Canton Essence Kong Chai Kee 粤味港仔记

We came by for a quick dim sum. Some relatively slightly above average dim sum. Our favorite was the steam glutinous rice (loh mai kai) with good flavor. Staff is friendly but the speed of the service is slow probably the process needs to be quicker since it's made per order and not push carts.

Recently discovered a new dim sum spot in Ipoh called Canton Essence, so my wife and I decided to check it out. The dining area is spacious and can easily accommodate large groups, which is a plus. They use a paper order menu instead of rolling carts, so you mark your selections and the food is brought out fresh. We tried a few staples—siew mai, loh mai kai, har gao, and char siew pao—and they were all quite good. However, my 5S mindset couldn’t help but notice some inefficiency. The kitchen is tucked deep at the back of the building, and I saw staff constantly walking back and forth just to bring out one tray of dim sum at a time. It seemed like an unnecessary use of time and effort that could be streamlined. That aside, it’s a pleasant place for dim sum with solid food. Worth a visit if you're in the area.

The food is very fresh and delicious! It has an authentic Hong Kong-style flavor! The staff are polite, provide good service, and are patient.

delicious food with reasonable price! friendly staffs and good ambience. Would definitely come back!

Taste is average. Tea is ok. Bao texture is a bit hard. Meat can be less fat n tendon.

Nice place, staff provide good service. As for food, room for improve. Recommend food: Salted Egg Custard Buns, Pan Fried Dumplings, Glutinuous Rice with chicken.

Visited this place for lunch on Tuesday at 1pm. It was very quiet as we were the only customers. Here's my impression of this restaurant. Food - all dim sum items tasted OK overall but not fantastic. The tastier ones were the barbeque pork pastry, fried shrimp rolls, taro nest and chives pancake with shrimp. Service - we got all the attention we needed and food was served quickly. Credit cards were not accepted so we paid with TnG. Atmosphere - the place was overly quiet as we're the only customers. It's probably the reason why the place was dim with barely any light on. Overall it was still good.