Asow Eatery Station is gaining a reputation in a highly competitive café scene. It is unique because nursery and café combinations in Ipoh are still fairly new.
Of the many nurseries in this area, they seem to have more exotic plants (and higher pricing). We’ve been here a few times, and the food has improved since our last visit. There’s now lamb shank and other grilled meats available.
Location
If you’re coming from Tambun, you’ll have to cross to the opposite side of the road. Those starting from Gunung Rapat or Ampang however, will find the café on the same side of the road.
This area is full of nurseries and pomelo shops, but while there are some other eateries along the same road, Asow Eatery Station is the only one open from morning to the evening (10am to 10pm).
Ease Of Parking
Parking that is directly in front of the nursery is limited to about 6 slots maximum and their lorry is usually present too.
So, on weekends, you may have to park at some of the other nurseries and walk over instead.
Ambiance
The dining environment is no doubt, a main highlight here. Especially for plant lovers as every corner of the café is a haven for plants. There is also a terrarium/ aquarium in the middle of the café.
Floor to ceiling windows grant view of the plant nursery outside and there is air conditioning inside the cafe.
Smaller tables are at the front of the café but there are larger tables at the back. These have the best view of the nursery but can feel warmer since they are close to the staff door which leads out to the nursery and these doors are regularly opened.
There’s no loud music here so it’s a nice place for a chat.
Service
Staff is polite, but they won’t be refilling your drinks or hanging around your table to see if you need anything else even when there are not many customers around.
Instead, they will wait at the counter until you need them.
Food and drinks come quickly but we were the only customers when we made our order at around 12pm. The café started to fill in from 1pm onwards and this was a Tuesday.
We’ve been here for dinner before too and the dinner crowd starts pouring in around 7pm (it doesn’t have to be a weekend either). From our observation and experience, this eatery is most popular during the evenings, and you might want to make a booking if you’re going to visit on a weekend.
Food
To us small eaters, the most surprising thing about the food were the massive portions.
We got the following and all of the portions for the mains were large:
- Set lunch (for Tuesday, it was mushroom soup with a bread roll and butter, chicken chop with mushroom sauce and a small scoop of mint ice cream with corn flakes for toppings)
- A single serving of Hojicha green tea and café Latte
- Chicken meatball Bolognese spaghetti
- Asow crispy chicken burger
- Lemon butter chicken (whole leg)
- A pot of tea to share – If you order tea in a pot instead of individually, they will use loose tea rather than bags.
All of us were satisfied with our orders. The food is tasty (they might be using MSG) and there is a lot of meat given. Coffee and tea are good.
The menu has a lot of options for both mains and beverages. They have some cakes at the front too, but we were not interested to try any. Nor did we have further room in our tummies.
Also at the counter is fresh focaccia bread and this, we’ve ordered a few times on separate occasions because the bread is not hard and very tasty – even on its own though they serve it with butter.
For dinner, we’ve tried their lamb shank (Ampang style), chicken ham carbonara and another spiced chicken dish that I can’t recall the name of. All of these dishes were well received, especially the lamb shank – it’s tender and well-seasoned with mint sauce and vegetables on the side!
PS: No pork is served at this eatery.
Pricing
The generous portions justify the prices. You can expect to pay RM25 to RM30 for person if you’re not getting any of the fancier things on the menu (e.g., Australian Wagyu steak for ~RM200).
Given the price though, none of the ingredients used were of outstanding quality. They don’t use any imported fresh herbs for the spaghetti (e.g., thyme).
The vegetables that they use for the salad are inexpensive too (e.g., onions, cabbage, carrots, cherry tomatoes, etc).
And it’s clear that they use commercial chicken (e.g., very large thighs).
But they do make an effort to make the mushroom soup themselves. We suspect that the French fries that came with the burger are made from scratch too since the fries have odd shapes.
Conclusion
To conclude, Asow Eatery Station is not a bad place to bring friends and family for lunch or dinner. Maybe not for brunch unless you don’t plan to have lunch later as you will most likely be stuffed when you leave this café!
And if you do intend to buy plants too, visiting this café is a bonus as they have gardening supplies and an impressive selection of plants including rarer ones.
Red Brick Kitchen
Red Brick Kitchen is further away in Gunung Rapat tucked in a secluded neighborhood. But it’s also a very attractive eatery that specializes in western cuisine. The eatery is housed in a glasshouse, surrounded by greenery and limestone karsts!
Memories by Morel
The western dishes at Memories by Morel are more authentic (not heavily seasoned to cater to local palates) in our opinion. We do like the rustic ambiance (it looks something like a beach bar on the top floor) here as well as the wood fired pizza!
