Tuesday, August 07, 2007


Favourite Coffee Shop In KL

I can only put that headline cause I am from Ipoh and there are better ones in Penang, Ipoh, Teluk Anson, Taiping, Kluang etc... but from KL, this place takes the prize by a proverbial mile. Since the market is so volatile and I have said what's needed to be said on the markets, ... let's look at something really important like good food. There has been a plethora of kopi tiams sprouting all over the country cause (retro is back) and the basic menu is not difficult to replicate... but as any foodie will tell you, the really good ones stand out quite easily. You just know it!

My favourite place is Kopi Time located at Wisma Atria PJ. If you need instructions, don't bother going there. A good kopi tiam will have good coffee/tea and a variety of good eats. This one is halal. Let's be honest here, the coffee here is good but not spectacular, we all can find many better places for local coffee, esp in the other places mentioned outside of KL - that's the downside, but the coffee and tea are still decent enough and better than a lot of places in KL. I go there for the food. Below are the MUST-HAVES:

1) There is roti bakar with kaya, and then there is Roti Bakar Special at Kopi Time. Everything's the same except the butter is about the thickness of three Kraft cheese slices - the way older Hainanese coffee shops used to make them. Its a bit decadent and you cannot have it this way everyday, but once a week is OK, I guess. This is really good even though I can find better kaya in Ipoh.

2) Kopi tiam food is nostalgic food. The most nostalgic is the half boiled eggs (but you can also have the Omega eggs, which is a plus). Now everyone can do them but here's the killer blow - its the bottle of soya sauce. To really get the nostalgia back, you need the soya sauce to be at a certain "wateriness" consistency, not thick at all. They have the right sauce here.

3) The nasi lemak is also very good, great sambal. But that's not what I would usually order. The piece `de resistance is the fourth item.

4) Its the Chee Cheong Fun! Being from Ipoh, nobody can claim better chee cheong fun. While Kopi Time's chee cheong fun is not as smooth, it is still very good, a more than acceptable second best for not being able to drive to Ipoh. But what sets the dish apart is the curry sauce, its thicker than normal, flavours bursting with each gulp, good enough to drink on its own - seriously! The hint of a really good cook, they will spinkle generously the fried shallots and spring onions - a very potent dish.

Their other dishes are also quite good and worth a try as well. See you there! Opens 7am-10pm daily. p/s just for the heck of it, try their barley drink (hot), its the thickest barley drink ever, close to the consistency of a good porridge (but in a good way), can almost stand a straw up on its own, and its very tasty as well

8 comments:

hellthy correction said...

i suppouse u have not been to the famous klang 'cheong ho' kopi shop. Very authentically busy and noisy but serves the best kopi 'O' in town. Then there is also this 'cheong kok' kopi tiam near the train station in klang that serves something similar but baking up a name for its cheese cake....price wise? extremely dirt cheap!

SalvadorDali said...

ii have to say I did qualify that THE BEST IN KL and some say PJ as well... so Klang does not count just like Kluang, Teluk Anson or Taiping...

CK said...

Hi Dali,Ipoh mali ah. Same as me, haha. thanks for the post. I hv bn trying to find a good place for "Ipoh style" good chee cheong fun in KL but so far came across none yet. So I will definitely give it a try.rgds,CK

bill said...

...
and if you happen to know which chee cheong fun serves with red thick sweet sauce back like when they use to do it, please tell me !

SalvadorDali said...

xfrenzy,

i know what u mean the red sauce we called tim cheong, the same stuff the singaporeans put into frying their charkeowteoy ... when i was working in singapore with zilch hokkein, the first phrase i asked my friend was how to say "No, sweet sauce" in hokkein...

anyways, u remember the best white coffee place, sin yin loong (now shifted i think) in old town, opp is another coffee called nam heong (i think) ... if nam heong is still around, in the afternoon there is this lady who sells chee cheong fun (only from 2pm-4pm i think), gets sold very quickly... can get the sweet sauce, latchiucheong and curry sauce also (oh yes, her curry sauce comes with chupei)

thats if they all are still there... havent been back a while

blur said...

master dali, i m born & grew up in KL. r u really KL person or ipoh. Hmmmmm, no offense, Klang valley is much bigger, and definitely the best.

SalvadorDali said...

blur,

yes, i'm fm ipoh, and ipoh ipoh, not kampar ipoh or batu gajah ipoh ... klang valley is big but smaller town folks will tell you that kl has little soul and singapore has none ... kl is made up of at least 60% people who came to kl to work, so to a lot of people kl is not really home

WinnieOUG said...

ya ya dali, I been in KL for more than 20 years, but I don't feel my HOME is here