Restoran Zhen Hi Hao — Restaurant in Perak

I had breakfast here two days in a row because my friend wouldn't stop talking about it the first day we had it. The crispy prawn rice roll was like what I used to have in Hong Kong but bigger, and the red rice roll version was definitely eye-catching. My friend was initially apprehensive of it, but we ended up ordering three! It's just the combo texture of soft thin rice roll with crispy fried prawn filling that made it so irresistible. The Sichuan dumplings were flavorful but not overwhelmingly spicy. Special shout out to the fried dim sum especially toasted sesame shrimps and wu kok—fried just right, not that greasy. I also loved the xiao long bao and chicken feet. The egg tarts had proper Hong Kong-style flaky crust. My peach and osmanthus stewed pear was a bit watered down, but that's probably because I let it sit out for too long. May be best to order in stages so that they don't all get served at once.

The restaurant has just won an award from a Chinese tourism association and the lady boss was ecstatic about it. I was expecting the restaurant to be crowded but it was barely half full both the days I visited. I don't know how long until people start queuing up at this restaurant, or even if that'll happen. But personally I think this is just really good dim sum.

edit: I visited another two times with a different Ipoh friend. She wanted their steamed prawn chee cheong fun to see whether the skin would be as thin as the crispy prawn CCF and I'm happy to report that she approved. It was filled with fresh, juicy, fat prawns, and I think at this point it's just a matter of preference whether you like steamed or fried prawns in your CCF to decide which one to order. Wu kok was slightly overfried this time but didn't really affect the taste. XO sauce fried carrot cake had an abundance of fat Ipoh taugeh. Crystal chives dumplings were filled to the brim with chives. Dream osmanthus jelly cake passed my jiggly test. It had bits of chestnuts and a cooling, refreshing taste to end the meal. Additionally, they got a grade-A rating from the Ipoh city council for...

Ipoh is known for its dimsum but unless you wanted to join the massive queue during weekends, I usually avoid having dimsum in Ipoh and to be honest the famous few has dropped in quality.

I stumbled upon this dimsum shop from a YouTube vlog and decided to try during my road trip. The restaurant is located away from the main attractions and this reduced the number of tourists as I observed most of the patrons are locals instead.

The owner introduces a few of their signatures which I did ordered including the cheong fun made from teochew red wine residual, wrapped in crispy fried prawn wraps. Another one would be the black pepper pau which is slightly pan fried for additional aroma. The lady boss also highly recommended her char siew pau which she claimed to be the best in the world 😅

What I liked about their dim sum is all ingredients are freshly prepared and handmade, as claimed by the owner. Nowadays it's getting rarer to find fresh handmade dim sum as everyone started to move to centralized and commercialized production system to maximize efficiency (or profit). The prawn dishes stand out particularly as we can taste the freshness and the flavor of the prawns, vs some other restaurants who short cut by using frozen crystal prawn.

The egg tarts were also freshly baked upon order but unfortunately this dish miss the mark. The char siew pau is good with bountiful fillings. We can taste the coriander used in the filling, but our only complain is that it's overly sweetened. Fried prawn dumpling is a bit overly fried as you can tell from the picture.

The owner was very friendly as we can see she went table to table to promote and interact. All their waitress are senior ladies instead of foreigners, which gives a very local vibe.

Overall food wise I would say a hit and miss as some are better while some couldn't make it. Freshness is guaranteed, portion or size is smaller which makes it less in value because the prices ain't cheap. Service ia...

There are many dimsum restaurants coming up in ipoh taking advantage or the weekend visitors from outside states and neighbouring countries. This place survived the lockdown and is now gaining popularity. Situated behind the old Cathay cinema, parking is no issue. You will be greeted at the door by 2 rabbits. If you see these you know you are at the right place. Food is above my expectation and reasonable price to boot. The prawns they used esp in their harkau and other dishes with prawns are huge and crunchy. Very nice. I recommend their red chee cheong fun, deep fried prawn in bean curd skin, rabbit pau which is overflowing with red bean paste.. Must2 try their pepper pork fried bun the pau is soft and the pepper taste delicious and juicy and being in ipoh their bean sprouts. The sprouts are an unusual fare in a dimsum place but heh, it's ipoh. Will visit again. Place closes on Wed as are most popular eateries in ipoh. ps. must try their prawn cracker...