Morel Restaurant — Restaurant in Perak

It's really hard to rate this restaurant. I'm giving the headline rating at 5* for the effort and passion of the owners. The lady owner was on the front-line waiting on tables even though she was heavily pregnant and due to deliver within a month.

But in terms of food and value, I would rate it 3* only.

We were attracted by reviews (from 2021) raving about their home-made pasta and good, regular Italian food. However, they have now gone very up-market, and looking at their menu prices, it seems like they are looking for customers to spend at least RM80 per head.

That would be fine too - sometimes we want to splurge and have a lovely, fancy meal. But, in this case, perhaps to justify the high prices, fancy ingredients are added which, for me, detract from the dish rather than enhance it.

For example, the fettuccine in cream sauce. The fettuccine was delicious - great taste and texture, and al'dente. The basic cream sauce was excellent too. But the whole dish was diminished by the scallops and salmon roe. The flavour and texture combination just didn't work. I wish they would serve just a straightforward fettuccine carbonara. That would really showcase the chef's sublime abilities.

Similarly for the seafood risotto. The rice was great. But there was way too much seafood. So much this dish would have been better described as seafood, with some risotto on the side. I wish for better balance - more rice, and less seafood.

In any case, this is just one view. I'm still on the lookout for a pasta restaurant in Malaysia which can do good, basic food like an authentic aglio olio.

PS Desserts were excellent, including the lava cake. We had to wait quite a while though. Waiter said 10 minutes. We know lava cake takes a while so were prepared to wait 20 minutes or so. In the end, it...

It pains me to give this place just 3 stars, because I really really wanted to like it. So badly that I visited 3 times in one year. First visit was decent, second was meh, third was outright bad. I'm a home cook who is into fermentation and curing too, so I was so excited to find a restaurant that utilises so much fermented foods and dry ages their fish, makes their own charcuterie, and even koji derived products which is gaining popularity but still isn't very common.

Sadly, their execution is a pain. At least on my last visit, I felt that smoke and acid was FAR overused to the point where I actually couldn't bring myself to finish my smoked apple kombucha. All credit to the service team though, they noticed this and let me sample 3 other kombuchas before replacing the rest of my smoked apple kombucha with my choice of drink.

The fish ham was far far too dry, to the point where it feels like I'm closer to chewing on katsuobushi flakes than ham.

I got excited when I saw a slab of otoro dry aging and got myself a portion. I asked for the smallest portion possible and was given 4 slices which was a 90g portion, costing a whopping 180RM. Would've been fine if it was divine, but it was meh at best. Full of sinew so it was chewy, the wasabi was full of something fiborus which clashed with the soft melty textures of otoro, and one slice was sliced far too thick and with an entire chunk of fat at the end which made it difficult to eat.

The best dishes I've had in my 3 visits here were the buckwheat tea kombucha and the pickled watermelon which came in a salad. Both nice but not out of this world. Sadly, I won't be giving this place...

Detailed overall rating of 4.8⭐ Make no mistake - this is as fine dining as you can get in Ipoh. I came with no expectations and didn't even know I was in for a fine dining experience but came away being blown away by the food and the great service. We had the iberico ribs and seafood stew as mains. I loved both of them. Compared to the Opeam experience, this was wayyyy better in terms of the plating, portion, ingredients and style of cooking. The ribs were tender and soft, I loved how it wasn't too fatty. (Some people may not enjoy this as they prefer the meat to melt off the bone.) The seafood stew was beautifully made. I thought the prawns could be deveined a bit more thorough but still found them to be nice. The stew was sublime - flavourful and nicely blended. We also enjoyed the bread (crispy!) and the pumpkin starter dish. I even enjoyed the corn cob that came with the pork. The pavlova seemed like a bit of a let down after the symphony of flavours but I kinda appreciated it for being a tad muted. Though I would like to come back to try the tiramisu or the other desserts. The wait staff were extremely attentive and patient. I also liked the yuzu honey drink! Highly recommended for a nice fine dining experience. Only 1 feedback that I would give to the establishment is the lack of ventilation or air-conditioning, it could get...