Tuesday, August 21, 2012

CAB Western Food @ Air Itam, Penang.

I was really surprised to see that long queues were outside of this restaurant during weekends, to ease my curiosity, I've decided to check it out some day. Coincidentally, with some of my classmates, together we explored this place earlier ago. I was shocked to see that their menu and interior design of the restaurant are very similar to James Foo Western Food, not only as such, most of their dishes listed on the menu are pretty similar those those offered in James Foo Western Food too. I was skeptical right after looking at their menu, anyway, we do go on with our plans and decided to have our dinner there. CAB Western Food is situated at Air Itam, where Air Itam's Pizza Hut and KFC situated at (facing the main road), in fact, they are few doors away from CAB Western Food (Farlim Night Market/ Pasar Malam situated at there too). However, please beware of the long-queue during weekend nights. Price-wise, was okay only considering the portion and the food quality, as for service, there are still rooms of improvements as obviously most of their workers are not motivated (it took them more than 30 minutes to serve me my order). Ample parking spaces nearby the restaurant, but please beware of the directions as there are a lot of one-way street at that area. It was rather a disappointing dinner as my order served was not as shown in their picture displayed and the food quality was not impressive either (more information will be disclosed below on the specific dish).



Grilled Chicken and Lamb (Rm 11.90, additional fried egg added- Rm 1). This was actually one of the most-edible dishes on that night, the portion was okay, it comes with a slice of Grilled Chicken/Lamb, some fries, a bun, green peas and some coleslaw. The sauce was something like Mushroom sauce. You can always have add-on, prices vary, depending on your order, the prices to their add-on will be stated clearly in their menu. Taste-wise, I have no complaints, everything was okay but at the same time, nothing worth to shout over this dish as well. Plain grilled chicken/lamb topped with sauce.


Grilled Chicken and Fish (Rm 10.90, additional fried egg added- Rm1) was okay either. Similar to the Grilled Chicken and Lamb, it comes with fries, bun, green peas and coleslaw. The portion was slightly smaller than the Lamb's and the sauce was similar to the Lamb set as well. Again, an ordinary dish.


The serving of Hawaiian Fish Chop (Rm 10.90) was something different than what we were expecting. The fish was deep fried with batter coated, and a slice of ham was topped. The sauce was tomato sauce which tasted similarly to those Spaghetti Bolognese sauce, a good mixed of sweet and sour flavor; although I have no comments on the sauce, I personally dislike the way they deep fried the fish and the portion was pretty small for me.


Here comes the highlight of the post. It was my very own order, I've placed my order of Grilled Salmon Steak (Rm 15.90) and I was expecting something similar to the picture shown as grilling a salmon steak is not that tough after all. After a long moment (as I've mentioned earlier ago, more than 30 minutes) of waiting time, a plate of Deep Fried Salmon (not even steak, the shape was very weird as you can see from the picture, everything shown was untouched, that was how they served the dish to me) was served to me. The salmon looked very oily and was still in dripping of oil. It comes with some fries, bun, green peas, coleslaw and a slice of lemon. I did ask the waitress whom served this dish to me, she told me this is/was how their Grilled Salmon Steak looks like. Absurd. It was such a pity that they can't even serve/differentiate Grilled Salmon and Deep Fried Salmon. The only reason I can think of was the Salmon was not fresh enough for grilling purposes but they could have notified me earlier and I would have changed my order instead of having me waiting for so long and served me such an unpleasant food. I doubt I will be returning to this restaurant again.


We also had an extra order of Mushroom Soup for Rm3. It was an okay mushroom soup to me, rich and creamy, but it would be much better if they could have served us a slice of Toasted Garlic Bread together as well.


Similarly to James Foo Western Food, they do offer Jumbo sizes of fruit juices. This was their Jumbo Sized Watermelon Juice (Rm 6.90) which was good enough for two person.


Ratings:
Taste: 4.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 6/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Ambiance: 6.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Service: 5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Parking: 7/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Service Charge: No
Government Tax: No

Additional Information: 
Address: 16-J, Ground Floor, Lebuhraya Thean Teik, 11500 Air Itam, Penang.
Business Hour: 5:30pm to 10:30pm. Daily.
Contact Number: 604- 826 4679
Email: cabwesternfood@yahoo.com

Toshiba @ Jalan Thean Teik, 11500

18 comments:

  1. I would have told them to take away the salmon immediately. Grrrrr...there's so much difference between grilled and fried. The restaurant folks seriously need to look into it lah.

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    1. haha, never thought of that, should have tried that instead, hmm..... :P

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  2. Hahaha.. deep fried salmon.. first time see it.. LOL

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  3. Wow, they're really generous with the sauce! I hate it when owners are stingy with it. Food looks really good!

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    1. OMG.... photos can be deceiving, look at my ratings ! LOL

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  4. i see nice steak at very affordable price! :) can imagine chewing through the meat. yum yum!

    FiSh @ ohfishiee

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    1. haha, hopefully they won't screw the dish up again, but i would not return to this restaurant anymore

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  5. Only opens for 5 hours a day? Prices are affordable too. Can make money meh?

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    Replies
    1. aiyo, living standard in Penang much cheaper than Singapore, that's why la

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  6. Nice...and best of all, cheap! Now, THIS is my kind of restaurant!!! LOL!!!

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    1. not really cheap, they are at standard price of penang's local western food, and the food quality was really disappointing

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  7. RM3 thick & creamy mushroom soup and you want garlic bread kah? I'm sure it's available as a side order on the menu?

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    Replies
    1. yea, they do provide garlic bread in other places of Penang offering similar products and similar prices as well

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  8. Looks more expensive than James Foo!

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