Restoran Choong Kee Pokok Besar (兵如港忠记大树头炸料粉) or Dai Shu Geok which translates to big tree foot is usually a must on any foodie’s list. Specifically, for yong tau fu!
The yong tau fu stall in front is the first thing you see even before you walk into this place.
What else notable here? We’ve been here a couple times and this is what we think about this place!
About This Place
This is the original Dai Shu Geok and they’re fiercely proud of this fact. If you can read Chinese, they have multiple signs that say so.
You may see another similarly named restaurant that is back-to-back with this well-known eatery. They sell the same signature food (yong tau fu) and drinks (ice blended red bean).
At one point, there was some drama between both with one party even resorting to the use of megaphones to attract the crowds.
These days, there is a significantly larger group of customers over at this eatery than their neighbor. If in doubt, follow the crowd before you choose a seat.
PS: The “fake” Dai Shu Geok has a nice visitor car park behind it.
Ease Of Parking
This whole area of Ipoh is very busy at both breakfast and lunch times. There’s food at every shophouse row (sometimes even a few eateries side by side).
Restoran Choong Kee (Pokok Besar) faces the road at the intersection between Jalan King and Persiaran Tokong. It’s within walking distance to A Jie café.
There are many free and paid (typical fare is RM3) parking lots in this area but on weekends and public holidays, it’s still hard to find a vacant parking spot at peak hours.
Since this eatery opens at 8am and closes at 5:30pm daily, expect it to be crowded during lunch (1 to 2pm). For some reason, it’s not as popular for breakfast.
Ambiance
This is not so much a restaurant but a spacious open-air hawker center.
It’s very busy and lively at lunch time (even on weekdays) as many local families like to take their kids here after picking them up from school.
There are multiple fans and tables throughout the eatery. The drinks counter is at the far end of the hawker center.
Toilets are by the exit of the hawker center. They don’t look (or smell) very clean.
Service
They have a lot of staff (local and foreign) working the food and drinks stalls at this hawker center. Service is very fast considering how busy it gets during lunch time.
Choose a table first before ordering from any of the stalls and remember the table number so you can let the staff know where to bring the food.
What We Ordered Here
Besides yong tau fu and assam laksa, there are stalls selling homemade pan mee and roast pork.
Almost every table order tall mugs of ice blended red bean (this is not too thick or sweet) or the iced coffee too. Although we did spot some other blended fruit beverages like dragronfruit. And fresh sugarcane juice.
The yong tau fu stall has a wide variety of different yong tau fu (liew) and many of each variety too so you don’t have to worry about your favorite one selling out.
They have:
- Fish paste with large green chilis
- Stuffed okra (lady’s fingers)
- Stuffed eggplant (oily)
- Fried beancurd
- Stuffed tofu
- Sar kok (fried jicama root – the one here is wonderfully crispy and not overly oily)
- Fish balls
After you choose your liew, you can choose the type of noodles (hor fun, lou shi fun, mee hoon, egg noodles, etc) you want and whether you want them dry or in soup.
There’s laksa and curry mee too.
PS: Not a fan of the laksa which is quite runny. Curry mee is thick and creamy with coconut milk.
Pricing
Pricing is relatively fair here. The yong tau fu are decently sized too.
Note: Laksa portion of noodles was small.
We got around 8 pcs of yong tau fu, one plate of dry noodles, and one bowl of laksa and these cost us RM16.
Drinks totalled to RM5.50 for two. You do get a lot for the iced blended red bean drink.
Conclusion
We personally don’t think the food at Restoran Choong Kee (Pokok Besar) is worth the hassle of finding parking on weekends and public holidays unless you really have to have yong tau fu for lunch.
But on non-peak days, this is an affordable place for lunch.
And to us, the items most worth ordering here are the fried jicama, dry curry mee, and ice blended red bean beverage.
Food To Try In Ipoh
First time in Ipoh? We present our Ipoh foodie’s bucket list. Great if you don’t know where to start on trying local food and want some personal recommendations!
