1919 Restaurant Ipoh — Restaurant in Perak

The whole experience was in fact only 3 stars but I am adding one more due to very kind and friendy lady owner

We picked up this restaurant ONLY because we had fabulous experience in 1919 in KL. We loved the fried eggplant and butter fried lotus there in KL and thought we can repeat the lovely experience in Ipoh before leaving Malaysia next day.

This was a mistake and apart from the same name and same menu, this branch in Ipoh has nothing common.

The service has been incredibly slow. It took them around 20 min to come to us even the restaurant was not packed. Once we managed to order, we learned that only fried eggplants is available and they don’t have butter fried lotus. Later we saw butter fried lotus going to another customer. So I assume that they either placed the order before us or pre-ordered.

We wanted to try different main course this time, thus took their signature deep fried garlic tofu and chicken. And for drinks their home made sour plum juice, as we found it yummy in the KL branch.

It took them another 25-30 min to bring our food. The fried eggplants had nothing to do in taste with the lovely fried eggplants we had in KL. The deep fried garlic tofu tasted like egg only; no trace of flavour dance we had in KL branch. And sour plum juice tasted odd, nothing similar to the one we had in KL.

Maybe we had high expectations for this branch in Ipoh after we had such great experience in KL. But I really regret for having chosen this restaurant for our last dinner before...

Usually I will remember the good ones and the bad ones too (especially the bad ones) because the bad ones at least have some character and madness to their cooking. This place is just.....forgettable. And this is one of the worst traits of a restaurant, blandness, lack of character, lack of excitement.

I can't even recall what we ordered and what specific dishes we don't like, the only thing I remembered was it was NOT worth the price they charged, the place was very tight because the tables were too close together with all those useless decorations that pretended to be antiques. Oh and the service sucks (it's that bad I was forced to use this word, sorry).

I don't understand why so many people come here and claimed that they were "consistent". Consistent of what may I ask? Boringness? Ah, I finally remembered something about it's food after ranting for so long in this review, we had a deep fried fish with "assam" sauce. The sauce was OK (mediocre, nothing special, BORING.........) but that fish is a piece of frozen rock. They literally took it out of the freezer and then fry it IMMEDIATELY and it is the WORST piece of fish I have ever eaten.

So now that I have remembered something about it's food, I retract my previous comment about it's blandness. It was SO BAD that I unconsciously forget all about that piece of fish /...

Cozy and remarkable ambience the moment you pull into this Nyonya-themed restaurant. The decorations were unique and very pleasant. The services were attentive and friendly. Ordered fried Philippines eggplants, 1919 signature tofu, curry fish, and Kapitan chicken. Good and sufficient portions for four pax. Fried eggplants were delicious, crunchy, and not oily. Tofu (egg tofu, to be exact) was outstanding, silky smooth, and rich in egg aroma). Curry fish was excellent, too; apart from the standing-out presentation, the sauce, made from different herbs like laksa leaves and torch ginger flowers, definitely left behind an unforgettable lemony, spicy, tangy, and sour taste, which was very flavorful. However, the Kapitan chicken could be slightly overwhelming, which required a plate of plain rice to go with. The chicken meats were too tender for us. Lastly, their 1919 iced coffee punches you with the taste if you love coffee; very rich in flavor. Fried ice cream was average. Parking was ok; off the street. Pricing was reasonable given the food...