Lim Ko Pi In Ipoh

Lim Ko Pi is a one-stop venue for authentic local food, especially kopitiam staples – this includes white coffee, kaya toast, Hokkien mee, ice kacang, cendol, etc.

Their dining environment is more comfortable and appealing than the average old-school kopitiam in Malalysia.

Here’s what to expect if you choose to dine here!

About The Eatery

Operating for more than 10 years at this point, Lim Ko Pi began as a passion project by one family (the mother is ipoh-born) who bought over and renovated the heritage building (that currently houses the café) to preserve it.

Lim Ko Pi Viewed From Across The Street
Lim Ko Pi Viewed From Across The Street

So, it’s no surprise that the café prioritizes on Malaysian comfort food. As such, their signature menu items are the Nanyang Kopi 98 and their Triple Meat Curry Noodles.

The eatery is on a very busy road (Jalan Sultan Iskandar) just before the bridge that separates Ipoh Old Town from Ipoh New Town.

Exterior Of Lim Ko Pi
Exterior Of Lim Ko Pi
Parking For Lim Ko Pi Customers
Parking For Lim Ko Pi Customers

The shop lot across serves as their private customer car park. The parking lot fits multiple cars and is free to use as long as you’re dining over at the eatery.

Ambiance

When we visited on a Thursday, it was obvious that they did not have the air-conditioning on. So, if you want to seek relief from the heat, get the table at the front of the café as it has an air cooler right in front.

Booth Style Seating At Lim Ko Pi
Booth Style Seating At Lim Ko Pi

Unfortunately, the most aesthetic seats in the café (i.e., garden seating) are nearly always taken (even on non-peak days). And this was the case on a weekday as well.

Garden Seating At Lim Ko Pi In Ipoh
Garden Seating At Lim Ko Pi In Ipoh

Décor relies on a heavy use of dark wood (e.g., ceiling beams, wall panels, vintage furniture) so it is quite dim at the front of the café – this is not a bad thing, as the shade is nice after you’ve been walking around in the bright outdoors for a while.

Lim Ko Pi Viewed From The Back Of The Cafe
Lim Ko Pi Viewed From The Back Of The Cafe

While waiting, for your food and drinks, you can admire the mini replica of the café that is housed in a glass case by the staircase. As well as other vintage pieces in the café.

Mini Replica Of Lim Ko Pi
Mini Replica Of Lim Ko Pi

The café appears to be clean and well managed although it’s hard to notice dirt when it’s so dark inside.

Service

We were immediately welcomed by a friendly elderly waitress. She only speaks Cantonese but is chatty and bubbly. The rest of the staff don’t talk nearly as much but are polite.

Her personality is endearing, even when she had to apologize for a strand of thread in our food (presumably from a dishcloth) that we pointed out to another staff. Regarding this issue, they promptly served a new bowl to replace the previous.

Serving times are not unreasonable. However, desserts and drinks will come first before the mains so if you’d rather have your desserts later, you should let the staff know.

Food

Our orders included a plate of fried glass noodles, wantan mee and a bowl of their signature triple meat curry mee.

Signature Triple Meat Curry Mee At Lim Ko Pi In Ipoh
Signature Triple Meat Curry Mee At Lim Ko Pi In Ipoh

For drinks and desserts, we had cincau with soya milk, plain soya milk, cendol, ais kacang and their other signature, the iced Coffee 98 (Hainanese style coffee).

Cold Desserts And Iced Coffee At Lim Ko Pi
Cold Desserts And Iced Coffee At Lim Ko Pi

Nothing we ordered was bad (except for the oddly crumbly wantans), but the best dish was still the curry mee.

What’s interesting is that there is also some Hakka cuisine on the menu – like vinegar pig trotters! Moreover, they only serve nasi lemak on Sundays and that is pretty good.

Stir Fried Glass Noodles At Lim Ko Pi
Stir Fried Glass Noodles At Lim Ko Pi
Wantan Mee At Lim Ko Pi
Wantan Mee At Lim Ko Pi

Pricing

Considering the dining environment, and ingredients they use, it is easy to consider the prices here to be high for what you get. Compared to other local kopitiams, at least.

The food portions are generous but the ingredients they use are not impressive.

There was condensed milk for the cendol and ice kacang instead of fresh coconut milk, and too many eggs and beansprouts (about 50% of the plate) with hardly any meat for the plate of glass noodles which was slightly oily but tasty.

We would personally not order the glass noodles again since it costs RM16 a plate.

The pricing for desserts is fair though (RM3 for a small bowl of cendol) – plus, you can order small portions and that is a good amount for 2 to share already.

In total, we spent RM60 for 4 pax which is affordable for café standards in town. One of us did not order a main though, else it would come up to close to RM80.

It should be a comfortable dining environment with the air conditioning on, but we found it stuffy during our visit on a weekday afternoon. We will assume that they turn it on weekends though.

Conclusion

Lim Ko Pi is fine as a breakfast or lunch venue since you can enjoy many kopitiam staples here (e.g., kaya toast) in a comfortable setting.

And if you specifically want to have a decent bowl of curry mee, iced coffee and local desserts but you’re sick and tired of finding parking at Ipoh Old Town, it’s great that this eatery has its own parking.

Yinzo Kopi

This is another attractive air-conditioned eatery that has many kopitiam favorites on the menu. We like the curry mee and coffee at Yinzo Kopi! Their signature polo buns are not bad either.

Red Mountain Sin Yoon Loong White Coffee

You’ll have to go out of your way to visit Red Mountain Sin Yoon Loong White Coffee. But this eatery is very unique both for the menu and for the dinning environment. We had a great experience here.

Kin Loong Valley Chang Jiang White Coffee

If you’re hoping to have a traditional kopitiam breakfast here on a weekend, you’ll have to fight the crowd for it as Kin Loong Valley Chang Jiang White Coffee has a very strategic location next to Tasik Cermin!

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