SHAH ALAM, Nov 7 — What appears to be a
plate of pasta reveals an unexpected ingredient upon closer inspection: salted mackerel.
Ikan masin meets Italian pasta, anyone?
Unusual for some menus, maybe, but par for the course at Kopimeo x La Carne in Shah Alam, an all-day dining restaurant marrying the familiar comforts of a neighbourhood café and the more adventurous flavours of fusion cooking.
For owners Meor Azlan Bin Che Saffry and Ili Bazlina Razmi (Iena), running a restaurant together as a husband-and-wife team has meant learning to follow their instincts.
Yes, even when that means chimichurri steak and calzones share a table with salted egg yolk chicken and soft-shell crab creamy tom yum.
(Perhaps especially when it means that.)
Before venturing into food and beverage, Meor worked as a 3D visualiser in the oil and gas industry, while Iena was involved in advertising and multimedia development.
In 2014, Meor began experimenting with cold brew at home, bottling it to share with colleagues. Their interest soon turned into a business opportunity.
“Shah Alam had very few cafés back then, so we saw an opportunity to create a neighbourhood café,” says Meor. “Eventually, we both left our jobs to commit to the business full-time.”
The couple subsequently expanded their ambitions. In 2018, when an adjoining end-lot unit became available, they seized the opportunity to launch La Carne, a separate concept offering English Sunday roast, Peruvian-style chicken, wood-fired pizzas and pastas infused with Malaysian ingredients.
The two businesses, however, eventually presented a different set of challenges.
“After about two years of operating both businesses, the economic climate became increasingly challenging, and we had to make some difficult decisions,” Meor recalls.
“Sales were becoming increasingly inconsistent and declining, and we had three kids to think about too. We had to be realistic about the financial pressure of keeping two outlets running.”
Rather than persist with two separate operations, the couple decided to relinquish one shop lot and consolidate both concepts under one roof.
The result was Kopimeo x La Carne, combining the neighbourhood café atmosphere of Kopimeo with La Carne’s more adventurous approach to food. The move also reduced overheads and simplified team management, allowing them to concentrate their staff and resources in one space.
For Meor, the experience reinforced an important lesson about entrepreneurship: enthusiasm for food is not enough to sustain a business.
“Loving food and running an F&B business are two very different things. Passion alone isn’t enough; you also have to understand cash flow, manage people and control costs,” he says.
It is a lesson that has informed their approach to the menu, too, particularly Iena’s experiments with combining Western cooking techniques and local flavours.
Her culinary curiosity was shaped in part by her father, who experimented with ingredients while living abroad, finding substitutes that brought familiar Malaysian flavours into unfamiliar dishes.
“When he was living abroad, he experimented with whatever ingredients he had available,” she says. “He might add ikan masin to a pasta dish in place of anchovies, or dried chillies to a beef stew for a more familiar Malaysian kick.”
That playful spirit eventually found its way into Kopimeo x La Carne’s signature dishes. From their Russian inspired Spicy Beef Stroganoff to the cold-smoked Gulai Lemak Daging Berasap, there’s always a bit of East meets West going on.
Even an ingredient as ubiquitous as salmon can be reinvented: the Salmon Belly Thai Red Curry is full of Siamese flair while the Grilled Salmon Portuguese Sambal borrows from Malaccan Portuguese cuisine.
Sometimes the biggest transformation comes from switching things up ever slightly.
“In 2015, we came up with the Gulai Lemak Udang Linguine because I wanted to try using santan rather than cream in my pasta and somehow, it worked!” says Iena.
The dish also incorporates prawns and homemade lemongrass oil in place of olive oil, bringing together elements of local cooking and Italian pasta.
Then there is the aforementioned Spicy Salted Fish Pasta, inspired by her father’s habit of crumbling salted fish over pasta. At the restaurant, salted mackerel takes the place of anchovies, while daun kesum replaces parsley.
Desserts don’t fail to delight either: Expect crunchy cornflakes-crusted French toast, ice cream sandwiches and apam balik toasties.
For Iena, however, fusion is not simply a matter of combining ingredients from contrasting culinary traditions.
“My approach is to explore various cuisines and cooking techniques, then find ways to make certain flavours work for our local audience without losing the character of the original dish,” she explains.
Ultimately fusion food shouldn’t be fancy or finicky, but rather taste like home.
She adds, “It’s not about changing a dish just for the sake of fusion, but understanding how different ingredients and flavours can complement one another.”
Not all recipes worked, of course. A combination might sound promising on paper, but it must function as a complete dish before earning a place on the menu.
“We taste, tweak and taste again,” Iena says.
That same attention to consistency extends beyond the kitchen. Meor says the couple listens to customers, observing what they order repeatedly, what they return for and where improvements are needed.
Their aim is to maintain a balance between familiarity and discovery, giving regulars reasons to return while encouraging them to try something new.
“Customers may come in for a particular dish or something they’ve seen on social media, but what makes them return is often the overall experience: somewhere comfortable to meet friends or bring their families,” says Meor.
“Some customers who came to Kopimeo when they were younger now bring their own children. We don’t take that loyalty for granted.”
That sense of continuity is particularly meaningful for a business built around the idea of a neighbourhood gathering place. A meal, a conversation over coffee or simply a little time away from a busy day can become part of the experience customers remember.
The opening of their second branch in Elmina has brought another challenge: maintaining the identity of the original outlet while responding to a different neighbourhood.
Meor says expansion is not simply a matter of reproducing a successful formula. Each location has its own customer preferences, which influence everything from best-selling dishes to stock and purchasing decisions.
A central kitchen prepares the restaurant’s main sauces and marinades, helping standardise flavours across both outlets while making daily operations more manageable. Even so, the team continues to learn what works best in Elmina.
“Some dishes that are popular in Shah Alam don’t necessarily perform the same way in Elmina, and vice versa,” says Meor. “What works in one place won’t automatically work in another, so we let customers’ preferences guide our decisions.”
Recognising each other’s strengths helps when they are working together as spouses. Meor tends to focus on operations and commercial considerations, while Iena brings her creative instincts to the food and menu.
“Work can follow you home when you’re in business together,” says Iena. “We don’t always need to agree, but we do need to respect each other’s perspectives.”
Looking back, Meor believes he would approach the business differently if given another chance.
“I’d probably start with just one or two really good menu items and focus on perfecting them before expanding,” he says. “Doing fewer things exceptionally well can be much more valuable than trying to do too many things at once.”
For the couple and, indeed, their customers, Kopimeo x La Carne is more than simply coffee or creative plates of pasta. It has become a space where everyone can feel at ease, share a meal of familiar flavours while discovering something fresh too.
Kopimeo x La Carne — Seksyen 9
33, Jalan Tengku Ampuan Zabedah B 9/B,
Open daily (except Fri closed) 8:30am–7pm
Phone: 03-5886 2643
Kopimeo x La Carne — Elmina
41, Jalan Frekuensi AF,
U16/AF, Elmina,
Seksyen U16, Shah Alam
Open daily (except Fri closed) 10am–10pm
Phone: 03-7840 0326
Web: https://kopimeo.my/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kopimeo_x_lacarne/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/kopimeo/
For more food fables and café chronicles, visit Life for Beginners.
