Monday, January 30, 2012

Snow House (雪花坊) @ Precinct 10, Penang.

With the recent mushrooming of another two new Taiwanese dessert outlets in Penang, one being opened in Gurney Paragon Mall- Meet Fresh, and the other one will be Snow House at Precinct 10. During my recent food hunt, Ken has paid a visit to Snow House which situated at Precinct 10. Similarly to many Taiwanese dessert outlets, Snow House serves shaved/flavored ice Taiwanese Desserts with various types of toppings, which include one of the main toppings found in most Taiwanese desserts- Taro Balls. The choices of toppings are pretty limited, so does the choices for the flavored shaved ice (grass jelly ice, soya ice and black soya ice). Aside from the flavored shaved ice Taiwanese desserts, they do offer their main specialty- ToHua (soy milk pudding) series, which comes in both Hot and Cold version. Extra toppings can be added as well. Well, the place has a very good ambiance no doubt, ample parking space too. Suitable for gatherings.



Sunday, January 29, 2012

Prawn Mee Shop (虾面之家) @ Lorong Selamat, Penang.

Finding a Hokkien Mee (prawn noodles) can be pretty easy especially when you are in Penang, but finding a decent one can be very hard. I came across this awesome Hokkien Mee today- Prawn Mee Shop is obviously selling prawn mee (Hokkien Mee), but what makes it so special is their way of serving it, which is by using clay pot. Aside from that, you can add as many ingredients as you like, and of course, there are a lot of choices when it comes to the extra "toppings" for the noodles, from the usual pork intestines, pork ribs, pork legs, pork belly and fish balls to the uncommonly found huge prawns, squids and even crabs! I was also told that all the seafood were freshly obtained from suppliers. Besides Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodles), Prawn Mee Shop has more to offer, one can find Loh Mee (noodles in thick and dark  starch gravy), Pan Mee (flat flour noodles) and even steamboat too. The steamboat can be very special as they will be using the soup used in Prawn Noodles as the soup base, something unique and special to me, pre-order is needed if you wish to savor the prawn soup steamboat. Parking can be a bit tricky during lunch time and festive seasons. Its not hard to locate this shop, its located at Lorong Selamat, since its a "one-way road", after turning into Lorong Selamat, pay attention to your right side, Prawn Mee Shop should be some where there (note that its quite near to the road junction which you are turning into).



Saturday, January 21, 2012

Don's Pizza @ Sungai Dua, Penang.

****** This restaurant has ceased its operation and the new restaurant is named New York Pizza.******

Bored of having pizza at those chain outlets namely Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza ? Not happy with the service charge and government tax ? Worry not, Ken has a recommendation over here. If you are looking for something similar to Pizza Hut, then you might want to make a detour to this place - Don's Pizza. Situated at Sungai Dua, Don's Pizza is a newly opened restaurant which their main focus is on selling pizza. It is very easy to locate this restaurant, its only two shop lots away from QQ Ramen at Vanda Business Park, it is also a corner unit, making it very easy to be spotted. If you are not familiar with Sungai Dua, try to spot McDonalds, Vanda Business Park is the building right opposite McDonalds'. There are a lot of choices for pizza but there were not much when it comes to Pasta and other side orders, at least not as much as Pizza Hut. Prices are very fair and economical as there will be no service charge and government tax adding to your bill. Aside from that, they are having promotions on their pizza as well, where you can buy a second pizza at promotional price as low as Rm6 to Rm8. Well, they do have value meals too, but it was not as flexible as ordering ala carte dishes of course. 



Thursday, January 19, 2012

Japin Restaurant @ Queensbay Mall, Penang.

Japin Restaurant has always been my choice of place for lunch due to the location (near to my college), good ambiance and reasonable price for their food (big portion). I have previously posted a post on Japin Restaurant but the photos were not satisfying, so I guess I will be posting another one here. Japin Restaurant specializes in serving Ramen or Udon, they do serve other Japanese food, Bento etc....but I find their Ramen are uniquely worth of trying. They do have a list of set lunch (from 12pm to 3pm daily) which will be changed from time to time, the set will normally includes soup, dessert and drinks (might change, it depends on your order). Its the first branch in Penang (the other one from Sg. Wang Mall, Kuala Lumpur.) and the place will normally be flooded with people especially during lunch hours/weekdays. Its not too hard to locate this shop, its located on second floor of Queensbay Mall (towards senQ and Xuan Xin new outlet), few shops away from Game Master. Prices are reasonable for most of the dishes, they do have a member card promotion going around where you can grab yourself a member card and get 10% discounts on every bill (cards must be presented upon paying the bill), 30% discounts on the member's birthday (7 days before or after) and so on (other privilege please check with Japin Restaurant).



Monday, January 16, 2012

Malabar Restaurant (Dine and Chill) @ Lebuh Cintra, Penang.

***The restaurant is no longer in operation.***

Heritage Hotel and Restaurants are mushrooming these days, the recent one I had visited was this Malabar Restaurant situated at one of the busiest streets in Georgetown, Penang- Lebuh Cintra. Malabar Restaurant offers home cooked Thai and Nyonya style cuisine, which will be cooked by the owners' mom and aunt (mom's recipe). Aside from being a restaurant, Malabar restaurant has a total of 8 guest rooms and a balcony which can be used as barbecue corner at first floor which can be rented for private functions or gatherings. The restaurant has a really cozy and homely ambiance, and it has free WiFi for their customers too. Parking can be problematic at Lebuh Cintra, try to find yourself a parking space near Kampung Malabar. Its should not be too hard to locate this restaurant, its right beside the corner of the junction turning into Kampung Malabar. It is always good to dine in such restaurants like Malabar Restaurant that does not add any extra charges (service charge and government tax) into your bill.



Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Dinhokee (鼎好记) @ Terengganu Road, Penang.

*** This eatery has since closed down.***

With all these buffet steamboat outlets mushrooming in Penang these days, we Penangites have more choices to choose from when it comes to buffet steamboat, whether the concerns are on the prices, quality, services, parking, ambiance, food choices etc. My recent visit to this steamboat outlet was during New Year Eve, the place was very crowded and finding parking can be a little troublesome. One can have their cars parked opposite the place, in a housing area or just beside the road. There are a couple of parking spaces right in front of the place but obviously they are not sufficient. Anyway, you can choose to have the steamboat pot with barbecue plate on top or just ordinary steamboat pot (soup version only). If you are going for the soup version only (no barbecue for you), then you can choose to sit in the comfortable air-conditioned room. You can always grab your ingredients and ask the staff to barbecue or pan fry for you, they do have this service. As for price, I supposed the prices are pretty okay, after all, its an "All You Can Eat Buffet".


A very elegant set up, they are using the electronic stove which is much safer compared to the traditional gas or charcoal stove, good for those with children. Extra fruit juices are available to quench your thirst, but they are not included in the buffet sadly, you will have to pay a little more for them. Soup-wise, choose between the ordinary chicken stock (clear soup version) or tom yum.


Well, we were there pretty late that night, a lot of the food were finished and were not refilled in a fast pace, so there was a small table for the appetizers (fresh greens, fruits etc), another table for the sauces, fried rice, fried chicken, Herbal Eggs, some dim sum namely Siew Mai (Chinese Dumplings), a table for fried stuff such as fried fish balls, Thailand Pandan Chicken, fried fish cakes etc....you will find some vegetables inside the fridge too. 



The usual ingredients that you will get for steamboat. Something unique here was all the seafood were being marinated first, such as yellow curry powder, black pepper sauce etc. They do have some little shrimps too, they were very fresh and best for barbecue. As for meat, they serve chicken, pork and beef. 


They were very good in marinating their meat, particularly their beef. Thinly sliced and just perfect for some "Shabu-shabu" action, dip into the soup for a couple of seconds and your meat will be perfectly cooked. It worked perfectly with their home made sourish garlic chili sauce too. Their chicken and pork were not too shabby, but, the beef still prevails in my opinion.


As mentioned earlier ago, these were their deep fried finger food. Most of them were okay, the chicken turned out to be very disappointing. One of the bigger sized fried chicken I had was not cooked thoroughly, a result from attempting to maintain the smooth and juicy texture I supposed. They could have chopped the chicken evenly or to pay extra caution to the cooking time to overcome this problem. 


Marinated meat, be it pork, chicken, beef, marinated seafood such as cuttlefish, squids, small shrimps etc can be barbecued. I adore their effort to place all the ingredients separately (unlike some other steamboat outlets) and garnished with some chopped cabbage. Simply pass all the ingredients that you have chosen to the barbecue counter outside and tell them your table number, they will fry for you and will deliver to your table later on.


As for desserts, they have ice kacang (shaved ice dessert) and ice cream. A small ice shaving machine will be there and you have to operate it by your own. The ice will be coarsely shaved thanks to the machine and the texture was very horrible, more like biting ice cubes. On the other hand, I would recommend my readers to go for the Nestle ice cream instead. There were 4 flavors available, peppermint, yam, sweet corn and strawberry. Simple yet satisfying.


Ratings:
Taste: 7/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 7/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Parking: 6/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Service: 7.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Service Charge: No
Government Tax: No

Additional Information:
Address: 29-A, Jalan Terengganu, 10460, Georgetown, Penang.
Price: Adults (Rm21.90 during weekdays, Rm23.90 during weekends), Senior Citizens (Rm14.90 during weekdays, Rm16.90 during weekends), Children (Rm11.90), Children (5 Year Old or below will be FREE)
Business Hour: 6pm to 12am, Daily.
Jalan Terengganu, Georgetown, 10460 George Town, Penang

Monday, January 2, 2012

Pik Nik @ Nagore Road, Penang.

Finding a cool and fun place to chill out with friends can be pretty easy these days in Penang, especially with all these new shopping malls around, but if you wish to escape from a noisy and crowded environment, you will probably want to check this place out. Its a cafe with very good ambiance, comfortable couch with colorful pillows, rocking chair etc....Parking can be a problem during office hour/lunch hour. Price-wise, was okay since there are no service charge nor government tax adding to your bill. Seats are pretty limited based on my observation, hence, reservation is strongly recommended. No doubt, its a very good and suitable place for your to laze around during your break time. The only draw back was, they are operating their business in the late afternoon (i.e.3pm) and in return, they are opening until 12am midnight, so you can consider this a place for supper as well.