Tom Ipoh Night Market, also known as Uptown Ipoh, is a night market located at 158408, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah Utara. After checking into our hotel at Impiana Ipoh, we decided to head over to Uptown Ipoh Night Market to check out its offerings…
What is at Uptown Ipoh Night Market
There are actually a number of night markets in Ipoh. However, if you type in “Ipoh Night Market” into Google Map, the Uptown Ipoh Night Market will be your hit. This means that Uptown has probably taken over the number 1 spot of night markets in Ipoh. Hence, we decided to give it a try. This evening, we left from Impiana Hotel Ipoh to Ipoh Night Market at about 6:30pm and due to the peak hour traffic, there was a surge in pricing from 11RM to 19RM ($5.50). The journey took a little longer due to the jam but our Grab driver did his best to avoid most of the jam by doing a slight detour – during which, he also introduced other things to do like visiting Chang Jiang White Coffee (which we eventually did on our last day) and also Taman Canning (which we didn’t have time for but will certainly revisit next time).
Upon arrival at Ipoh Night Market, our first impressions was that it was nicely set up. There are shops that lined the outer perimeter that sells alot of barang barang such as bags, plants, accessories and more. Inside, you’ll find amusement parks, archery, rides for the kids and of course, ALOT of food stalls.
The only thing we didn’t like once we entered the tentages was that it was a little bit stuffy. We also saw quite alot of reviews that mentioned this aspect. So be mentally prepared about the heat when you’re dining inside Uptown Ipoh Night Market.
What we ate at Uptown Ipoh Night Market
If you’re entering from the centre of the tentage (where the Grab alights), you can walk all the way down and there are many food outlets with long tables and seats here. Once you reach the end of the this stretch, more food stalls will appear to the left and to the right. On the left, there are more food stalls that line that area along with the amusement parks options for the kids. On the right will be some shopping options after the food stalls.
So yup, you’ll have LOADS of food options to choose from.
However, we’d say that the food options aren’t exactly cheap. This is because, we did see several local couples walking up to the menu, looking and browsing but ultimately left. For Singaporeans, it would be more affordable but if you’re thinking of $2-$3SGD options, while there are some of these, there aren’t many. Most options are 15RM and up. Just to adjust your expectations a little.
So…what did we have this time at Uptown Ipoh Night Market?
After walking through the various food tentages at Uptown Ipoh Night Market, we settled at the corner on the said “left” side as described above. That’s where we saw Western Hotplate, a western food stall with an extensive menu. You’ll be able to find chicken, steak and options such as cheesy fries and even noodles and pasta! We eventually settled upon the Chicken Grill with Nasi Goreng (15.9RM) since it comes with a fried rice, some fries and a small salad (~$5 SGD). The taste was not too bad. It came with a nice smokey grilled aroma and the pepper sauce taste. Fried rice was simple and no-frills as expected. The only gripe we had was that the chicken was actually just a drumstick that had been “opened up” and grilled. Hence, a small-ish portion which does commensurate with the price.
After sharing the grilled chicken from Western Hotplate, we decided to adjourn to the centre part of the food row and came upon a queue. We stopped by Ultra Soop and saw that a whole chunk of beef was used in the soup. The chef was busy cutting the beef into smaller bite-sized portion and the soup does seem rich and flavourful. Hence, we happily joined the queue – and were glad we did. The Bihun Sup (7RM) came with a good portion of beef and loads of bee hoon. But of course, our favourite was the soup which we could taste, did not have too much of the artificial seasoning. Good healthy bihun sup made from scratch with fresh ingredients. Definitely a dish to try if you’re here at Ipoh Night Market.
To round up the evening at Ipoh Night Market, we had coffee outdoors at Chemp’s Coffee. The air this evening was nice and cool as it was cloudy with a chance of a drizzle. The musician that was setting up shop next to Chemp’s was also constantly monitoring the weather. Thankfully for us, during our stay, the rain held. Thank the Lord 🙂 As for the Vietnamese Coffee (9RM) that we ordered from Chemp’s Coffee, well, it was nothing like the Vietnamese Coffee we had in Hanoi – a tad too sweet and a tad too weak on the coffee. If we were to return, we’d probably stick to the American-styled coffees.
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It was actually interesting to have spent the evening at Uptown Ipoh Night Market. We think that if we were to visit slightly later at about 9pm, things would livelier (like what we see at Jodd Fairs Bangkok). Overall, the premise is very structured with various stalls allocated for various purpose such as shopping, entertainment and food. But for night markets, we thought it should still be a little haphazard like the ones we see in Melaka, KL or even Taiwan. Besides the stuffy condition going on (which we think won’t be fixed anytime soon), Uptown Ipoh Night Market can still be a venue to be checked out during your visit to Ipoh!
