Ipoh French Hotel - What's So French About It?

After that memorably bad experience my parents and i had in our last free and easy trip to Cameron Highlands eighteen months ago, i know i must carefully select the choice of overseas accommodation in the most recent trip. 

French Hotel was eventually selected for three reasons; it was voted number two out of thirty nine hotels in Ipoh, the pictures of the rooms looked so inviting and review score on Agoda was a fantastic 8.2! 

Honestly not too bad for a two-star hotel even though i neglected to spot any France-related item in the surroundings! A weird phenomenon when it was named as such.

Oh yes, the above may be considered as remotely French inspired. 

I am going to fast track to the time when i stepped into the Super Deluxe King room; the largest accommodation type in the hotel. The king sized bed was literally luring us to take a good rest and the modern, tidy concept felt more like a home rather than a hotel. 

Most of their room types come with a window view except for Superior King, which also happened to the cheapest of the lot. For me, it's important to have sunlight streaming it, even if i am looking out to a dilapidated, seemingly haunted building. 

Pictures can be deceiving in many cases but i would like to assure you that this would not be the case for French Hotel. Well, at least not at the moment! 

My key concern when i was checking out the online pictures was hoping that the room assigned to my family would not feature the bathroom with translucent glass! How the hell am i supposed to take a bath ?!?!

The opacity was thankfully of a high percentage and there was no issue of seeing anything obscene in my two nights stay in the hotel. Phew..

This was my virgin experience with a rain shower and boy was it therapeutic! No wonder so many of my friends have that intention to install one in their new flats! It must be so relaxing to wash yourself under a "raindrop" canopy after a busy day at work. 

Other amenities in the room included a safebox, a dressing table with hair-dryer, a mini fridge, double glazed windows for extra soundproofing, two universal plugs and a couple of three-pin plugs for the many devices we have in this IT era and free wifi in the room!. 

Complimentary bottles of mineral water, tea and coffee packs were also inclusive. I don't drink from the tap, so i really appreciate it when hotels provide mineral water for their guests! 

Toiletries in the French Hotel - pretty basic although i absolutely love the bottles of shower foam and conditioning shampoo; had to bring them home after my stay! :P

For mom, there was no doubt that a combination of a comfortable bed and a mounted 32-inch LCD TV screening Hokkien dramas would be her version of a perfect enjoyment for an overseas trip. 

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Location

60-62, Jalan Dato Onn Jaafar 

Price

RM 178 a night for Super Deluxe - King with breakfast via the official hotel website. I booked via Agoda and breakfast was not included. Rates would be different for high seasons (weekends i presume) and of course, subject to change on a periodical basis. Check out the following website for rates of other accommodation type. 

Website

http://frenchhotel.com.my/

Additional Information

Breakfast would be served in the Jose & Deli Eatery although do note that it would not be buffet style. I could not comment much on the food since my booking did not include breakfast. 

There was large board at the lobby where you can find some helpful information on Ipoh and activities to do should you have sufficient time. 

Contrary to many beliefs and assumptions, including among the locals, there are seriously more to just food in Ipoh! You may even consider going for a day trip to the cooling Cameron Highlands or the relaxing Pangkor Island.

Ask the friendly counter staff should you have more questions; every single one i met was more than willing to share! With a big smile to match. The first question i asked was food and before i knew it, the lady whipped out a food map from god knows where and patiently taught me how to navigate.

Now, that's impressive service at 6.30 in the morning. 

Ipoh Dim Sum - Ming Court Hong Kong Tim Sum (明阁香港点心)

When i asked a fellow colleague who hailed from Ipoh on what i can do at the fourth largest city in Malaysia, he claimed that there's nothing better than to eat!

And eat we did except i could have ingested a lot more if it was purely a Gang of Four overseas outing. My dad is a strong believer of "we eat to live" whereas the Gang's unspoken motto is skewed towards the philosophy of "we live to eat".

Whatever the case, the first thing the parents and i did when we stepped out of the French Hotel was to seek out dim sum! We placed our bet on Ming Court Hong Kong Tim Sum, located along Jalan Leong Sin Nam which is known fondly as the dim sum street! 

Served in metal steamer bowls and plastic plates, this was hardly the authenticity we were looking for although the entire atmosphere at 7am was simply that of a Hong Kong teahouse often shown on dramas / movies.

Food wise in general was pretty good but i did have a slight complaint; the lack of thin and soft steamed rice-flour skins often found in Singapore's dim sum. 

I was honestly expecting a lot more especially with all the rave reviews found online from fellow Singaporeans who could not get enough of food in Ipoh. Maybe i have ordered the wrong things as i often did even in Singapore!

Initially, i found the lor mai kai to have an excessively strong alcoholic taste as a result of Chinese wine being liberally used to soak the rice. The chicken meat was another matter altogether; incredibly tender and emitted a deliciousness helped with a subtle alcohol fragrance! Ignore the rice and whack the meat!

Spring roll was crunchy without being overly oily and i plainly could not resist the sweetness of fresh chives! To think that i absolutely resisted having them in my mouth just a few years ago.

Alex would have rejected this chee cheong fun right away as it was the classic plain type that didn't come with his favourite prawns filling. For me, i was more keen in looking at the bigger picture which included enjoying the addictive shallots and the pleasant taste of light soya sauce concoction. 

There were buns on every table! Trying all types of buns would be a double whammy on my weight and i decided to check with the waiter his personal recommendation for buns. Char siew bun was his answer! 

Three words - i like it! The caramelised meat was shredded, resulting in a more wholesome texture when eaten as a whole with the denser yet soft dough and the taste was also not cloyingly sweet like some places. Yum yum!

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Location

32 – 36, Jalan Leong Sin Nam,

Ipoh, Perak State, Malaysia

Map

As above (with red border). This food map was provided by French Hotel and i relied on it heavily to get to the recommended establishments for meals. Navigation was actually very straightforward and the hotel staff frequently used traffic lights as a marker to direct blur tourists like me.

Price

Including drinks, i think i paid about RM 46 (less than S$20) for the three of us.

Prices were really good and as you can see above, the most expensive dim sum was only about RM 5 which might have been the cheapest equivalent in most, if not all Singapore's dim sum places. 

Additional Information

Dining area did appear small when you enter even though there was a much larger premise connected to the side. Service was quite fast; just relax and wait for the servers to push their carts to you. 

Ipoh - Cameron Highlands - Kuala Lumpur [5 Days 4 Nights Trip] - Summarised Itinerary

I am back from my hols! 

As part of the agreement with a very dear friend (yes Kon, that's you), i would post a summarised itinerary of this trip before diving into the details, which would likely take months! I would link this post accordingly once i am done with the individual entries. 

Day One 

- Singapore to Ipoh

[10.00 pm the previous day] 

Took the crappy coach from Golden Mile Complex.

[5.00 am]

Reached Ipoh at an ungodly, inhumane hour; i slept for at most two hours! Loitered a while in the Amanjaya Bus Terminal before deciding to take the RM30 cab to the hotel. As expected, hotel would not allow THAT early a check-in.

[6.50 am]

Proceeded to have dim sum in the nearby Ming Court and walked to Nam Heong for white coffee. Toured the Old Town area, including the historical Ipoh Railway Station.

[12.00 noon] 

We finally checked in to the cozy French Hotel! Had a great rest for three hours before a shopping / dinner session in Ipoh Parade shopping centre.

[6.00 pm] 

Went back to the boutique hotel; mom was mesmerised with the Taiwanese dramas spoken in Hokkien.

Day Two 

- Ipoh

[6.00 am] 

Time to wake up! Not willingly though. Had dim sum at another highly acclaimed restaurant; Foh San.

[8.30 am] 

Start of our 8-hour day tour that brought us to the haunted Kellie's Castle, five impressive cave-temples that included Sam Poh Tong (Cavern of Triple Gems), Kek Lok Tong (Cavern of Ultimate Bliss), Ling Sen Tong (Cavern of the Immortals), Nan Tian Tong (Cavern of the Southern Heaven) and Kwan Yin Tong (Cavern of Guanyin).

The tour contained food elements, as usual, which are considered as main draws for the small city. Lunch was at a famous roast duck restaurant (Sun Yeong Wai) and there were visits to the super nice Funny Mountain (for the soya milk and beancurd) and Sin Eng Heong (kaya puffs).

[6.00 pm]

Dinner at the well-known Lou Wang for their signature beansprouts and steamed chicken! 

[8.00 pm] 

Chilled out with the parents in Jose & Deli Eatery (located in French Hotel).

Day Three 

- Ipoh to Cameron Highlands

[7.30 am] 

Out of the hotel. Breakfast was at Sin Yoon Loong for a serving of toast and a cup of unsatisfying white coffee.

[10.00 am] 

Departed Ipoh via a private transport to Cameron Highlands!

[12.00 noon] 

Reached Brinchang and proceeded to check in to Rosa Passadena Hotel, successfully. A simple lunch followed by a self visit to Big Red Strawberry Farm.

[2.30 pm] 

Left for our Agro Delight Tour where we were brought to a number of farms like watercress, vegetables, cactus, hydroponics and even chrysanthemums! The screw-loose guide from Titiwangsa Tours even took us to a restricted area with a spectacular view of the town! A Halal steamboat dinner concluded the tour.

[8.00 pm] 

Visited Brinchang's bustling night market before retiring for the night.

Day Four 

- Cameron Highlands to Kuala Lumpur

[6.00 am] 

Woke up early for the hotel buffet breakfast! It was okay but i thought it would be more relaxing to have a serving of hot roti canai from the roadside restaurant in that cool highland weather.

[8.00 am] 

A mini van from Kang Tours and Travel picked us up from the hotel where we shall travel to Kuala Lumpur! 

[11.15 am] 

Arrived in the capital of Malaysia! Despite a few hiccups, we managed to check in to Times Square Service Suites. As usual, reviews of the three accommodations i stayed in the past few days would be posted in due course.

[12 noon] 

Stopovers in Kenaga Wholesale City, Petaling Street and Bukit Bintang and finally had a most fantastic hokkien mee in KL.

[10.30 pm] 

Finally done with shopping! 

Day Five 

- Kuala Lumpur to Singapore

[6.00 am] 

Unsurprisingly, i was once again pulled out from bed as both parents were already awake! Filled up our tummies with fish soup for mom and roti canai for dad and myself.

[10.00 pm] 

Checked out from the service suite and we continued our shopping spree while dad took care of the numerous luggage we had.

[12.00 noon] 

Boarded Transtar First Class Solitaire, where i fully expected to be impressed .

[4.10 pm] 

Home sweet home! 

[Interested to find out more? Check out the upcoming posts in this blog]