Oriental Kopi (华阳) is a Nanyang Kopitiam chain with a number of outlets in Malaysia, mainly in Selangor, Johor and Penang, serving Nanyang dishes and traditional pastries. Its new branch in JB City Square, in the basement, opened in August 2023.
Although located in JB City Square, Oriental Kopi serves breakfast as early as 9am — there are special arrangements for breakfasters to enter the shopping centre from 8am to 10am. Oriental Kopi's valuable breakfast set menu is available till 10:30am.
One of Oriental Kopi's breakfast set is the coffee-toast-eggs combination. Aside from 2 nicely-cooked soft-boiled eggs and picking a desired beverage, the butter-kaya toasts is a choice between coconut kaya and pandan kaya. The thick slices of savoury butter, adequate sweet kaya and crispy toasts is sinfully enjoyable.
Available for breakfast too, Oriental Kopi's thick menu has a wide range of dishes, including Malaysian local delights, Nanyang dishes, vegetarian, traditional pastries, desserts, etc. When spoilt for choice, flip to the "Oriental Signature" page and pick one of their signature dishes.
One of Oriental Kopi's signature products is their traditional coffee, which is nicely blended using Arabica, Robusta and Liberica coffee beans. It has a pleasant aroma and smooth taste with no bitterness. We have tried kopi-o kosong and Hainanese cham (top-left), iced Hainanese cham (top-right), and Oriental Kopi Butter (bottom).
The traditional butter kopi is served with a piece of cold butter by its side. Once added to the hot kopi (with some milk), the butter will melt in seconds. It is a nice coffee with enhanced aroma and wonderful mouthfeel.
Oriental Kopi has two achievements in the Malaysia Book of Records. One for having the "thickest egg tart" and the other is "most number of egg tarts sold". So, it is a must to try their egg tarts. Apart from the original Oriental Egg Tarts, there are the new time-limited Taro Egg Tarts too. Each order of the egg tarts are in two pieces at different prices, so they cannot be ordered mixed. I tried the taro version first and will go for the original version next time.
The Oriental Taro Egg Tarts (华阳酥皮芋泥蛋挞) have dark flaky crusts, made with purple taro, and have freshly-baked aroma with taro flavour. The thick egg custard has a caramelised top and not too sweet. It is a nice treat and first time trying such a thick egg tart.
The Oriental Polo Bun (华阳冰火菠萝包), or "fire-and-ice" polo bun, is served warm with a crumbly egg crust on top and a slit through its side. Two thick slices of cold butter and a small glass of sweet condensed milk are served separately. Put the savoury butter in the slit and add the sweet milk — according to own preference for sweetness — on the crust or with the butter and the polo bun is ready to eat. It is tasty and really a must-try. Will go for it again.
The Kampung Fried Rice (家乡炒饭) is well-fried with scrambled eggs, fried anchovies, chopped string beans, etc, and served with two big fresh prawns and a poached egg. My way of eating is always to mash the egg and mix with the fried rice before eating. The already tasty fried rice becomes smoother after being coated with the egg and with extra eggy flavours.
The Penang Char Kuey Teow (滨城炒粿条) uses thin flat noodle with two big prawns, slices of fishcake, beansprouts and lots of scrambled eggs. The prawns are fried with the noodle giving them some extra flavours. The dish has a nice aroma with mild wok-flavour and tastes nice.
Oriental Kopi's traditional beverages, pineapple tarts, instant noodles and other products are available for sales to take home or as gifts.
Note that Oriental Kopi is opened at 9am. Have breakfast at the kopitiam while waiting for JB City Square Shopping Centre to be fully opened at 10am.
Address:
Level B1, Lot MB-07, JB City Square Mall, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
9am to 10pm | Daily
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