boiled first, cherry on top was that it was TASTLESS and bland in addition to the oil floating above the soup.

i can confidently say that eating hospital food or even just maggi instant noodles WILL have more flavour.

and the other 3 dishes is equally just as BAD. even when ordering through the QR, HALF of the menu was UNAVAILABLE so the food options was VERY limited. i can’t even choose the smaller sizes for drinks so i ended up having to pay almost RM10 PER cup and we couldn’t even finish it cause it was just TOO big, and ICE TO DRINK RATIO was 6:4…

everything was just overall BAD and honestly the worst place i’ve been to. would not come to this store EVER again. would NOT recommend ANYONE to visit this outlet.

🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫

TLDR: save your money and eat elsewhere. high-priced food with literally, NO taste and service. worst RM100++ i’ve ever spent on and YOU will ever spend on if decided to do so.

or better yet, just go home and eat a cup or bowl of instant noodles which will have more...

This 1-star review is unbiased and factual, devoid of any subjectivity of taste. Yesterday, I ordered a bowl of Old Town "signature dish" when I was at City Square JB just to have a quick comfort food before finishing my shopping errands. This bowl comes with the absolute generosity of 2 prawns and 4 slivers of chicken shreds (yes, i could literally count each shred of chicken meat) filled with a bowl of their "signature" kway teow and 6 strands spring onion garnish. Thinking this must be some exquisite meat, I took one shred between my teeth and start grinding the dead corpse of meat away with the texture of a dry cardboard and an old shoe. I kid you not, Old Town sells this for a "signature" sum of 15.50 RM! Wow, of all the wonderful food and delicious food in the whole of Johor Bahru, I had to choose Old Town. I can only blame myself for this because not only have Iet my own stomach and taste buds down, I have thrown good money away (15.50RM) where it could have been given to a more deserving food outlet or hawker. I feel like I've let myself down by this meal, so I've decided to write this review so that the rest of my malaysian and singaporean friends (favourite stopover for sgp crossing the border) don't have to suffer the same incongruent humiliation and cruel fate of taste abuse unleashed by Old Town's "signature" dish. See my photos and eat at your own detriment....please don't let me start on their lukewarm soup and half cooked al-dente kway teow...this could be another epic...