Oriental Kopi (华阳) is a Nanyang kopitiam chain with a number of outlets in Malaysia — mainly in Selangor, Johor and Penang — serving Nanyang dishes and traditional pastries. Its new branch in the basement of JB City Square Shopping Centre opened in August 2023.
Although located in JB City Square, Oriental Kopi serves breakfast as early as 8am — there are special arrangements for breakfasters to enter the shopping centre from 8am to 10am. Oriental Kopi's "Valuable Breakfast" set menu is available till 10:30am.
One of Oriental Kopi's breakfast set is the coffee-toast-eggs combination. Aside from 2 nicely-cooked soft-boiled eggs and picking a desired traditional beverage, the butter-kaya toast has a choice between coconut kaya and pandan kaya. The thick slices of savoury butter, adequate sweet kaya and crispy toasts is sinfully enjoyable.
Available for breakfast too, Oriental Kopi's thick menu offers more dishes, including Malaysian local delights, Nanyang dishes, vegetarian, traditional pastries, desserts, etc. When spoilt for choice, flip to the "Oriental Signature" page and pick one of their signature dishes.
One of Oriental Kopi's signature products is their traditional coffee, which is nicely blended using Arabica, Robusta and Liberica coffee beans. It has a pleasant aroma and smooth taste with no bitterness. We have tried kopi-o kosong and Hainanese cham (top-left), iced Hainanese cham (top-right), and Oriental Kopi Butter (bottom).
The traditional Oriental Kopi Butter (华阳古油咖啡) is served with a separate piece of cold butter by its side. Once added to the hot kopi (with milk), the butter will melt in seconds. It is a nice coffee with enhanced aroma and wonderful mouthfeel.
Oriental Kopi has two achievements in the Malaysia Book of Records. One for having the "thickest egg tart" and the other is "most number of egg tarts sold". So, it is a must to try their egg tarts. Apart from their signature Oriental Egg Tarts (original), there are special time-limited egg tarts from time to time too. Each dine-in order of egg tarts are in two pieces, and may be priced differently for different types, so they cannot be ordered mixed.
One of the special egg tarts is the Oriental Taro Egg Tarts (华阳酥皮芋泥蛋挞), which have dark flaky crusts, made with purple taro from Taiwan, and have freshly-baked aroma with taro flavour. The thick egg custard has a caramelised top and not too sweet. It is a nice treat and first time trying such a thick egg tart. Other than taro flavour, Belgium Chocolate Egg Tarts (比利时巧克力蛋挞) are available for certain periods too.
The Oriental Polo Bun (华阳冰火菠萝包), or "fire-and-ice" polo bun, is served warm with a crumbly egg crust on top and a slit through its side. Two thick slices of cold butter and a small glass of sweet condensed milk are served separately. Put the savoury butter in the slit and add the sweet milk — according to own preference for sweetness — on the crust or with the butter and the polo bun is ready to eat. It is tasty and really a must-try. Will go for it again.
The Kampung Fried Rice (家乡炒饭) is well-fried with scrambled eggs, fried anchovies, chopped string beans, etc, and served with two big fresh prawns and a poached egg. My way of eating is always to mash the poached egg and mix it with the fried rice before eating. The already tasty fried rice becomes smoother after being coated with the egg and with extra eggy flavours.
The Penang Char Kuey Teow (滨城炒粿条), an Oriental Signature too, uses thin flat noodle with two big prawns, slices of fishcake, beansprouts and lots of scrambled eggs. The prawns are fried with the noodle giving them some extra flavours. The dish has a nice aroma with light wok-flavour and tastes nice.
Oriental Kopi's range of traditional beverages, pineapple tarts, instant noodles and other products, including their freshly-baked egg tarts, are available for sales to take home or as gifts.
Note that Oriental Kopi is opened at 8am. Have breakfast at the kopitiam while waiting for JB City Square Shopping Centre to be fully opened at 10am.
Address:
JB City Square Shopping Centre, Level B1, Lot MB-07
106-108, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
8am to 10pm | Daily
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