Rainbow Cafe: hit and miss, worth a try

comfortable seatings

spacious tables

Groupon definitely allow me to try new places. If not for the cheaper voucher, it will probably take me way longer to decide to come here. Rainbow cafe is actually very very near my house. It is just behind McD Gunung Rapat. The exact location for local is right behind the building which used to house Burger King. Yes, there used to be Burger King in Ipoh, but it was a miscalculation to open the joint next to McD. Clearly, it is not the king of burger in Ipoh, at least. Rainbow cafe occupies the building the house Station One. Yes, there used to be Station One in Gunung Rapat too, but given my past bad experience with the franchise, I tried to avoid it as much as I can.

white chocolate drink

As far as I can recall, they use back the same deco and the stage for singers. Expect the regular same comfortable setting. The staff is fairly attentive, given the place is not full at all. However, some of them appeared to be foreign worker, which made it rather impossible to ask about the details of each dish.

The menu is as expected. It is a hybrid between kopitiam/ pseudo-western (means, chop, steak and pasta with local twist)/ local - Chinese. There is also shadow of pseudo cha-chan-ting style of food and drink of Hong Kong. Basically, it is a rather rojak kind of menu. The advantage of such menu is that everyone would could try different things, though jackof-all-trade; master-of-none.

kuai fa mee 

mexican chicken chop

The first drink that arrived to my table is my white chocolate drink (RM6.90). Yup, white chocolate. It taste rather milky, reminiscent of white chocolate. However, being rather sweet, it just tasted bit weird for my liking. Mum-in-law ordered "kuai fa" mee, osmanthus yee mee, It tasted rather average, the prawns were surprisingly fresh. It is still pale compare to any of the "tai-chow" stall, but for a cafe, it lives up to expectation. On its own, it tasted bit plain, but add the sambal chilli, the whole dish tasted better. The heat, "wok-hei" of the dish is better than what I expected, and not so oily as well. The chef recommended Mexican chicken chop (RM 15.90) was very nice on the first bite, but somehow the excitement dies down towards the end of the dish. The chicken was marinated well, rather juicy and grilled to my liking. However, the Mexican style sauce, and spice is bit heavy on pepper, which is not my favourite. On addition to that, I felt the dish was rather salty. Despite all my critiques, the Hawaiian Chicken chop (RM 13.90) is the surprise hit. The sauce, using mayo with a tinge of pineapple is nicely done. Not too salty, enough sourness to lift the chicken chop to another level. However, I would prefer the chicken chop to be grilled rather deep fried. Both the chicken chop dishes are served with a generous helping of potato wedges and mixed vegetables.

hawaiian chicken chop

Without the voucher, I would say the price is high-normal, which is still acceptable. The food has its hit and miss, but given a choice, I would still come here rather than Old Town White Coffee.

open for lunch, dinner, supper
ratings: 2 half poink!
comments: I sincerely hope that the cafe will survive and break all the curse that plague that small area. Many eateries had tried their luck but ended up closing down.