Restoran Ikan Air Tawar Chai Chee — Restaurant in Perak

We usually come here for dinner when my family is back from KL. It is located not too far from Ipoh town center. The restaurant set up is just a normal Kopitiam with air cond and only 4 big tables. They also have tables placed along the corridor when there are more customers. This place serves seafood mainly. We started out with their famous fish ball which is smooth and tender. Then we had 2 styles of crabs, kam Heong style and their popular style in cucumber sauce. Kam Heong crab tasted better but it was too oily to my liking but the crab meat were fresh and firm. Also the crabs were of reasonably good sizes. The Batin fish was so so only. The next dish was the big head prawn, this is probably the highlight of the dinner. The superior soya sauce was so fragrant and tasty, It really made the prawn finger licking good. The prawn was full of roes and the meat is fresh and firm. Then come the sweet and sour pork and 2 veggies, these were ok and nothing ordinary. The following dish was the mantis shrimp in salt and pepper. Again, the restaurant delivered a dish that would make you come back for more. The fried garlic and garnishing on top of the shrimps were so good. The shrimps fresh was sweet and firm too. The last dish was their popular fried Kway teow with cockles. Lots of people like this but I still prefer the Penang’s version. I wish they can serve the dishes at a slower pace. I think I would have enjoy the dishes more if the dishes can be served one after another. Eating seafood with shells definitely need some times with all these shells. This place is not cheap. Their prices have almost double with the same thing we had a year ago. I would recommend this place if you are willing to plunge for...

We recently visited a zhi char restaurant that claimed to have the best fish in town, but it turned out to be a major letdown. We ordered a patin fish, sambal belacan sweet potato leaves, fish balls, mantis prawn, and cockles char kway teow. The patin fish was priced at RM180 per kilogram, and since it weighed about 1.4 kilograms, it came to a hefty RM252. The mantis prawn was RM26 per 100 gram.

When the patin fish arrived, it was disappointing right from the start. It wasn’t even served hot, the belly had a strange, off-putting taste, and the soy sauce was so diluted it tasted like water. For that price, we expected much better quality.

The sambal belacan sweet potato leaves were just average — nothing to rave about. The highlights of the meal were the fish balls, which were fresh and flavorful, and the cockles char kway teow, which had a nice wok hei and rich taste.

Overall, the patin fish was a big disappointment, especially considering the price. Other zhi char spots have served better, fresher patin at more reasonable prices. Sadly, this was probably the worst patin fish we’ve...

We didn't make a reservation and was fortunate to get a table. Some of their classic dishes need to be pre-ordered. All the dishes we had were good. My favourite is the steamed squid. It is a simple dish with soya sauce, but in most other places, it is always very chewy. Over here, the squid is tender, and the sauce with Chinese Celery goes perfectly with it. The fried cabbage looks plain and unassuming, but one bite of it tells a totally different story. So tasty. The fried pork with sweet and sour sauce is tender and tastes wonderful. The tofu with minced meat is simple but tasty. The star of this meal is the big head prawn. Each is bigger than my palm. It is cooked in a special sauce, which is exquisite. It is perfectly cooked, and each prawn head oozes a creamy paste from it. So rich and...