Restoran Sri Mahkota | 文冬口|鱼丸|釀料|茶餐室 — Restaurant in Perak

Look. Meat is getting more expensive, and few establishments manage to keep quality high and prices low. I've had beef noodles in cafés and restaurants with air conditioning, and the prices are around RM20. Naw fam. We have to do better.

That's why Seri Mahkota has been the go-to for beef noodles among Ipohans for many years. The prices are reasonable and the quality is consistent. Come early around 5-6pm if you want quick service, otherwise they'll revert to a numbered queue system, while many items are sold out the later you arrive.

Arriving at 5pm, I've had no problems here in regards to service. I was told to sit while the aunty takes down my order, and the food arrived fast. The building blocks are what makes this noodle spot so charming. The beef is tender, the beef broth is flavourful while the coriander takes it up another notch. The fried liu (meatballs) are excellent, while the noodles are cooked al-dente with care. Best of all, the chili sauce goes with everything. I often order dry noodles and heap a few spoonfuls of chili sauce into it. Heaven!

The only weakness I can think of is they don't re-fry the fried liu, so sometimes you might end up with cold dumplings. However, turnover is quick because of the volume of customers.

The highlight is the food of course, especially that wonderful, mouth-watering beef broth, so everything else is secondary. The decor and lighting are ordinary at best, while the toilets are damp and smelly. Best go elsewhere for the call of nature.

But with food as good as this, I can't complain. Cheap, accessible, delicious. Can't wait...

The weirdest ordering system I've ever encountered.

Upon entering the restaurants, several food servers asked us to collect number from the counter (which is located at a small table at the center of restaurant, near yong tau foo place that require abit of searching). I took abit of yong tau foo, paid at the counter and took number. The beef noodle and drinks has to be ordered later after I return to my seat and place the number on a tiny book stand holder. According to my observation, different server will serve different numbers which will take some time for the right server to reach your table. I tried calling few random servers but they just asked me to wait.

Ordered beef noodle with brisket and tendon. Tendon is really soft, kind of melted in mouth. Beef brisket is chewy and tasty, prefer it to be softer. The noodle and soup is ok, nothing to wow about. Yong tau foo is abit of let down. Nothing impressive other than pretty cheap, RM0.90 per piece. Fried sar kot is just so so, fish ball is too small, the rest nothing special.

Place is abit crowded as the tables are quite near to each other, walk way is pretty narrow. Toilet is on the scarier side. Better than none.

Unless you are really craving for some beef noodle, otherwise there are many better restaurants...

By chance around 530pm, as I was looking for food, I came across this coffeeshop/kopitiam. Most eateries are closed by 2pm onwards and reopen from 5pm onwards. This shop housed a few food kiosk but some not opened. The shop as you steps towards it looks chaotic and l felt lost inside. One drink waiter told us to sit down first and we either go get a number from a table nearby the noodle shop and then waited for our turns to be served. After about 10mins, one noodle stall helper came over and spoke what dish or food we wanted in Cantonese. Luckily I was able to speak this dialect l order one person portion of noodles, some fried tofu with fish balls and beef meat soup. If you don't speak Chinese dialects or local language, you can use the review pictures posted by reviewers and show the helper what you want. Total cost including drink is less than RM20. A bit noisy atmosphere and stuffy. Have to eat in a hurry as others are waiting for tables so not much of a pleasure to savour food to comment. My picture perhaps can...