Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant at Ipoh Garden South is one of the most popular dim sum restaurants in Ipoh.
1-hour plus waits however, are not enough to deter the long lines of people in front.
What are you missing out on if you choose to go elsewhere instead? This is our experience dining at Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant.
Table Of Contents:
History
Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant has been running for almost 10 years (the grand opening was back in January 2013 and their business shows no signs of slowing down.
The restaurant has gone through one major renovation at the end of 2017 in order to expand and accommodate more customers.
After the renovation completed in 2018, the crowds kept on coming. Weekends are especially busy, and by the end of 2018, customers were often seen dining on the road in front of the restaurant too.
Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant survived the pandemic by offering food deliveries within Ipoh and were only open for dine-ins from May 2020.
Today, Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant remains famous for their long queues as well as their pandan salted egg yolk pau. They are also one of the few dim sum restaurants in Ipoh that serve Ipoh white coffee.
- Location: 2, 4 & 6, Tingkat Taman Ipoh 12, Taman Ipoh Selatan, 31400 Ipoh, Perak
- Opening Hours: 7am–1pm (Closed on Thursdays)
- Contact: +6016-5345965
Ease Of Parking
Whenever Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant are open, there is a definite lack of parking in the area. And it doesn’t seem to matter what day of the week it is too.
Note: They are closed on Thursdays, as are other famous dim sum joints in Ipoh (Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum and Foh San)
Mind you, this area has vigorous parking checks so don’t go for any illegal parking spots here unless you don’t mind getting a summon.
If you really don’t want to have to wait in line or circle hopelessly for a nearby parking space, try getting here before 7am as this is when they open.
PS: There is already a long line of people by 9am on a Friday.
Ambiance
While seemingly always crowded and noisy, the restaurant interior is well lit, cool, with tasteful interior design. There are quaint traditional kopitiam tables and chairs too.
Moreover, after waiting for so long in the queue however, you probably won’t notice the din that much. Especially when the food arrives!
Service
The queue might look really messy from the front of the shop with people gathering at both sides of the entrance.
But at the middle of the crowd, is a table and one dedicated staff member who will assign numbers to customers and call them out when a suitable table is vacant.
So the order at which your number is called depends on your group size – smaller groups will usually get a table faster. We only had 2 people in our group and it took 30 minutes for us to get a table.
Don’t be tempted to go too far while waiting though, as they will give the table to the next person in the queue if you don’t respond to their first few calls.
When you get your table, you just pick what you want from the menu and note down the respective code on the chit. Drinks and food follow soon after.
Note that there is a time limit per table too (50 minutes). And many dishes sell out by lunchtime.
Food
We ordered siew mai, har guen, har gao, wu gok, loh mai gai, chee cheong fun, xiao long bao, the pandan salted egg yolk buns (liu sha bao), and char siew buns.
For drinks, we got Ipoh white coffee (hot) and a herbal drink (chuan bei with snow pear). These were just a tad too sweet for our liking.
So you might want to let the waiters know if you prefer your drinks to be less sweet.
On the whole, the food is tasty. We find the portions to be reasonably generous too (e.g., they give 4 siew mai instead of 3).
The har guen, pandan salted egg yolk buns, and wu gok stood out to us the most. Although the others are not bad either.
We will say that the siew mai and har gao were a little underwhelming though. Quite plain with not much taste although the prawns were quite large.
Pricing
Everything we ordered (9 plates of dim sum and 2 drinks) came up to RM70. Most of the dim sum costs around RM6/ plate.
We think that the pricing at Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant is very fair for the portions given. The food tastes better than at other pricey dim sum restaurants in Ipoh (e.g., Canning Dim Sum and Foh San).
Conclusion
Have a little snack before you join the queue for Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant. The delicious and wide selection of dim sum, fast serving times, and comfortable environment justify the prices and long wait.
With all that said, we do think Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant deserves its reputation as a top dim sum restaurant in Ipoh!
But if you would like to have easier parking, try Zhen Hi Hao Dim Sum Restaurant instead.
Related: Must-Try Food In Ipoh – The Complete List
