Ipoh PTC Sin Yoon Loong White Coffee — Restaurant in Perak

Look, my star ratings usually reflect food quality only, but this is the first place that made me reconsider.

Sin Yoon Loong, a well-established coffee franchise with distinguished pedigree, seems intent on giving people an aesthetic experience not just limited to the food. Hence the SYL outlet in a former timber factory in Menglembu, and here, in the Perak Turf Club.

The environment is nice and calming, with structures and beams made of wood and bamboo, and plenty of lush greenery, but I wasn't prepared for the big caveat. Mosquitoes were everywhere and I sat in discomfort while awaiting my order.

Service is straightforward, scan QR code to order and the waiters will serve you once ready. Prices are quite expensive, with mains mostly RM20+. The wait for my curry noodles was over 20 minutes despite them being nearly empty. What's more they got my order wrong. Misstep after misstep so far.

Luckily the noodles were not bad. Fragrant curry broth with noodles cooked al dente and plenty of toppings (although cabbage is a weird addition). Coffee is wonderful, and they have a selection of experimental coffee eg cold brew and nitro brew white coffee.

Too bad I won't visit again based on the shortcomings above. Having mosquitoes dine before me is slightly insulting lol. So again, food not bad, wonderful coffee, but you can get cheaper, better food elsewhere.

Update 16/5/2025: This time I sat in the much better indoor section of the restaurant. Air-conditioned and comfy, mosquitoes be gone!

One thing to get used to. They have different menus depending on the time. The breakfast staples like laksa, nasi lemak and curry noodles are only available during breakfast and off-peak hours. For lunch and dinner, they serve Chinese food, in either shared or individual servings.

Arriving at 1pm, my craving for nasi lemak was unfulfilled. We ordered char koay teow and vegetarian fried rice instead. While they taste good with ample portions, they aren't must-tries. Wok hei is adequate while the taste profile veers towards the safe side: slightly uninspired, and you can taste similar or better elsewhere. The white coffee, while quite strong and foamy, was not as creamy or thick as I like. At RM6.90 I felt a bit shortchanged.

Overall, food standard remains the same, but service and atmosphere is improved from the...

We recently visited this place and, unfortunately, had a rather disappointing experience. Upon arrival, we waited around 15 minutes for a table, which was reasonable. However, after being seated and placing our order, we waited an additional 30 minutes with no food or drinks being served (4x coffee, 1x toast, 1x cold dessert).

Frustrated with the delay, we decided to cancel our order and leave. It was only at that point that the cashier informed us of a technical issue with their system. While we understand that problems can arise, we believe this should have been communicated to all waiting guests in advance. As we were leaving, we noticed other diners experiencing the same frustration due to slow service.

In addition, the food there was slightly overpriced.

Since the restaurant is relatively new, we acknowledge that they might be facing staffing challenges. However, better communication—such as informing customers about the delay upfront—and small gestures like offering plain water could have significantly improved the experience. We hope they take this feedback into consideration, as they have potential but need to refine...

Love the ambience. Love the deco - wood and bamboo interiors.

Cool hang out cafe. The food is a let down. For the price you pay and terrible food, not a great place unfortunately.

The cafe uses techy ordering system, QR code ... the 3 of us made our selections. And went on chatting and catching up. Enjoying the surroundings, water trickling down from the roof, led by bamboo curtains onto a stream with guppies, mollies. Beautiful.

We realised our orders didn't come. There were two servers hanging out at the counter right across from us. we thought we click send to confirm our orders. But none of them came over to check if everything was ok when we sat there for a good 20 mins without food or drinks! Of course the mistake was ours, we didnt click the right button for our food.

So we had to wait a bit longer. Fried noodles - not good Wu kok - taro puffs , might as well be taro chewy pancakes Drinks took time to arrive one at a time.

Love the location, interesting developments at the Turf Club. Really excited to see how the place thrives.

Do better, don't...