KEN HUNTS FOOD: Wong Kok Char Chan Teng (旺角茶餐厅) @ Gurney Paragon Mall, Penang.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wong Kok Char Chan Teng (旺角茶餐厅) @ Gurney Paragon Mall, Penang.

You might be puzzled by the name- Wong Kok at Gurney Paragon Mall, wondering whether its another branch from the Mong Kok restaurants found in Queensbay Mall, Gurney Plaza, and even Prangin Mall. No, this Wong Kok Char Chan Teng is definitely FIRST in Penang, its actually pretty common in Kuala Lumpur or even Singapore. Wong Kok Char Chan Teng obviously is serving Hong Kong style food, "To taste Hong Kong, taste in Wong Kok", that is what they are sharing on their official web page. Authentic or not, you have to judge it yourself. Wong Kok Char Chan Teng is situated on first floor of Gurney Paragon, use the escalator right behind Pacafic Coffee Company, turn left after you have reached on first floor, there should be some guides along the road as well, its located at one of the corner units on first floor (exactly on top of Meet Fresh and Goku Raku Ramen). Service was very good, mainly due to there were quite a lot of waiters and waitresses around, they are having their opening promotion too, one can apply for their member card for FREE during this period, while stock lasts (terms and conditions applied). Price-wise, was okay, considering the huge portion served, but unfortunately, there will be 10% service charge added to your bill.

Gui Lin Hot And Spicy Beef Noodles (桂林牛肉辣汤拉面, Rm 14.90). The portion was very big, the noodles were topped with a generous amount of succulent beef slices as well. The beef was really good in my opinion, smooth and juicy, well-cooked, but the soup was not too satisfying. It lacks of some saltiness in my opinion, I would prefer a slightly saltier and spicier soup, as from my understanding of Gui Lin Spicy noodles (I had personally tried them in one of the restaurants in Hong Kong as well), the soup should be extremely hot and more to the saltier side since the people there prefer saltier food. On the other hand, the noodles were very springy and chewy and complemented well with beef slices.

Spicy Seafood Spaghetti (海鲜意粉, Rm12.90) was a hit among some of us. The portion was extremely big for one person, it comes with some seafood such as mussels and prawns. The spaghetti was being stir fried with some crab sticks, capsicum and onions too, some green chilies were added to give the spiciness as well. The al-dente texture of spaghetti has successfully caught my attention, with a hit of black pepper, the sauce was perfectly flavored as well. Everything comes in perfectly for me, but sadly, the prawns were not that fresh, would be perfect if they could provide their customers with fresher prawns/seafood.

Roasted Pork Ramen Soup (叉烧上汤拉面, Rm9.80). This set consists of a bowl of plain Ramen and a plate of Char Siew (Roasted Pork). The Ramen with soup was just okay in my opinion, it lacks of some saltiness still, as for the pork, they were slightly over-cooked and failed to maintain the juicy and crispy texture. The way they were slicing the pork was rough either, they could have sliced them in a thinner way to reduce the roughness of the texture.

We had Stocking Milk Tea (丝袜奶茶，Rm3.20), HK Coffee Without Milk (香岛咖啡走奶, Rm3.20) and Chinese Tea (中国茶, Rm1) as our drinks. The Stocking Milk Tea was just okay, but the serving size was really impressive. Good value of money.