Monday, April 30, 2012

Formosa (台湾风味馆) @ The CEO, Bayan Lepas, Penang.

Introduced by Criz from Crizfood, Formosa (台湾风味馆), a newly opened Taiwanese restaurant which situated at a new office building, The CEO (right beside/ next to Vistana Hotel Penang). I'm aware of this building but never intended to find/hunt for a restaurant there. Since the location is pretty near to my college, so I figured out that I'll check it out someday and coincidentally, I had the chance to try some of the dishes today. To find Formosa, try to locate Vistana Hotel Penang, The CEO is just right beside Vistana Hotel. Formosa is located at ground floor, corner unit (facing Kayu Nasi Kandar) of The CEO. As for parking, you may opt to park inside the building or outside (the open air car park), both are very convenient. Formosa has quite a lot of variety to offer and are priced reasonably. Service was attentive, ambiance was good either, they do have a small area upstairs of the restaurant which suitable for friends/family gathering too, try to give them a call first if you wish to reserve the area, you find some comfortable chairs up there too. 



Thursday, April 26, 2012

Cassis Restaurant @ Belissa Row, Pulau Tikus, Penang.

Finding a restaurant serving French cuisine is never easy in Penang, one of the more famous ones being Cassis Restaurant. Cassis Restaurant is a fine dining restaurant situated at Belissa Row, Pulau Tikus that has a very cozy ambiance and sophisticated settings. They are offering weekend 6-course meal, where the menu changes every week, if you wish to check on their menu, do call the person in charge and make yourself a reservation first. The 6-course meal costs Rm188 nett, indeed, the price is very expensive in Penang standards but they will be using some exquisite and fine ingredients in their cooking, do try them out when you feel like pampering yourself with a scrumptious meal. Their attentive service was very impressive and their way of serving the food was very professional as well.  Some parking spaces can be found right in front of the restaurant.



Sunday, April 22, 2012

747 Restaurant @ Transfer Road, Penang.

If you are living or have been living in Penang for the past decade, you might have heard of this restaurant- 747 Restaurant. It has moved to this new location since few years ago, from Macalister Road to Transfer Road. To find 747 restaurant at Transfer Road, pay attention to your right hand side, locate Caltex Petrol Station and 747 restaurant should be at the corner before reaching Caltex. The restaurant serves both Chinese and Western style cuisine, but they are more specialized in serving Chinese cuisine. Their signature dishes include Inche Kabin, Chicken Pie etc....but there were not on my order list this time, but I would definitely love to return and try these dishes out in the future. Prices are considered to be fair and reasonable, as there was not any service charge included in my bill and the overall portion for the dishes was okay and in good value of money. Service was very fast, basically they will serve everything within 20 minutes (provided that its not peak hour or during high customer traffic in that restaurant), the main problem will be the parking. Its really hard to find a parking lot nearby, but the management of 747 Restaurant told us that customers are allowed to park their cars at Caltex Petrol Station. The overall quality of the food was satisfying and they seem to be able to maintain the quality in most of their dishes.



Thursday, April 19, 2012

173 Ramen @ Macalister Road, Penang.

Located at one of the busiest streets in Penang-- Macalister Road (directly opposite to Loh Guan Lye specialist center and few lots away from Sister Char Koay Teow or beside Sin Nam Huat chicken rice), 173 Ramen serves hand-pulled or hand made noodles (手工拉面), another than that, they do serve a variety of noodles/ramen (Thick or Fine Ramen), roasted pork, barbecue roasted pork, roasted chicken and duck too. Their home made fresh prawn dumplings and fish balls are not to be missed too. The noodles are mainly categorized into few types, namely the normal fine version of ramen (银丝拉面), spicy fine version of ramen (麻辣银丝拉面), thick ramen with broth (上汤拉面), spicy thick ramen with broth (麻辣上汤拉面) and Koay Teow, be it dried or soup version (粿条). Well if you are not a big fan of noodles, they do serve rice, which makes a decent chicken/roasted pork/duck rice. I like the the fact that, the spicy hot chili sauce being placed on each table and you are allowed to top up or dip freely, just perfect for chili lovers like me. The place has a very cozy and homely ambiance which differs from usual hawker stalls. Parking is one of the major problems as finding parking is not easy at all at this place, especially during lunch hour. 


Fine version of Ramen (银丝拉面, Big for Rm4.50, Small for Rm3.50, prices apply to spicy version as well) comes with few slices of Char Siew (Barbecue Roasted Pork), some vegetables, chicken meat, and fish balls (only given if you are ordering Big bowl of Ramen). As for the spicy version, everything remain unchanged except a spoonful of Sze Chuan peppercorn chilies will be added to your noodles. The chilies were not as spicy as I thought it would be, in fact, I do added some of their home made chili sauce to further enhance the spiciness. The noodles were very springy and chewy in my opinion, it tasted more like Wan Ton Mee, just a slightly springier texture. Impressive indeed.


Thick Ramen with Broth (上汤拉面, Big for Rm4.50, Small for Rm3.50). The soup looked bland but it does not in fact, the broth was very tasty and flavorsome. It works well with the thick ramen which have a springy texture, it tasted just like the Japanese Ramen, the noodles came with some minced pork, bits of mushroom slices, and some fish balls. I would personally, prefer the fine version ramen over the thick version. 


Fish Balls and Fresh Prawn Dumplings Mixed (鲜虾水饺/鱼丸,Rm4). You can actually order them separately where each bowl of them is priced at Rm2.80. The fish balls possessed  a very good and bouncy texture which you can't get from any other outlets out there, but the fish balls were a bit over-seasoned in my opinion. On the other hand, their fresh prawn dumplings were very good, the fresh and succulent prawns can be seen clearly, and texture was just awesome, worked well with the broth.


We also had a small portion of Roasted Chicken and Duck (Rm5), which I find them pretty normal. No doubt the chicken and duck meat were tender and juicy, but they just do not have the significant taste that make them special, decent but ordinary roasted chicken and duck.


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)
Service: 7/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Parking: 5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Service Charge: No
Government Tax: No

Additional Information:
Address: 173, Macalister Road, Penang (directly opposite to Loh Guan Lye specialist center and few lots away from Sister Char Koay Teow or beside Sin Nam Huat chicken rice).
Business Hour: 8am to 3:30pm, Closed on every Tuesday.
Contact Number: 604- 226 3835

173 Jalan Macalister, Georgetown, 11400 George Town, Penang 

Monday, April 16, 2012

Yum Cha (饮茶) Hong Kong Dim Sum @ Lorong Selamat, Penang.

When you are finding for Dim Sum (点心) as your breakfast, do you look for other types of food as well or you just prefer Dim Sum alone ? If you are looking for some other mouth-watering food, but wish to have Dim Sum at the same time, then you would probably want to make a trip to this place to satisfy all your cravings. Located at one of the famous streets among the tourists, Lorong Selamat, Yum Cha is situated exactly opposite to the famous Char Koay Teow stall and few doors away from Prawn Mee Shop and De Title Dining Cabin. Apart from the usual Dim Sum, Yum Cha offers a wide variety of noodles as well, ranging from the commonly found Char Hor Fun, Hokkien Char to the rarely seen Steamed Fish Head Bee Hoon (Vermicelli Noodles), which my main focus of this post will be placed on this dish, Steam Fish Head Bee Hoon. Same problems exist for any other food outlets at Lorong Selamat, parking can be very troublesome, you might need to pay extra more to park at the parking space, or walk further down the street for some parking. Price-wise, was reasonable and you might want to find a seat near the entrance, else you will find it very hot.



Saturday, April 14, 2012

One Malaysia Themed Buffet Dinner @ Berjaya Hotel, Penang.

Yes, Ken is following the "1 Malaysia" concept, Berjaya Hotel Penang that is located right beside Midlands. Berjaya Hotel is well known for offering one of the cheapest and most affordable buffet in town. Saturdays' theme was "1 Malaysia" which obviously promoting all the exquisite food from all three main races. The buffet is priced at Rm40++ for adults and Rm24++ for senior citizens (above 55 years old) and children. Not only as such, they are having this promotion, where by a kid can dine in for free for every two paying adults. There will be live band performances and a cup of complimentary fruit juice given to every single guest of theirs too. Frankly speaking, the choices were pretty limited. The service provided by their highly motivated staff was very impressive. 



Tuesday, April 10, 2012

G Inn Cafe @ Macalister Road, Penang.

Walking down the street of Macalister Road, you might have noticed that there is a new inn/motel, facing the church and Loh Guan Lye hospital's new building. Attracted by the new and eye-catching exterior design, I have decided to check their cafeteria out. G Inn Cafe is located on ground floor of G Inn and they offer a wide variety of both western and oriental delights. The cafe has a surprisingly good and cozy ambiance, and there are ample parking spaces right outside the inn too. Prices are very economical and reasonable either. The only drawback is their business hour, which they only operate until 3pm only. 



Friday, April 6, 2012

Mall's Cafe Tom Yam @ Prangin Mall, Penang.

Came across this Tom Yam stall at Prangin Mall when I was having my window shopping with my parents, apparently, this Tom Yam stall has successfully attracted my attention, and those colorful add-on ingredients displayed outside of the stall. The style was pretty much similar to BW Tom Yam Noodles at Asia Cafe, where one can choose their own desired ingredients to be added onto the noodles. Aside from Tom Yam, they do serve other noodles/congee as well, namely Fish Head Bee Hoon and Seafood Congee, same rules applied too, where you can top the ingredients as well. Situated on third floor, Atrium B of Prangin Mall, accessing to this place is not difficult at all, you can find this Mall's Cafe right beside of Emphasis Hair Saloon, take the escalator from Giant supermarket, right up to third floor (shop number: 33-3-90) of Prangin Mall. Prices are considered reasonable in my opinion, but its definitely pricier as compared to Asia Cafe's but this stall has more choices in terms of ingredients, some of the more special ones are cuttlefish, fresh green vegetables, Siew Mai (chinese dumplings), bird eggs, Japanese Tofu, oyster mushrooms etc. Services are a bit slow during peak hours as they will be cooking each bowl by each bowl. 



Monday, April 2, 2012

Beef Koay Teow Soup @ Batu Lanchang, Penang.

If someone were to ask me, in which corner of Penang can we find a decent Beef Koay Teow Soup, I would definitely recommend this place, I have been their regular customer since my first visit back to few months ago. Although the place does not possess a good ambiance, and its just like any other hawker centers but you certainly want to try this Beef Koay Teow Soup out if you happened to be a fan of Beef Koay Teow. Its located at Jalan Tan Sri Teh Hwe Lim, same row as Lam Wah Ee hospital and right next to Eve bakery, the name of the hawker center is New B Garden Cafe. They do not have a specific name for the Beef Koay Teow Soup in english, but they do have a Chinese name (for those who can read Chinese)- 鑑记牛肉粿条. What I adore most is definitely their broth, not too thick nor diluted, just perfect for me. One thing I like about this stall over Kang Beef House is that they do not sprinkle or include some pork lard into the soup, which makes the soup too oily for me. No doubt, pork lard enhances certain unique flavor but I find it too oily and unhealthy too.