First Coffee House — Restaurant in Perak

Coffee houses were a big thing when I was growing up. My parents would take me there for special occasions. The menus usually had Chinese food, but it was the set lunches that everybody came here for: the dinner roll and cold butter, the cream soup, and the chicken chop.

Going to a coffee house wasn’t just about the food. I remember going to Green Fern and feeling mesmerised by the organist. Giggling with girlfriends in the velvet boothed darkness of Rendezvous. The budding writer in me loved romantic vibes evoked by Blue Window Cafe's moniker.

Cockman Street had the most coffee houses. But one by one, the coffee houses closed down, eclipsed by trendy restaurants. All of them seemed to disappear into the ether, save for one.

I rediscovered First Coffee House quite by chance recently.

I was searching for a Chinese restaurant delivery for my parents so I can order for them remotely. All the ones we've tried cannot live up to my Mum’s Michelinesque standards, or the markups were too high to justify ordering.

While scrolling, a familiar name popped up in my feed. Wow! First Coffee House was still around? Remembering their Chinese food menu, hope flared in my heart.

I went straight to Google Reviews. The average rating was pretty decent at 4.2 but it was the reviews that stopped me in my tracks:

“Old fashioned coffee house, every items in the menu are really seem like back to the old days, and taste delicious with reasonable price.”

“I use to patronize the place to dine in many years ago. From the father Sow Sr to his son now Mr.Sow Jr. Both the father and mother are still present in the shop until today.”

“It’s run by a staff of old people.”

Bingo!

Nobody knows better than me that senior citizens have such a high standard of integrity that they will NOT forgive themselves for serving substandard food. Old is gold.

Walking up to the facade brought back all the feels. The green and white frontage, the booth seats, the classic door - I felt transported back to 1978, when First Coffee House made its debut. As I walked in, I noticed that every member of the kitchen and service crew were senior citizens.

Although the menu had more elaborate dishes, including mum's faves curry fish head and assam prawns, I decided to go for Singapore fried beehoon and fried rice. Because through experience, I’ve learned that the litmus test for the quality of a restaurant’s cooking is the execution of their simplest dishes. If they can ace this, it means they'd treat every dish with respect.

Our food arrived very fast; we were early and there was just one other couple. I took one bite of my Singapore fried beehoon, and almost teared up. It was full of flavour and wok hei. The addition of choy sum and seafood was incredibly generous. Mum was already looking through the menu and planning a return trip ...

Could coffee houses become trendy again?

Only time will tell, but I know I want to do all I can to protect my precious...

I remember I always have the set lunch/dinner of chicken chop in sweet and sour gravy when I lived in Ipoh back when I was still a toddler. More than 25 years later the taste is still exactly the same! Set lunch/dinner is served with bread and butter, Oxtail or mushroom soup, 1 main course, and two desserts with free refills of plain water. It only cost RM18.90 for such big portion of food and it's definitely a steal! Loved this place and will definitely come back again the next time I visit Ipoh. Keep up...

Firstly i would like to salute each and everyone that is working here. Super attentive and friendly. The elderly couples, despite their ages, they walk, take orders, deliver orders really fast. The guy Din was really helpful for us to choose as they have so many choices. We took the set, which comes with mains, soup, bread & butter, 2 desserts and it’s only RM20.90. The food was good. Big portions. The watermelon per serving is really huge. We ate till our belly buttons came off.😂😂 Will definitely be...