Ray of Hope Cafe, Ipoh

On of the eating places that my parents love to frequent to is Ray of Hope Cafe in Bercham, Ipoh.  This cafe is no ordinary cafe. It is a very special cafe managed by kind souls with the help of special workers.
The Ray of Hope Café in Bercham, Ipoh, is a Community Link initiative by CIMB Bank Ipoh Garden branch. The Café provides sheltered employment and vocational training to empower young adults with mental disabilities. By working in the café, they are able to interact and communicate with customers, which facilitates their integration into society. They are trained in frontline and backroom work such as cutting up vegetables, serving customers and cleaning up.

Before we stepped foot into Ray Of Hope, my parents and I warned our young girls not to be shocked with how the workers look and act. We told them that most of the waiting staff have Down Syndrome and other mental disabilities.   We told them not to make loud and unkind remarks on the workers in the restaurant as this would  cause an extremely embarrassing situation for everyone. We explained to the girls that most of the waiters and waitresses in the restaurants are special people who look and behave differently and told them not to laugh at them.

Below pic shows one of the disabled workers. I think that apart from their appearances, they all behaved and performed pretty well.






Chicken Chop - very delish, though I think it would taste even better had it been less saltier.




Wat Tarn Hor (flat rice noodles with egg gravy and seafood)




Fried vermicelli. This is so tasty that we ordered another plate.  Again, health freak mom preferred it to be less saltier.




Cheese baked rice - very delish and cheesy!  After tasting this, I told the girls I will dish this up for them soon.  I am drooling now as I am typing this post.




Home baked cheese tarts. This is really good. It was so tasty that we wanted to order more but they were all sold out. The owner only sells limited number of pieces everyday.




This mango cake is also very fresh, spongy and not too sweet with loads of fresh mango pieces. Love it to bits.





This cafe won 1st placing in the 'Cleanest Restaurant In Ipoh' contest and yes, the cafe and especially the loos are very clean, surpassed my clean freak standard!

 
The bill was unbelievable. For all these items, it was less than RM60. We also ordered 4 fresh fruit juices (not in pic).  There is definitely going to be another visit to this cafe the next time we are back in Ipoh to my parents.