Song Khun Restaurant — Restaurant in Perak

Tucked away in the corner of Ipoh's 'Chinatown' street, it can be a little hard to find, even we missed a turn and found this quaint little restaurant.

"A perfect way to end our day with great food that exceeded our expectations by a mile"

We had the seasonal set menu with additional a la carte items to go with it for four people

My review of the food:

Our expectations for Thai food usually is "too spicy, too salty, too sour" but everything on their seasonal menu (aug - Oct) was really well balanced and you can taste the meticulousness of the chef making the food.

Lychee Salad was very refreshing dotted with lychee and mint etc with a light vinaigrette to pair with the amuse bouche/canape and opens up our palate to the next dish.

Minced pork on top of a perilla leaf tempura was well seasoned with refreshing touches of shallots and crunchy perilla leaf which stayed crunchy - we had to take our photos 😂

Next was a tempura dip with assorted vegetables, some of them never heard of or never thought of eating like cashew leaves and leaf from a mango plant? With a homemade sauce which tastes like a mix between seafood chilli sauce, satay sauce and laksa - which worked superbly with the tempura.

Following that is the snapper in a curry-like sauce which was savoury and with a hint of sourness with fried edible scales. We literally cleaned the whole plate, the sauce even with the whole herbs in it.

Last was the papaya ice cream with glutinous rice pops,toasted coconut flakes and burnt coconut ( yes, it is supposed to be this way) giving a little hint of bitterness but very fragrant, more so than the toasted coconut flakes. The glutinous rice pops was also very fragrant, much better than the tasteless rice pops we usually have. Papaya ice cream was a little too subtle and needed time to taste the papaya.

From the a la carte menu, Omelette - Crunchy and not oily and uniquely plated

Seabass baked with lime - a classic Thai dish that is better than Thailand(No offense 🙏). The fish was tender, not overwhelmingly sour and very fragrant with no bitterness coming from the lime.

TLDR: Overall food is great and well seasoned (Kudos to the chef), quaint environment and very good service even though the restaurant is run only by the owner couple. Portion size is admittedly smaller but for us the taste is more important! A must try for those...

Third review: The operator of this cafe (claims to be a restaurant) is extremely immature, his reply to a customer shows that he clearly does not bother about their customers and he thinks that a customer should stoop down to him. Beware of dining in this place or you may be blamed for their lack of service aptitude if you feel like expressing yourself. Lack of empathy, respect & intellectually challenged i believe. I bet they will reply again with their childish remarks, lets wait for it. Finally i've decided to remove even that 1 star due to the operators loose mouth, listen here punk being a keyboard warrior aint my thing, you can continue wasting your time here but its only gonna ruin your own google review which you clearly do not care about. I wish you good luck and to your investors too 😂😂🤣 Note: you might wanna consider growing up first before trying to run any CAFE. On the note please do not mislead ppl masking a cafe behind a restaurant, you dont deserve that title as restaurants dont behave like how you do, learn some PR skills before you move on. Im beginning to enjoy this, keep it coming and lets entertain our beloved google community 😁😁😁

First review: Very rude waiter, not welcoming at all. Unable to manage customers expectations. Not recommended.

Second review: First off, Its pretty clear that you are unable to handle any criticism let alone make any corrections for improvement, its very clear that you lack the experience in running a café and catering to customers with different needs. All you could have done was apologize for not having what was requested for and promote something else from your limited menu but you choose to give your customer a stare instead. Secondly you don’t decide where I go and where I sit as its my money, I’m a paying customer and yes you are right, I AM THE BOSS! You are the first café I’ve experienced that offends a customer and cannot treat them well, you are incapable of managing your customers so I would really advise you to choose another line of work as you clearly suck at this. GOOD LUCK with your attitude, we’ll see how...

PRE BOOKING Before coming here, had noticed there were some very negative reviews/ low ratings. BUT we also read comments from the owner himself. Some call it arrogant but I personally think that the owner must have certain level of confidence with his work else he won't be so bold when confronting those negative reviewers. After all, no food can be so bad until it deserves a 1 star rating especially plenty had given high ratings. So I read through all disclaimers/ advices/conditions/ menu given thru website + whatsapp and proceed with booking. It was easy. I was running late on that day, texted the restaurant to inform and they replied promptly. Not a single issue.

ORDERS AND DINING Despite the owner being called as arrogant, he was actually really polite (still is). We also remember that he is the only one cooking and taking orders. So we understand why he had mentioned about don't ask the unnecessary. We ordered based on his recommendation for 4 adults and 1 toddler. The recommended amount of food was just right, which covered from appetiser to dessert + alcoholic drinks. But most important, it's delicious, flavorful and unique. Ingredients are fresh and curated. The effort/ passion of the person preparing and cook is very much reflected in the dish. Chef also came to our table to check if everything was okay.

PRICE Reasonable and the most expensive dish in menu was not more than 40. Dining here is very close to having a private chef actually. The pricing is justified by the quality of food.

And really, 50 cent size portion as claimed by some reviewers did not/ does not exist !

CONCLUSION I will not tell you that this resto has the "best food / taste" because taste is very subjective. But I've brought my two fussiest eater (local senior parents who are very particular woth flavours and sensitive to price). Both of them love this place and their food. Other than food, we also admire the owner's authenticity and level of confidence on his work. Will...