Travelicious @ Mapo Restaurant Ipoh

Looking for a place to enjoy your Wanton Mee in Ipoh? Jom, today we will be exploring a place called Mapo Restaurant in Bercham, Ipoh. It's famous for it's Wanton Noodles. At here, you'll able to dine for quite a few options of Wanton Mee. Wanton mee is one of the dishes that most of the Chinese have for their breakfast.  

The menus are literally on the wall, thus you can just look up and see which dishes are going to fill your stomach for this morning. It has both English and Chinese words thus it will be easier for those who can't understand Chinese. 

History of Wanton noodles: 

Wanton noodles is sometimes also called as Wanton Mee. The Wanton noodles originated from Guangzhou during the Ching Dynasty. The word "Wanton" is a Cantonese word for dumpling while noodles in Hokkien is called "mee" or in Cantonese, "min".Wanton Noodles made of Chinese egg noodle with Wonton dumplings, is called Wanton Mee, and this is one of Malaysia's Hawker Delights, the local-style of having delicious fuss-free noodle meal, anytime & anywhere.

For some who are new to this Asian noodle dish, wanton, in Chinese, it's named as 云吞 "Yun Toon" or 馄饨 "Hoon Toon", is an irregular shape bite-sized dumpling. Its filling is often made with marinated minced pork meat, and sometimes, shrimp is added, making into a small pouch of many. 

The noodles were handmade and not processed by machine. Most noodle makers add alkaline water or kan sui to give it that slight spring. But Mapo Restaurant disallows the usage of any alkaline water to exist in all the dishes served. They practice the traditional methods in order to give the noodles a bouncy texture by pressing the dough of egg, flour and spring water, which are then placed on a long bamboo log to mix the dough instead of using hands. Continuously pressing the dough by using bamboo log can make the noodles to have the springy texture better compared to using hands. 

This is the long bamboo log they used to press on the dough. It has been passed on for a few generations. 

The owner will ride on the bamboo and press the dough for a couple of round till the dough is firm enough before cut into thin noodles. This is the reason why the noodle is so bouncy. 

One of the secrets to the texture of the noodles is that they practically loosen all of the noodles and allow it to rest in a big box which helps the noodles to "breathe" freely and thus becoming more QQ and chewy. The chef or the customers normally call him tauke (boss in Cantonese), who cooks the noodles in boiling water for a few seconds then ladle out the noodles, and soak it in a cold water. The method of rapid change of temperatures is the secret to firm up the noodles and give them a springier texture. After going through the cold water rinse, they are dipped into the hot water immediately again to heat them up, drained and quickly tossed in the sauce.

This is roast pork or aka Char Siew wanton mee. It is served together with some vegetables and wantons. The wantons they served here is not similar with those pathetically anorexic wantons where there is more skin than meat in other places. The wantons are as big as ping pong ball size and juicy. This dish had totally made a really pleasant surprise for all of us. The texture of the noodles was perfect and it was as though it has came alive when you slurped and chewed on it. The sauce, an important element to give the noodles a unique taste, is made from a mix of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oil. The sauce had a secret ingredient in it which made the difference between great and eye-opening. A bit more kick with the sliced chilli and fermented black beans might just make it so much more enjoyable.

The fillings for wanton are stuffed with a little bit amount of fresh prawn meat and good amount of minced pork. The texture of wanton was good and the sweetness of the shrimp goes superbly with the smoothness of pork and it became an excellent combination. The soup that goes with the wanton is very tasty. It assembles a strong hint of sweetness and they used pork ribs to boil the soup, thus making the soup very rich in flavours. 

Not forgetting, few wafer thin slices of char siew are placed on the noodles and that is what makes the equation right for a plate of wanton mee. It was sufficiently burnt around the edges with a nice sheen. The roast pork tastes like fake dry tasteless meat tinged red with a hard texture and a little fat. However, you are still able to taste the juicy and charred texture from the char siew.

For Westerners, they may think that the chicken feet is disgusting but I believe when Asians see this photo of the chicken feet, they would start salivating. For some of you who may be a fan of chicken feet, then Mapo Restaurant is going to be the right heaven for you. Mushroom + Chicken Feet wanton mee it is! Two adjectives that most of the customers here use to describe the food here are cheap and delicious. For customers, cheap is good but none of that matters if the food is not good, but if two of these exist together, then the food is worth trying.

A plate of wanton mee with three chicken feet will only set you back RM4.80. The chicken feet comes to you intact and only fall to pieces when you press it against your soft palate. That perfectly fried skin which has been braised till its skin slides right off so that you can spit the bones out in one breath without making a mess around. The flavours are simply perfectly balanced so that your whole mouth is tingled at all times. The feet are braised until tendons between the joints of the feet have all been turned into gelatin and the flavours of the braising sauce have totally penetrated down to the bone. For a true chicken feet lover, you would spend at least a good 15 minutes nibbling on the soft bits, enjoying the crunchy bits and spitting out the spend metatarsal bones. And after you are done with your meal, you might go back to the pile of bones to double check that you have not missed out any bit of flesh.

You are not seeing anything wrong. Yes, this is wanton mee with curry chicken on top so this makes the noodle called Curry Chicken wanton mee. I'd say that the curry gravy is the soul of this dish. The curry gravy has achieved a right balance between rich but not overly thick or too dilute. It has this strong fragrant of curry flavor and it is further enhanced by coconut milk and other spices and ingredients. For some people who might find the curry with a thick layer of oil floating on the surface terrifying, the curry they served is definitely not oily at all. I'd say the chef is really good in using herbs and various types of curry powder in order to make this curry so tasty. The consistency of the curry is regular and you don't have to be afraid that some days the curry just didn't taste similar compared to the few trips before this. The spicy and fragrant curry gravy totally blended into the noodles well. While the wanton mee was pretty good on itself, it was the addition of those extra topping that helped to upgrade the food. 

The chicken was juicy, sweet, tender and sweet at the same time. Chicken was fully de-boned and thus is easier to eat and does not give you the trouble spitting out the bones and causing a mess around. They used American or Holland yellow potatoes depending on which potato is available for the time being. The potatoes they used are more tasty, tender and not hard or tasteless like those white potatoes.

A plate of simple and sexy noodles simply tossed with some umami pork gravy, freshened up by spring onions? Yes, I'm talking about Hakka Mee. Hakka mee here are served with generous amount of minced meat and gravy. Soft and bouncy noodles together with juicy minced pork, leafy vegetables just make the combination awesome. It is flavored with fish sauce, garlic oil and a glistening layer of pork lard oil. The chef made some changes to this dish in order to make it stand out among what other shops are offering, a bit of sesame oil for extra fragrance and some bean sprouts to "upgrade" the dish.

The noodles were good, has the springy texture and with just the right amount of sauces. The topping of minced pork was savoury and was slightly different from the conventional though. A little bit of bean sprout was added to this dish. 

Oh? Have I forgotten to mention that Ipoh was famous for its bean sprout? Ipoh's bean sprout was said to grow with water from springs germinating from the surrounding lime-stone hills. Therefore, the bean sprouts here are thicker, shorter and with only a very short root compare to other places. It totally amazed us how such a simple noodles dish can taste so good.

This is Ginger Duck wanton mee. Ginger duck used to be one of those homey dishes in Chinese families back in the days. The duck is simply cooked with copious amounts of ginger and seasoned with some soy sauces. The chef even add in a dash of Chinese Shaoxing wine in order to add fragrance into the dish. This dish is going to be a heaven and your cup of tea for those who are ginger lover.

The old ginger was used for this noodles because old ginger has the "ginger flavor" stronger and deeper. There's a saying among Chinese,"Old ginger is spicier than the young ones". The chef explained further to u that he used Bentong ginger, which is one of the species of ginger which has a better taste dimension among ll other species of ginger. In order to balance the noodle with the vegetable ratio, some vegetables are added. Still it had just enough taste of duck.  

What's best to down the grease of noodles with? A cup of cham. It can be either, coffee, tea, herbal tea or cincau. The coffee had a powerful charred scent and the smell of freshly-roasted coffee. It is unmissable rich, thick, sweetened with a mix of evaporated milk and sweet condensed milk. 

Overall, we as customers, were definitely satisfied with the food, service and price too. Any plate of wanton mee is going to cost you for about RM5.80. Although the price is a little pricey compared to other places in Ipoh but trust me, the price is worth the tastiness of the food they served. Furthermore, it came in a pretty big portion and it might be a little bit hard for those small eaters to finish the whole plate. 

You will feel very comfortable when having your breakfast or brunch in here because you can feel the air of unity surrounding the families of happy eaters tucking in with gusto.

The service provided was nice. The waitress are so friendly and because we are first time visiting the shop, they slowly and patiently introduce each of the dishes they have in the shop to us. You know what customer cares the most, beside the price of the food? Service. If we are treated nice and good, we'll definitely come for another time. The food were served fast and efficient. Because they cook every dishes whenever you order, thus by the time the food arrived at your desk, it's still hot. 

For my personal opinion, I think it's definitely worth a stop for this place. 

A friendly reminder: Remember to pair your noodles with pickled green chilies that are more tangy rather than fiery for a perfect meal.

Feedback: 
"I regularly dine in to the restaurant as their noodles are fresh and have the warmth of home-made food as the noodles were hand made. I love their high quality cooking and which is also accompanied by the hospitality offered by the waiters and waitresses." - by Mr Loo

"My family and I frequently visit the place on weekend mornings. The dishes served by Mapo were simply exquisite! Mapo's menu offers a wide variety of mouth-watering noodles that prompts my family and I to eat here again and again." - by Mr Raju 


"We feel delightful to claim that Mapo is one of the best places to go for authentic Chinese noodles. The restaurant is coupled with great deals and great varieties. The prices offered were affordable and reasonable." - By Ms Tan, Ms Lee and Ms Au 

Last but not least, a group photo of us ! 

More information regarding Mapo Restaurant :

Address : 20, Laluan Tasek Timor 15, Taman Mewah, Bercham, Ipoh Town, 31400.
GPS coordinate: 4.635309, 101.124669 

Tel : 012-5251266

Business Hour: 7.00 am - 4.00pm

Visit Mapo Facebook for more information

PS: It's a non-halal restaurant.