Only open a few times a week, it’s hard for even locals to dine at Cowan Street Ayam Tauge & Koitiau Restaurant.
When it is open, you will know it by the long queue that begins before the restaurant even opens.
But is the chicken rice really worth the wait or is it just empty hype? See what we as locals think of this place!
Ease Of Parking
Cowan Street Ayam Tauge & Koitiau Restaurant is in a corner lot at the intersection of Jalan Raja Ekram and Jalan Sultan Abdul Jalil.
It is not far from Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum or Restaurant Pusing Public. The latter is also a popular dinner spot.
Hence, on the days that this chicken rice restaurant is open (and this can be random), parking is usually scarce from 6pm onwards.
There is a row of parking lots at either end of the shophouse row where the restaurant is, as well as parking directly across from the restaurant.
Ambiance
There’s not much when it comes to ambiance of this local dinner spot. This is a typical no-frills kopitiam setting with no air conditioning. The restaurant has ~17 tables and more plastic chairs and stools on standby.
Cleanliness is so-so.
Despite the simple dining environment, it is always full house so expect to be dining close to other tables. So, if there is a crying baby at the next table, you’ll just have to tolerate it. At least the staff have no need to yell to each other from one end to the other end of the long shophouse.
Service
The queue begins at 5:30pm even though the restaurant opens at 6pm.
Serving is concise and systematic from what we observed. There’s no queuing system and once they open, just find a table and sit down.
The waitresses will come to your table eventually as they make their way from table to table in an orderly fashion. Calling out to them doesn’t work here. They’ll just ignore you.
Also, there is a separate server for drinks. When we went, there was only a choice of sugarcane juice or barley water.
It took 20 minutes from sitting down before we got our food. Pretty fast considering how many people there were!
Food
Now this is where the eatery really shines. We did not expect the food to be as delicious as it was.
The poached chicken is sweet, incredibly tender but still has bite to it. There is a generous use of sesame oil (this gives a pleasant smokey flavor to the chicken) and soya sauce.
If you order beansprouts (nga choy) on the side, these are not the plumpest we’ve seen in Ipoh, but still juicy and crunchy at the same time.
For those hoping for rice, there is none. And they only serve koitiau (flat rice noodles or hor fun) with the chicken and some green chili.
The soup, is very tasty and they only give just enough to cover the noodles even when it is just the first wave of customers.
Note: Besides chicken, you can get chicken innards as well as chicken feet too.
Pricing
We ordered half a chicken, a plate of beansprouts, 2 bowls of noodles and 2 barley drinks and this cost us ~RM53.
With a full house of close to 20 tables, we imagine that the restaurant makes an average of RM1,600 just from the first wave of customers.
Conclusion
Yes, we can say that it’s worth queuing at Cowan Street Ayam Tauge & Koitiau Restaurant at least once for their poached chicken and beansprouts.
But don’t be too disappointed if you find that they’re not open on the day you go – because they are equally well-known for their inconsistent opening times!
Chicken Rice In Ipoh
While Cowan Street Ayam Tauge & Koitiau Restaurant is one of the best chicken rice in Ipoh, it’s not the only one!
Other Dishes We Recommend You Try In Ipoh
There’s also more great food you can check out besides the chicken rice in Ipoh. Curry mee is one of our favorites. But there’s also places to get awesome wanton mee or gai se hor fun!
