Indulgence Restaurant, Ipoh, Malaysia

The perfect way to end a hot sweaty foodie trip to Ipoh is in the beautifully refurbished (and air conditioned 🙂 Indulgence.  With plenty of parking, greenery and spacious grounds, Indulgence is quite the contrast to the rest of Ipoh.  Self taught chef and business owner, Julie Song, shows her artistic flare with hand picked furnishings and decorations in the newly renovated colonial building.  Originally housing for two British owners of local plantations, Julie has tried to keep the nostalgic attractiveness by maintaining the original flooring and high boarded ceilings while updating and extending the kitchen and dining area to cater for a large number of guests in different pockets of the restaurant.  The entire back wall is made of floor to ceiling French doors enabling her to cater for events of up to 300 people.  A recent addition to the restaurant is a seven room boutique hotel located upstairs with individually themed rooms such as the Moroccan, Italian, Thai, Contemporary and English country suites. As if a restaurant, boutique hotel and gourmet shop were not enough for this superwoman, she has also just finished filming a five part series on the cuisine of Perak currently airing Monday evenings on the Asian Food Channel. The menu in the restaurant though features mainly Modern European cuisine.  We were more than ready for a change in palate after a day of food exploration in Ipoh, however by the time we arrived, all we had room for was dessert. The alcohol free tiramisu is what was recommended to us by the wait staff but it really did not live up to expectations. While getting rave reviews in the local paper, our western taste buds were not satisfied.  All was not lost though as coffee was commendable, and the wide selection of other desserts were mouth watering. I noted nearly 20 different sweets options on the menu and in the display cabinet. Indulgence has gained a number of Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards for Excellence including entrepreneur of the year, western cuisine chef and western cuisine restaurant of the year. It is definitely worth a further delve into the menu. Next trip – we stop here first.