Old Town White Coffee

Came here for a kampung event. met some interesting people that I would otherwise not have met as I’m not part of the kampung
It seemed like most people here were interested in actually meeting people rather than the food. I couldn’t see myself telling people on my table… «yo hold up hold up!!! my iPhone gotta eat first!!»
anyhooo was a good night w/​plenty a laughs had. As for the food… I did manage to snap the Yu Sheng (鱼生), the others … will have to rely on my pathetic NON talent as a wannabe food critic. so will keep it short and sweet!
I quite liked the place. although I did not get a chance to sample some more staples which would’ve given me a benchmark as to whether I’d rate the place. we had the satay sticks… these were really good for melb standards. Not dry or bland. quality of meat was good too. No short cuts with tough cheapass cuts I’ve had elsewhere. Loved the sauce so much I put the sauce aside after all the satay sticks were gone so that they wouldn’t remove it. tsk tsk.
the nasi lemak w/​chicken… was pretty darn good! Rice was flavourful and the curry chicken was just right! moist and the curry was not sweet.
Almost forgot the yu sheng, roti canai and kaya bread. ooops bit long already.
Yu sheng. yes … Roti Canai … yep too. kaya bread as desert? … nah booooooo
WIR? Yep! Want to try other dishes.

I like this place because of the nostalgia it holds — Malaysians will be familiar with the Ipoh chain from home and hence may think it overpriced. However, it’s reasonable by Melbourne standards.
The menu seems very similar to what’s served in Malaysian — the coffee, kaya toast and cendol certainly tasted authentic!
The décor is likewise faithful, but ‘hipsterified’ somewhat with the addition of a plant wall!
Sure, you can find better Malaysian food elsewhere in the city, but for a chain store (and one that is open for every meal of the day at that), this is certainly a better experience than you’d expect from a Starbucks or McDonald’s.

Good atmosphere but over price food! Black coffee is good. Finally tried this place but won’t be coming back again.

I love asian food and decided to give this place a try everytging in the menu looks good. Decided to go for the Ipoh noodle soup as it looked really good in the picture. Prawns looked big and generous serving of chicken. I was really disappointed when my noodle was served. Prawns were half size smaller and it looked like shrimps instead of prawns. And miserable serving of chicken. Not returning here again.

I thought to check this place out, since it’s a familiar chain for me from Singapore and Malaysia. The menu is typical from there, Singaporeans/​Malaysians will recognise hometown meals.
Prices are standard for the city, though some feel overprice. Kaya toast in particular, a very simple combination we can even make here in Melbourne because Kaya is sold here, costs $ 6.50, and isn’t even in the usual set that comes with soft-​boiled eggs like at Ya Kun or Toastbox. Skip that, go to an Asian supermarket and buy some Kaya and bread, you’ll get the exact same thing.
But the mains are decent. Prices match with the rest of the eateries in the city. Portions are decent, and taste-​wise for my Nasi lemak, tastes authentic but I did feel the fish they use for the ikan was surprisingly bland. Chicken drumstick was fresh fries, sambal was spicy, satay was a nice addition though not as flavourful as back home. They ran out of pandan rice though, which is pretty silly.
A very nice kopi and teh drinks selection, and probably the most authentic ice kachang and chendol desserts. Min is $ 6.50 for one of these icy desserts.
Overall, I might come back here for nostalgia. I’m hoping they have lunch specials.

My lovely friend Monkylicious mentioned that there is this new Malaysian café opened in the CBD the other day so we decided to check it out. We agreed to meet outside the café and Monkylicious even gave me the name and address, however my post pregnancy brain seemed to erase all essential information these days so I got totally lost.
Googling this place is useless. Well first of all I googled «old town black coffee» instead of «old town white coffee», which somehow led me to the Taiwanese joint on Swanston st… I stood there for about 5 mins looking confused and then message Monkylicious… She is «Old Town WHITE coffee! Silly bugger! On Elizabeth st!» So I searched Old Town White Coffee which came back as «Old Town Kopitan» which used to be i nQV, now Papparich.
So it turns out google doesn’t really know everything.
Anyway, I digress.
We arrived at 12 noon, just in the nick of time before the lunchtime crowd started streaming in at 12:30. As they opened fairly recently their ordering system seemed to be a work in progress, they doubled up our drinks order and missed another table’s prawn noodles.
I ordered Ipoh hor fun, mainly attracted by the fact that they made their own noodles, whereas Monkylicious ordered laksa.
The portions were huge!!! Monkylicious’ laksa was brimming with fish balls, tofu, charsiu and a big chunk of chicken and whilst she really liked it she is more used to a more coconuty version. I quite like hers though as I love spicy food and the soup broth has a nice rich flavour.
My hor fun was a bit plain by comparison, but quite nice as I have been fairly sick and wanted something plain. On the menu it said that the soup is made with chicken and prawn stock but I must say I couldn’t detect any prawn flavours. The chicken meat was not very fresh either which was also slightly disappointing. The highly anticipated hor fun (rice noodles) were silky smooth enough, however it may have been slightly overcooked as it disintegrated a bit and clumped together.
Overall I felt that the food and service could improve, but given the fact that they were quite new and there are still quite a number of things I wanted to try I would not hesitate going back :)