Foh San dim sum was the first eatery on my To Eat List in Ipoh this trip. For the first time, everyone else in the family agreed unanimously on the eating place without any objection or giving other suggestions. I was happy and excited as my suggestion was not booed. It’s been ages since I last had dim sum at Foh San. On the 1st day of the Hari Raya holiday, our big entourage which comprised of 13 people including our 3 girls reached Foh San at about 10am, which is considered early for us to have breakfast but seriously late for Foh San goers. I remember going to Foh San as early as 6:30am to have breakfast when I was younger. Back then, Foh San was still housed in the old building and even at 6ish in the morning, the restaurant was already fully packed to the brim.
When we turned into Leong Sin Nam Street, the roads were already jam packed with cars and people! The street which has a few other competitors in dim sum were flooded with people. From a distance away, I could see the long beeline forming from the take-away lane at Foh San, spilling onto the road. With tail drooped between my legs, I told the hubs to drop our plan. Looking at the crazy queue, it would take us forever to get a table. I thought of shifting our destination to Yoke Fook Moon, located a few shoplots away, which serves dim sum just as good but the queue outside Yoke Fook Moon was just as crazy. The hubs told us to try our luck in grabbing a table at Foh San and dropped us there, while he went to try his luck in getting a place to park his car.
You tell me, looking at this crazy crowd, how long did we have to wait to get a table? To top it up, we were served by an extremely rude and obviously over-worked waitress, who pissed us all up with her totally unacceptable rudeness and sarcasm.
A 2-storey spacious dim sum place filled to the brim with people at every nook and corner. Surrounding every table were standing patrons waiting for the table of existing patrons to finish eating and to exit! We had to split into 3 groups to wait at 3 separate tables! This is total madness!! After an approximate 45-minute wait, we managed to get a table but had to squeeze ourselves (all 13 of us) to fit into that small table. Our teapots had to be placed on the floor to allow space to place food! Some people were seen standing in the middle of the walk-way and eating the dim sum with their bare hands, after failing to grab a table!
Instead of being served with waitresses pushing dim sum carts, it’s self-service at Foh San.
Many of the specialty dim sum items were sold out and the hubs just ordered whatever that’s left…
After this unpleasant experience, all of us vowed never, ever, ever again to step foot into Foh San during a double holiday season (it was Hari Raya holiday and school holiday).
Food wise, it has definitely lost its reputation of serving top notch dim sum. I would give it a rating of 6/10 for food and 3/10 for service.
Restoran Foh San Sdn Bhd
51 Jalan Leong Sin Nam,
30300 Ipoh Perak.
GPS Coordinates: N4 35.815 E101 05.168
Business hours: 6.30am to 2pm (Closed every Tuesday)
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