Friday, April 29, 2011

Tsurukame Shabu Shabu Steamboat Restaurant @ Queensbay Mall

Im pretty sure that everyone who went to the food court (queens market), you'd notice there's a restaurant serving japanese steamboat--shabu shabu at the corner there. So this restaurant serves fusion of japanese food and steamboat. They offer four kinds of steamboat soup bases such as the chicken stock (so called clear-soup), tom yum soup, miso soup and kim chi soup. I picked the miso soup coz its actually the first time that i've heard of steamboat using miso soup as the base. Its something new and amazing for me as im a big fan of miso soup.
They use the infrared cooker to boil the soup, so the environment is very cossy and you won't feel too hot because of that. The soup is already pretty delicious before u add in the ingredients. 
Ingredients and sushi rolls are being placed on a kaiser belt where they can move them around the restaurant.
A small plate of this thai chili sauce will be served after you've settled down. Its not spicy at all but in fact, its more to sweet and sourish taste.
 
You can actually pick some of the sushi rolls displayed on the kaiser belt too as they do offer some sushi, there are soya and wasabi of course. Well, the taste of sushi is pretty much more or less the same, but i think the ingredients used to make the sushi were pretty fresh. I'd called them decent tho.
There will be some additional stuff you can try on before having your steamboat, i think they change the menu everyday, the ones appeared today was, fried chicken, curry chicken, japanese seafood pizza and some appetizer (preserved pickles and carrots) Just tried on the japanese seafood pizza, the taste was decent, pretty much similar to the one i had in kampachi japanese restaurant in equitorial hotel.
Above are some notable ingredients available, i did not shoot those more common ingredients such as fishballs, vegetables etc as i think it wasnt necessary. The seafood were pretty fresh but they were like giving away in a limited way as in they just offer a few plates of them only. However, i think u can request for more if you like. You just need to ask.
The services offered were superb. The staff was just there for us anytime. Im not sure if this applies on weekends tho as there were two to three tables only when i was there. The price is pretty decent, its rm31.90+ per pax. Its a buffet where you can eat all you can. They have special price for senior citizens who are 60 and above. There are ice cream and free flow of drinks where you can top up as much as you like. Would definitely pay a visit again sometime in the near future. Try it out folks !!!!

Ratings:
Taste: 8/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 6.5/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Parking: 8/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Services: Very Good
Government Tax: Yes
Service Charge: Yes
Additional Information:
Direction: 3rd floor (lot no. 3F-23), queensbay mall, persiaran bayan indah. (central zone)
Telephone number: 04-643 5260
Business Hour: 11.30am - 10.00pm

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant @ Penang Plaza

If you had passed by Burmah Road, you'd notice a newly renovated building -- Penang Plaza (formerly known as FIMA or GIANT burmah road). This restaurant is owned by the organization that owns this building itself. Hei Yeong Seng is situated on 2nd floor of penang plaza. Its a restaurant that serves authentic chinese cuisine where according the waitress, the main chef was originated from CRC penang which is one of the top chinese restaurant in penang island.

Peanuts (rm2.00) and chinese tea (rm1.00 per person) were served upon us after we've taken our order tho the peanuts are given to every table regardless you accept it or not, they will still charge you for that rm2.00, similarly to Dragon-I in Queensbay Mall.

Seafood Fried San Mee ( fried wanton mee, rm12.00 for 2 person), indeed, this was 1 of the best san mee i've ever tasted, the gravy was very smooth and tasty, everything was fresh, esp the prawns. The noodles were still crispy the time it was served. Highly recommended.
A bowl of soup will be served to every customer and most importantly, its free of charge !!! Tho its free, but the taste wasnt shabby at all.
Stir Fried Kai Lan with garlic (rm15.00) this dish was just superb, the veges were fresh, nicely cooked and the texture is just nice and crunchy. I just don like some people overcooked the veges end up they've lost the texture that vege is supposed to have.

Seng Li Fried Chicken (Victory chicken ? rm15, half bird.) The chicken skin was fried till crispy and the meat was still very tender and juicy. It works perfectly with the specially prepared salt which was fried with herbs before. I wouldnt order fried chicken normally mainly due to the texture of the chicken will be damn rough and tasteless but i adore this one. Simply amazing.
I was surprised by the standard of this chinese restaurant, i was being judgemental due to the restaurant lacks of customers the time i went in and it was too quiet. I thought the food must be expensive and nasty. But obviously i was wrong, the food was great, service provided was awesome, price was decent. Awesome. Would definitely visit this restaurant again in the near future to try on some other dishes. They do provide catering for birthday parties, wedding dinner too. Mother's day promotion is open for reservation as well. Fresh seafood are available too, they provide service exactly like CRC restaurant. Highly recommended, try it out folks !!

Ratings:
Taste: 9.5/10
Price:8.5/10
Parking:8.5/10
Services: Very Good
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: Yes
Additional Information:
Address: Lot 207-221, 2nd floor, penang plaza. No. 126, Jalan Burmah, 10050 Penang.
Business Hour: 11.45am- 2.30pm (lunch) / 6.00pm- 9.45pm (dinner)
Contact Number: 04-229 1623
Google Map Here

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Sushi Kitchen Vegetarian Restaurant @ Sg. Ara

Went to this hidden restaurant located in Sg. Ara, the reason im saying that the restaurant is hidden is because the restaurant is situated on 1st floor of a shop lot where you actually need to take the narrow stairs up in order to reach the restaurant....Compliments were heard before from my frens and from some blogger, so i've decided to try it for myself. The restaurant serves vegetarian food only, fusing vegetarian food with japanese style of cooking. They even have this "creative cooking" column on their menu too. Below were some of our attempts....
Chuka Wakame (Seaweed, rm3.00), an appetizer. It looks unappealing and dull to me at 1st, but i was wrong after i tasted it, they definitely added something on the seaweed as if u had tried seaweed b4, u would now that the seaweed is rather tasteless and must be complemented with some other stuff like the japanese sweet octopus. But this seaweed is perfectly ok even though its supposed to go with the chopped cabbage below.
Fried Udon (rm7.80), the udon was fried with their specially made sauce (mainly soya sauce), the texture of the udon was actually kept to perfect, but the only thing bad was there wasnt much ingredients inside, mainly chopped vegetables and sprinkles of sesame seeds only. Taste was okay for this dish since its a restaurant promoting healthy concept, so i supposed no MGS was used.
Golden Miso Noodle (rm10.80), the soup base was miso soup, there were 3 mushroom tempuras served together with the udon as well. The texture and the taste of the mushrooms were perfect where it actually light up the whole dish and the natural sweetness of the mushroom can also be tasted according to my fren.
Miso Udon (rm7.80), its actually rather similar to the golden miso udon except that this miso udon doesnt have the mushroom tempuras. Its actually quite tasteless if you ask me, mainly due to there were only miso soup and udon inside, but we cant complain much since its a vegetarian outlet and its promoting healthy eating lifestyle.
Happiness Family sushi set (rm26.80), this set is meant to for 4 person as it has 4 servings per type of sushi which was just nice for the four of us. There were 4 types of sushi given as you can see from the photo.
I found that the best sushi out of all was this one. The texture was unbelievably same as the real seafood sushi except that this sushi roll doesnt have the natural sweetness from the seafood as it was fully made from vegetables. Other sushi rolls were decent too, they are best serve with soya sauce and a little bit of wasabi. I am every impressed with the sushi rolls as i thought they would be tasteless for using vegetables as ingredients, but once again, i was wrong.
You will need to take this narrow staircase that full of signatures in order to reach the restaurant...the signatures were signed by the visitors and customers that visited this restaurant before, mostly complimenting the restaurant about their quality food. Posters and newspaper cuttings regarding recycle, healthy lifestyle can also be seen along the staircase, it appears that the owner of the restaurant supports healthy lifestyle alot. Note that there will be 10% service charge added upon your bill. Its definitely worth of visiting if you happened to be a sushi lover and you do not mind to eat vegetarian stuff.

Blogger.com is giving me a hard time to upload the last photo, however, i've successfully uploaded the photo on facebook, pls click the following link to look at the main entrance of the restaurant. Restaurant's main entrance

Ratings:
Taste: 7/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 6/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Parking: 8.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Services: Good
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: Yes

Additional information:
Business hour: 11.30am- 2.30pm (lunch whereas last order at 2pm); 6pm-10pm (dinner whereas last order at 9.30pm) *close on tuesday*
Full address: 2A-1, Jln Sg. Ara, Desa Ara, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.
Directions: Google Map
                    

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

New Fan Page On Facebook !!!!

A new facebook fan page for this blog has been created, pls click to find the below link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kenhuntsfoodblogspotcom/216573808357377#!/pages/Kenhuntsfoodblogspotcom/216573808357377?sk=wall

The purpose of creating this fan page is that i hope my readers can share some other delicious food spots and yet to be written on my blog, and share with me what else can i improve on my blog or whether they need suggestions on a specific day or anything else that they would love to ask/share. Im also planning on something fun, probably will be giving away food vouchers when the page hits 500 likes or 1000 likes or so....keep it up and help me promote amongst your frens, thx !! Hope u guys like it...haha

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Bali Hai Dim Sum @ Gurney Drive

It was a shiny and windy morning, decided to try this dim sum outlet situated along gurney drive, the name is BaliHai, its quite a famous tourist spot, and the place is always loaded with people especially at night time, well the dim sum was there for quite some time, as usual, the place was quite full the time we reached....The place was quite cossy and big, obviously there are alot of seats available, walked to the dim sum counter and ordered some dim sum to try....
Hong Kong style Egg tart, a snack that you wouldn't miss when you are craving for dim sum... the egg tarts here were pretty decent, the pastry was quite crunchy and the fillings were quite creamy and sweet, it wasnt the best of all but its still a decent one....
Char Siew pao (Barbecue pork bun), the fillings were okay but the outer layer of the bun was quite thick...
Fishballs, one of my all time favourite, the fishballs come in a rather big portion until they have to actually halved it....again, was okay, average as the taste was pretty common as those dim sum outlets out there....
 Prawn dumplings, the fillings were okay, the prawns were quite fresh but they used up alot of parsley where some people just don like the strong flavour of parsley, and im perfectly okay with that, the so called dumpling skin was too thick for me, i would prefer a thinner one...
Siew mai (pork dumpling), didn't really try as its made from pork, but they were just okay according to my parents.
Steamed pork ribs, same as the above.
 Hong Kong style Chee Cheong Fun, again, it was decent and average coz the taste was quite similar to other dim sum outlets....nothing special worth mentioning.

Fried San mee (fried wanton mee in other words), the taste was good, not the best but its better than average, it comes in a large portion (for 2 person servings--rm12), there were prawns and fried fish slices as well, the noodles were quite crunchy while served and the gravy was quite tasty, at least it met my expectations, my expectation to this dim sum outlet was quite high tho.
There is a free parking space for its customers beside there, the food was okay i supposed, the taste is quite similar to those i can found in town or farlim area. At 1st i thought the price would be slightly higher due to the strategic location of the restaurant, but when we paid the bill, i realised the price was decent, in fact, its slightly cheaper than the one in farlim. All the above cost us around rm40 only, there were 3 of us. So i guess its worth of trying if you happened to walked pass or you are staying in that area. Pretty suitable for family outing and chill out with frens too as the place is cossy and clean.

Ratings:
Taste: 7.5/10
Price: 7/10
Parking: 5.5/10
Services: Okay
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: No

Taiwan Ko Cha Bi@ Penang Times Square

Situated on ground floor in Penang Times Square, this restaurant is actually a branch, its 1st main shop was opened few years ago in Burmah Road (beside 1926 hotel), the boss was originated from taiwan, so the food is quite authentic i guess ? Anyway, glance through the menu, i felt that there are a few "must try" on my list and successfully persuaded my frens to give it a shot....There are 2 main types of set u can choose, its either noodle sets or rice sets, they come in a set, which include dessert, drinks and side dishes. Heres our attempts:
Drunken chicken rice set (醉鸡,rm17.50), the texture of the chicken was quite smooth and the portion was okay. The aroma of the alcohol used was pretty decent to me, however, it was too strong for my fren, so i guess it was a rather subjective one. The chicken was quite tender and it was served while cold. It wasnt a hot-dish. So for those who prefer "hot stuff", u should go for some other choices.
Taiwan's famous Stew-meat rice (卤肉饭, rm1.70)It comes together with the set, but if u were to order for extra portion, its rm1.70. The rice was fully covered with stew-meat, it adds the extra flavour to them, making it tastier to go with the main dish.
Taiwan spicy toufu(麻婆豆腐) and stir fried vegetables. Again, it comes with the set itself, and i must give some compliments to the spicy toufu, the taste was just right as taiwanese tends to cook their food saltier. Although its not appealing to put the toufu beside the vegetables, but i think its a rather brilliant move as the sauce of the toufu gives extra flavour to the tasteless-vegetables.
3-cups Chicken set (三杯鸡,rm17.50) As the name suggested, the chicken was cooked using the 3 cups of ingredients which consists of sesame oil, soya sauce and alcohol. The chicken was quite tender and smooth, and the aroma of the alcohol covers the taste of the sesame oil(which some might not prefer the strong flavour of sesame oil). 1 of the most important part that adds flavour to the whole dish is the usage of basils (九层塔). It was quite a famous dish from Taiwan.
Barbecue Pork Slices set (香烤猪肉片,rm16.80) The pork slices were grilled to perfect and they were abit sweet (might be due to the sauce), it tastes like char siew 叉烧, quite special, worth of trying though....

Taiwan Beef Balls Noodle (台湾牛肉面,rm15.80), the noodles taste like random soba, the japanese noodles, the soup was pretty decent, it has the "beef-kinda-taste" which i adore, not to forget in praising the texture and the taste of the beef balls. they were awesome. The best beef balls so far i've eaten in penang. The chef is kind enough to give me 6 beef balls. The noodles come in a set as well. Theres ala-carte for the beef balls too, i think its around rm8.50.
The fruits that included in the set meal. The drinks were quite okay as well. They offered taiwan flavoured tea with "pearls"(sago) and you have to top money for the "pearls".
The place was quite cossy, suitable for chill out with frens, chit chat sessions etc. I had bad impression on those chairs, they kinda made me backache for some reasons.
5% service charge will be added to the bill, there is no government tax. No reservation is needed i think. They have sufficient space although for peak hours like saturday night. Highly recommended if u are craving for taiwan cuisine and worry that you are getting an authentic one.

Ratings:
Taste: 8/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 7/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Parking: 8/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Services: Very Good
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: Yes