#470 安記芽菜雞沙河粉 Rest. Onn Kee Tauge Ayam @ Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Ipoh
Everyone that goes to Ipoh should know that they are famous for their “ngah choi gai”, otherwise known as beansprouts chicken. There are a lot of stalls such as Lou Wang and Restoran Onn Kee in the same vicinity serving this dish so it is difficult to choose which one to try. My friend from Ipoh actually recommended me to go to Cowan Street Ayam Tauge & Koitiau / 高温街芽菜鸡 to try the dish prior to my trip. However, when we arrived at Ipoh, Crystal mentioned that she would like to try Onn Kee since her friend has eaten there before and enjoyed it. Thus, we headed there from our Airbnb, which is a ten minutes walk.
安記芽菜雞沙河粉 Rest. Onn Kee Tauge Ayam
No. 48 Jalan Yau Tet Shin
30300 Ipoh, Perak
+60 12-556 6669
Upon taking a seat in the stall, a younger server approached us and took our order. As we were unable to speak in Cantonese, we conversed in Mandarin. We had beansprouts, chicken with soya sauce and a bowl of meatball and fishball to share and we also had a bowl of kway teow each. As shown in the fifth picture, the beansporuts at Ipoh are fat and juicy. This is because the way the beansprouts are grown in Ipoh is by germinating the mung beansprouts in water for four hours during the day when there is light and leaving it in the dark the rest of the time. The method used to grow beansprouts is hydroponic, thus the water solvent plays a crucial role in it’s growth. Thankfully, the water in Ipoh has a high alkaline content due to minerals from the limestone hills surrounding Ipoh. This makes the beansprouts plumper and thus, with just a mild sauce, you are able to enjoy the taste of the beansprouts and we definitely did! Since the name of the dish is ngah choi kai, the locals cannot have the beansprouts without chicken depicted in the sixth picture. When Crystal and I ate the chicken though, we were extremely disappointed at how difficult the meat detaches from the bone and it was such a pain consuming this dish that we did not end up finishing it. Due to this reason, we tried another highly raved store that also serves ngah choi kai, which will be revealed later. I have to admit that the kway teow seen in the seventh picture is so delicious due to it’s silky smooth texture and mildly sweet broth that was cooked with the chicken and its parts. The fishballs portrayed in the eighth picture is just average but what stood out was the huge meatball in the ninth picture. If you think that the meatballs served at Restoran Kin Kin is great, the meatball served at Restoran Onn Kee will make you think again. The total bill with two glasses of beverages came up to RM 34.45, which is equivalent to SGD$11.03/ CAD$10.15 / USD$7.76. Very value for money considering how much we have ordered though we were upset with one of their main dish, the chicken!
Rating of the beansprouts: 4.5/5★
Ratings of the chicken: 1/5★
Ratings of the kway teow: 4/5★
Ratings of the fishballs: 2.5/5★
Ratings of the meatballs: 3.5/5★
Opens daily from 12pm to 2am
Payment Methods: Cash Only!
Ambiance: 6/10
Service: 5/10
Food (taste & appearance): 6.2/10
Value: 7/10
Total: 6.05/10★
Our first meal in Ipoh turned out to be fine although we did not fancy the chicken but still, we decided to give ngah choi kai another chance by trying it at a different restaurant the next time we went there.
