JB Eat: Nam Heong Ipoh (南香) Kopitiam @ Mid Valley Southkey Mall
- Rick
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Nam Heong (南香) is a well-known name in Ipoh. The original outlet, known as Kedai Makanan Nam Heong (南香茶餐室) in Ipoh Old Town, is a popular coffee shop with several stalls selling traditional local fares with Nam Heong serving its iconic Ipoh white coffee, dim sum and signature egg tarts — I have visited the coffee shop several times on my trips to Ipoh.
Outside of Ipoh, the more than 60-year-old F&B chain is known as "Nam Heong Ipoh" with outlets in West Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The Johor Bahru outlet in Mid Valley Southkey Mall is of a modern kopitiam setting.
The kopitiam serves popular Malaysia and Ipoh delights and Nanyang cuisines on top of Nam Heong's three treasures: white coffee, dim sum and egg tarts. Other than varieties of nasi lemak, mee siam, fried rice, noodle dishes, traditional pastries, etc, there are Hainanese chicken rice, roasted chicken rice and western food as well.
Nam Heong's signature Ipoh White Coffee uses roasted white coffee and added with milk before serving. It is an aromatic cup of traditional coffee with nice mouthfeel and just-right sweetness — best to have it without adjusting sugar level on first try.
The signature Ipoh Tau Fu Fah (怡保豆腐花) is quite a big bowl and added with ginger and sugar. The velvety soya pudding has ultra-fine texture and is ultra-soft with mellow ginger-sweet flavours — no ginger-spicy kicks nor syrupy-sweetness. Nice to go for it as dessert after a meal.
Nam Heong's Signature Wat Dan Hor (怡保滑蛋河), translated as "silk-smooth egg hor fun", is served with big prawns, lean meat, fish cake slices, a fried egg and greens on stir-fried hor fun (broad-flat rice noodle) and drenched in egg drop soup. The soup is slightly viscous and has nice flavours — the best tasting soup that I have tasted for wat dan hor so far. This dish is delicious.
Nam Heong's signature egg tarts are very popular in Ipoh and one of the must-tries when visiting Ipoh Old Town. It is a good opportunity to try it in Johor Bahru without having to travel to Ipoh. Other than egg tarts, Nam Heong has other pastries as well.
To try Nam Heong's egg tarts and pastries, one way is to get the Nam Heong Majesty (南香天皇) set that comprises of 6 pieces of mixed pastries: 2 egg tarts, 2 coconut tarts, 1 Nam Heong chicken sou (char siew puff) and 1 traditional chicken sou.
Top-left: The Nam Heong Egg Tart (南香蛋挞) has custard, without burn marks, in layered pastry crust. The custard is smooth, soft and creamy and tastes nice with well-balanced milk-egg flavours and not too sweet. The crispy crust does not fall apart easily and is nice indeed. Top-right: The Golden Coconut Tart (经典椰挞) has grated coconut in flaky layered pastry and baked until golden brown. The tart has nice coconut flavour and texture with low sweetness too.
Bottom-left: The Nam Heong Chicken Sou (南香鸡酥) is round-triangular in shape with char siew that is not sweetened with red char siew sauce. The pastry with crispy crust is topped with white sesame seeds and has its own nice flavour. Botton-right: The Traditional Chicken Sou (传统鸡酥) has a different appearance with a different char siew filling that offers a different taste experience.
So far, Nam Heong Ipoh has just one restaurant in Johor Bahru — although there is a little stall in the basement of KSL City Mall selling pastries only — so it is a great place to go for Ipoh delights when shopping in Mid Valley Southkey Mall.
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Address:
Mid Valley Southkey Mall, Level 3, T-040
1, Persiaran Southkey 1, Southkey, 80150 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
10am to 10pm | Daily
How to Get There:
From JB Sentral, take myBAS T21 and alight at Mid Valley Southkey Mall. Read: JB Bus Guide: Getting to Mid Valley Southkey Mall / Permas Jaya (Masai).
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