Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum (明阁香港点心) is a longstanding and popular non halal dim sum restaurant in Ipoh.
It is often compared to its stately neighbor across, and while the price point is similar enough, what you get at both restaurants is different.
Here’s our take on Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum:
Table Of Contents:
About Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum
Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum has been running for more than 16 years. And this classic dim sum restaurant in Ipoh still sees crowds every day (except Thursdays).
They open very early (at 6am) and even though they officially close up at 1:30pm (or 2pm on weekends), there is usually a smaller selection of dim sum to choose by then.
Unique dishes that you can get at Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum are the black sesame soup, muah chee, and eggplant yong tau fu.
The variety of dim sum at Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum is impressive. But they are equally known for serving small portions.
Ease Of Parking At Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum
Because tourists will make a beeline for either of these two dim sum giants (Foh San Restaurant and Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum) in the morning, street parking is scarce.
If you can’t seem to find street parking close by, there are two paid parking lots close to Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum (one is just beside the restaurant).
The peak hours are between 8am to 9am.
Ambiance At Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum
Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum is not as grand as Foh San Restaurant. But there is a lot more seating inside than the exterior suggests.
And the interior is fully air-conditioned.
The décor is classically Chinese and they even have a large tank with a flowerhorn fish proudly displayed towards the front of the restaurant.
Because the tables are close to each other, it is loud during peak time. Waiters are constantly moving from table to table too.
Service At Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum
Despite arriving close to 9am on a Friday with a crowd in sight, we got a table for our group of 4 surprisingly quickly (around 5 minutes’ wait).
Tea was served almost immediately and so were the dishes:
Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum does away with menus (unlike Foh San Restaurant and Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant).
Instead, dim sum is served traditionally. Waiters will bring trays of food directly to your table and tell you what each dish is so you can choose them for yourself.
When you have selected your dishes, they will make a mark on a chit. You bring this chit to make payment at the counter after your meal.
There is a very attentive head waitress overseeing all of the other waiters and she keeps things running very efficiently. Tables get cleaned up in a blink of an eye.
We saw three staff immediately attend to a foreign group because they did not know how to order too.
Food At Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum
We ordered around 17 plates of dim sum. That might seem like a lot but the portions are small.
Some of the dishes we ordered:
- Loh mai gai
- Har guen
- Har gao
- Siu mai
- Chee cheong fan (prawn)
- Wu kok
- Eggplant yong tau fu
The taste of the dim sum in general is average. But the fried varieties (har guen and wu kok especially) are delicious.
Siu mai however, was a little disappointing in the size, color and lack of taste.
We had several cups each of the delightful tea (cha wang or oolong).
Pricing At Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum
Everything came up to ~RM91. So each plate cost us an average of RM5.20. Which is cheaper than Foh San Restaurant but more expensive than other dim sum restaurants further away from Ipoh Town.
Some may argue that the dim sum is overpriced too because the ingredients they use are not premium (e.g., no large prawns) and the portions are small.
Conclusion
If we had to choose between Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum and Foh San Restaurant, we’d choose Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum because the dim sum tastes better. And their service is one of the best we’ve seen in Ipoh.
Furthermore, renown Chooi Yue Dim Sum Restaurant over at Ipoh Garden South may have tastier dim sum than Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum but they have a slow-moving queue.
In our opinion though, there are still better dim sum restaurants in Ipoh even if they are very far away from the touristy part of town.
