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    City 1 Cafe

    3.4 (108 reviews)
    Closed 11:30 am - 8:00 pm

    City 1 Cafe Photos

    Business Info

    CITY 1 CAFE ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Dogs allowed
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - City 1 Cafe

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    Hainanise chicken rice

    It was very close in taste and presentation like in KL or Singapore lah without having to fly there. We had the Hainanese chicken rice Excellent menu rendition of the favourites such as Roti Canai, curry chicken or beet , Fried noodles/ vermicelli ... Hokkien style., Satay chicken beef n lamb and more Simple decor reflective of eating food courts in Malaysia and Singapore . Great efficient and friendly service Easy and free parking

    Alisha W.

    It was very busy during lunch hours on weekdays and the wait for foods were quite long when we last visted. This time, we dined during their non-peak lunch hours and this early dinner meal was enjoyable . There were about 2 to 3 tables and couple takeout orders in line but no more crazy wait for foods. Service was good with topping up teas and providing iced cold water. Ambiance is simple and retro here plus I appreciate their overall cleanliness. Some tables for two are quite close to each other but their tables can also easily be grouped together for seating large parties of 8 to 15 if needed. Glad we returned to satisfy my Hainanese chicken cravings! Tip: Try their roti and visit early before it gets too busy for best meal experience.

    Exterior
    Mary C.

    A little place in the King Edward Mall complex serving Singaporean cuisine. Very local and operated by a family. Services was fine and friendly. Tonight, there was a hit and a missed. The curry chicken with roti prata bread was delicious. The curry had just the right mild spiciness. The bread was light and fluffy and absorbed the curry to the last drop. The tear jerking miss was the char kuey teow because the noodles were not the traditional fresh flat wide ones but the type used for pad thai. The flavours were there but the wrong noodles used. This is one of my most favourite noodle dishes but was not a hit for me. Would like to come back for their famous Hainanese chicken as that was what everyone was ordering or busy with their take-out.

    Carolyn L.

    First off, this is not really a Singapore or Malaysian food restaurant. Maybe it was but what I had definitely was not. I was told the Hainanese chicken rice was really good here. So I came to try it. The rice was ok, a bit flavorful. What was not ok was some portion were hardened like those from the bottom of the pot. Maybe they were leftover rice from the day before? I was the first customer of the day. So avoid coming here when it opened. The portion of the chicken was quite small. The chili sauce was not that great though the ginger was good. To me the chicken rice is average. You can get better ones elsewhere. I think the one at Malay Curry a house in Crystal Mall is the best so far. Very similar to those found in Singapore and it included a bowl of soup for to go order. Cheaper too at $10. Now the char Kway teow. The restaurant spelled the kway as kuey so that's Malaysian. I was expecting either Malaysian or Singapore version of it. Unfortunately it was yellow! My picture could not capture the actual bright yellow. My heart sank when I saw it. It sank further when I tasted it. Curry powder! So the char kway teow was like the HK style Singapore fried rice vermicelli except it was with flat rice noodle. Disappointment x 100. If I was expecting that, then it was ok. But when the restaurant has the sign indicating Singapore and Malaysian, then it is wrong. I doubt I will be back to try other dishes. PSA: For those who want authentic Malaysian or Singapore food, do not come here. There are many other ones around now.

    The dining area
    Justin W.

    My favorite place for good price and value of Hainanese Chicken! If you order a full chicken it also comes with 5 bowls of Oil Rice and free soup for each person! The other stuff such as Satay and Roti Canai are also yummy items as well. Very small place and seems popular as I seen people walk in and the staff have to tell them they have ran out of chicken! My suggestion is to pre order the chicken ahead of time by calling and reserving a table so you can guarantee yourself a Hainanese Chicken mea

    Denise W.

    My parents told me about this place and their Hainanese chicken. I had it before coming to the actual restaurant. My parents usually get take out and bring it home for me. I remember them being very delicious but upon my last visit, I was somewhat disappointing. Flying in from PR, I was starving after I landed (also after a long delayed flight). My parents suggested to come here for lunch (got here on a Friday at 2:30 pm). We got one whole Hainanese chicken to share. A whole chicken was $30.95. It also came with chicken soup and 5 bowls of rice. The chicken was definitely not wow. I would say Banana Leaf's or Mama Lee's chicken are better and are also slightly cheaper. I do like their chicken rice. They use chicken fat and oil to make the Hainanese rice. Rice was sure flavorful. On top, we got some skewers. They only have assorted. No picking and choosing. Again the skewers are slightly more expensive than Banana Leaf, Penang Delight and most other restaurants. For $12.50, you get two pork, two chicken and two beef skewers. Their skewers are also smaller then most other places. If I had a choice, I would get it all beef. They said I could but I would have to pay an extra $0.50 for each skewer substituted. I recommend Mama Lee or Banana Leaf over City 1 Cafe. But again that could just be my taste. Note service is meh here.

    Gerard Y.

    I heard their Hainanese boneless chicken was one of the best in town.. courtesy of my mom. As an old adage goes, mom knows best. I did try it and needless to say, it was very good. I bought the whole chicken that comes with 2 large plates of chicken rice (5 bowls according to their menu). I also ordered hot and spicy deep fried tofu and chicken wings. 4 pieces for chicken wings are a tad bit expensive for $8.50. Their DF tofu was surprisingly good but had to toast it in the oven before I ate it. The rice is cooked perfectly. It has that deep chicken stock flavor embedded in the kernel. White meat or dark meat, whatever is your preference, it is boneless and cooked just right. It is juicy to the bite and not dry nor tough when you can assume it is overcooked. Final verdict, my mom is right again!! Super yummy.

    Simon K.

    I thought a few years would maybe make things better, looking back at my partners review, which was about 3 years, this place still just does not hit the spot, nope..... I came here with a friend who wanted to eat close to my area of work, I really couldn't think of a place, except that he doesn't eat beef, and we have a car, and an easy solution is to go to a place that has ample parking, so I thought.. let's do this again. Be warned when you come here, do not park in the closer parking spots, as they have a 30 minute limit, park in the rest of the parking lot. When you come here, and especially 'prime time' lunch, you will wait as this place seems to get everyone who is looking for their Hai Nan chicken. Give or take a good 10-15 minute wait we were sat down and presented their menu. It is odd that they have regular non-free-range and then the free range chicken on their menu, giving you options... or more like lower budget options if you do not care what type of caged bird you eat? This time we stayed away from the chicken and rice option and went for their seafood laksa. I ordered a cup of cold lemon ice tea to get me through the day and we waited for the food. I noticed when they are packed, the service is slow, with many tables asking if the food was still coming... like a family run business indeed. Luckily for us, we weren't that hungry, but this happened more than once, and finding someone to serve you was not the easiest thing, maybe they were short staffed? No matter, we did get our food before the other people.. which I assume ordered before us, and maybe they were slaughtering the bird in the back? Well the bowl of noodles did come out, and the word I would use, which I hate, it 'meh' as in nothing special, if you were at any HK Cafe style restaurant this would be the result. Sure we ordered seafood laksa, but there was plenty of chicken inside. The rice noodles weren't al dente, the curry like soup wasn't curry coco-nutty enough, everything was just ok, it will get you by. I honestly felt that I was eating in a food court but in a restaurant, everything just felt like it was slapped together, and added just a tad of green for color on top. The lemon ice tea, now this was the star of my lunch, as it was not too sweet, had a good amount of lemons where they didn't cheap out, and manually squeezing them in the drink made a perfect mix, now if only they could do the same with their noodles then I would praise it. I wasn't expecting much from the last time, and I am surprised it still was the same from so long ago. It seems like their drinks are spot on.... just not the food... what gives? I have other places to go for Hai Nan chicken, and this one just doesn't fall on my list unless I am around the area.

    Herman E.

    Things ordered: Roti, served with a side of curry dipping sauce Deep fried spicy tofu Deep fried wings Curry beef brisket Hainanese chicken Roti was nicely charred form the cooking and had a bit of crispness on the bite. The curry sauce that was served with it had good flavours but was a bit watery to my liking. All in all, still quite good. The tofu was likely the lightest seasoned tofu I've eaten at an Asian restaurant. No MSG maybe? Wings were hot and crispy. They were good. Curry beef brisket was very tender and the curry had good flavours. Not as good as Mui Garden's but Mui Garden sets the bar for me in terms of curry. There were coconut shreds served on top of this dish. Hainanese chicken. First off, I am not a huge fan of this in general. I normally would not order this at a restaurant. Having said that, I would order this for myself the next time. It is THAT good. This is coming from someone who doesn't eat Hainanese chicken much. I got the regular chicken, not the free range. The chicken is deboned and is smooth and delicious. This was easily a 5 star stunner. Coming back to try the laksa and the skewers another time.

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    Great place for a bowl of Malasian Laksa Noo. The Satay grill and Hainan Chicken are the best!

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    My favorite dish is chicken &rice chicken very special no bone rice very yummy I love it a lot

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    Page 1 of 3

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    Nyonya House

    Nyonya House

    4.6
    (17 reviews)
    14.5 km

    There is a good Malaysian food spot in Richmond but I wanted to give this mom and pop spot a try to…read moregive an opportunity for new places. However, I was a bit disappointed but not too much as prices were decent depending on what you get. We got the chicken laksa, Nasi goreng, Mongolian chicken, and kuih lapis. Chicken laksa is the ideal order as the soup is decent and the pricing is fair. It is not the best as the soup didn't carry much flavor and the noodles were a bit on the softer side. It was filling however. Nasi goreng is solid. The vegetables felt frozen reheated and wilted, but at least the cucumbers were fresh. The amount of shrimp, squid, and fish cakes was dismal. Flavor profile is good. The Mongolian chicken is okay. It's not fried as the batter is quite soft. It is saucy which my friends were craving. I enjoyed the flavor profile of this one though. The dessert is good. Kuih Lapis is a colorful dessert so it appealed to me in both taste and presentation. One red flag I noticed is that I heard beep after beep of microwave sounds. It's as if all the dishes they prepared well in advance and just reheat for us, plus they walled off the kitchen and the back completely, giving the impression that they want to hide something. Most renowned places won't hide the back like that, as you can at least take a peek of what's cooking behind the scenes in most places. Service is good as they refill complimentary tea throughout our dining experience. Pay at the front for the bill.

    The service was slow though food was tasty but small portions with the noodles. Didn't notice a…read morerestroom. This was a bit disappointing. Only six tables in the small restaurant

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    Ipoh Malay Cuisine

    Ipoh Malay Cuisine

    3.4
    (158 reviews)
    5.0 km
    $$

    Tried this place for dinner. Cozy small restaurant, comfortable and clean enough. Its a casual…read moreplace and service was as you'd expect. Friendly and quick. We tried: Nasi Lemak rendang lamb - one of my fav dishes at malaysian places. The coconut rice was excellent. Came with the usual fried sardines and peanuts - no surprises here. The sambal was not spicy at all which was disappointing. The rendang lamb was sadly dry. The sauce was not bad but not spiced enough. The meat was just too dry. 3/5. Assam Laksa - pretty rare to find this dish at Malaysian places in town. Sadly this one is disappointing. I suspect they dont sell much of this. They use canned sardines and canned pineapple. The broth didnt have any depth of flavour and lacked the deep umami and funk I expected from a good bowl of this. This is at best, a rough approximation of this dish. There are better versions in town, but truthfully I have yet to find one anywhere near the quality I had in Malaysia. 2/5. Char Kway Teow - excellent. Beautiful char and "wok hei" and noodles maintained a great texture. They do use regular chinese ho-fun that is abundant around here rather than the wider versions, for those who care. I wish they gave more fish cake slices though. Only 2-3 in the entire dish but lots of lap cheong and shrimp. One of the better versions of this dish Ive had in town. 4.5/5. Sambal Kang Kong - also excellent. Nice cook on the veg and char flavour. Also comes out in a sizzling iron pot which im sure helps. I just wish they added more fermented shrimp paste and more chilis. 4.5/5. Satay - beef and chicken. Not bad. Had a bit of char from the grill and meat was cooked nicely. I wish they were smokier. peanut sauce was good. 4/5. Dessert - taro pandan layer cake - pretty good. nice texture, strong on the pandan and coconut but could not taste the taro. 3.5/5. Its in a little strip mall with only a few parking spots but there is free street parking around. Overall, they seem to excel at dishes using a wok. I would come back, and would like to try some other classics. Their menu is huge; not sure if that's a good thing or not yet.

    Love this place! Wondering where have I been the last dozens of visits to Vancouver? The owners…read morewere busy but took time to chat with us. Super nice family owned business originally from Ipoh, Malaysia known for good food. Ambiance is quaint with lots of pictures and references to Malaysia. We had amazing food and below are a few highlights. We look forward to be back for sure! Kam heong clams- so delicious and a must-order!Reminds me of the real taste of Malaysian food. The heat from the spice, curry leaves and work hey was the best I've had in Washington and BC. Taro ring- so crispy and satiating. The taro is very flavorful and a great combination with the squid, shrimp and other savory goodies in the middle of the taro ring. Asam laksa- Penang style chewy noodle soup in super savory and umami fish broth with tamarind, pineapple and shrimp paste. Such a beautiful balance of slightly spicy, sour, and sweet broth. Yum!

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