Tho Yuen Restaurant @ Penang
Tho Yuen, an old restaurant which are famous for their Dim Sum at Campbell Street, Penang. If I am not mistaken, they did featured in HoChak quite some time ago. However, since it’s already lunch time, I came here not for their Dim Sum, but some other stuff.
Although the restaurant was just newly repainted, but it still gives me an old old feeling when I am here.
Since we are in a chicken rice restaurant, ordering chicken is a must right? So here are the chickens, both the roasted and the steamed one.
However, the chicken is sorta disappointment. When you dine in a restaurant named as XXX chicken rice restaurant, you will definitely expect the chicken will be good, as it is definitely their signature dish. However, this does not apply to Tho Yuen here. No, I am not complaining that their chicken is bad, just that it’s too normal and average, nothing special to shout about. Maybe the chicken RICE is good, but we didn’t try it though. 7.0/10
Forget the chicken, this is what I came here for.
Rung Reang Thai Restaurant @ Jitra
Jitra, the 4th largest town in Kedah after Alor Setar, Sungai Petani and Kulim do have few famous restaurant selling Thai food, and due to the close proximity to the Thai border, the Thai food served is authentic and good.
One of the most famous restaurant is Rung Reang, a restaurant even known by few of my friends from Kuala Lumpur.
The crowd here is amazing. We reach there around at 9 PM, and almost all table were full. We were also told that we need to wait quite long for our food.
Restaurant Floating @ Bukit Tambun
Bukit Tambun, a small town south of the mainland Penang, is famous for it’s fresh and extremely cheap seafood (in the past). Not only it do attracts many people travel all the way to dine there, but it also lead to many seafood restaurant operating there to crop with the crowd.
1 of my favorite restaurant here in Bukit Tambun will be Restaurant Floating.
Like all other seafood restaurant here, you can choose which seafood you want before you are seated. Don’t expect to find something like geoduck or snow crab here though.
The restaurant is not named as Restaurant Floating for nothing, it’s actually floating on the huge man made pond with loads of fish swimming underneath it.
Restaurant 398 Thai Food @ Sungai Petani
Since Kedah is located by the border of Malaysia and Thailand, and since it’s only 2 hours ++ of driving from Sungai Petani to the border, there are loads of Thai people who had stay in Malaysia permanently and are setting up restaurants selling Thai food, which is good for me since I love hot spicy and sour food! However, not all Thai people are good in cooking Thai food (just as many Malaysians don’t know how to cook), and luckily, there are a few restaurant here that serve some nice Thai food.
The owner of this stall actually shifted few place when they just started business, and finally they had settle down here at Restaurant 398 at Taman Intan for some time. I still love their Thai style steamed fish here. They use charcoal to make sure the soup of the fish is always hot. You can also always ask for extra soup if you wish, as that’s what I do all the time, as I absolutely love it. Thanks to the chef choosing not to skip the ingredients, the soup is wonderful, hot spicy and sour enough, although there’s sometime I wish it was even more spicy. Besides, they do have white cabbage under the fish, which is really nice. 8.0/10
Besides the fish, the otak-otak here is something I love too. Again, thai style otak-otak is totally different from Malaysia version one, as they use more seafood to cook it instead of fish only. Thai style otak-otak usually have prawns, squid, fried fish and sometimes even crab meat inside. Marvelous! I actually love the otak-otak itself more rather than all the seafood in it. 8.3/10
Bi Ah Dong (Mabrown) Restaurant @ Sungai Petani
Bi Ah Dong? Mabrown? I always find that this restaurant name is very funny. In Chinese the restaurant was read as “We Ye Tong”, or “Bi Ah Dong” in Hokkien, but in English it was known as Mabrown, and which I always read as “Mabolo” when I was still small, err….what? Well, in any case, this restaurant had started their business for a long time already, as long as Restaurant Sai Gao, and if not mistaken, they are 1 of the 1st restaurant in Sungai Petani that provide air-corn room for their customers.
However, in terms of customers, Sai Gao always had the upper hand. I had also notice most of the time Sai Gao is the first choice of most customers, and only if they can’t find a place there then they will only opt for Restaurant Bi Ah Dong. Besides, whenever Sai Gao is off, the business here will be tremendously good.
However, I still love both restaurant, and I find that both of them got their specialties that make me always come back to them.
They had a few ready cooked dishes, such as those you found in economy rice stall, and the beancurd below is 1 of them. Although it’s cold already (duh obviously) but it still taste nice. Even though the skin is not crispy, but the gravy is good. I take it as an appetizer before my meal. 7.5/10
The eggplant is another ready made dish. However, I find that it’s so-so only as it’s a bit tasteless. But still, ok la. 6.2/10
Restaurant Yoong Kee @ Bukit Mertajam, Penang
Talk about restaurant that got really long history, and this will definitely be one of them! Restaurant Yoong Kee had been here at Jalan Pasar, Bukit Mertajam ever since when my mum was in her early working days, if her memory servers her right…….
The restaurant is small and old, but this never stopped people from coming to them. However, since it’s always packed, I really had to complained that it’s not really fun to have dinner there especially these days when the weather is god damned hot! All of us were sweating badly and we swear on them inside our heart on why they don’t want to invest a bit more on fan to make their customer feel more comfortable. It might be better if we came later, but since we arrive there around 6pm, the sun is still godly bright and awesomely hot…..grrr!
However, they do serve some nice Teochew food, luckily.
We start our hot dinner with a good bowl of hot pork and peanut soup. It taste good, and only if pork tail was used instead of pork ribs and lean meat. 6.5/10
Teluk Kumbar Good Friend Seafood @ Penang
Thanks to Axian, I get to know this place, the famous Good Friend Seafood at far far other end of George Town, Teluk Kumbar. Since I don’t know where the hell is Teluk Kumbar, it took me more than an hour to reach there from George Town. I blame my stupid GPS to the max as it didn’t ask me to U-turn but lead me to make a huge huge round until I need to pass by Queensbay Mall twice! Duhhhh!
However, upon reaching there, it makes me feel awesome. Although the beach here ain’t the best in Penang, neither is the sand is white and soft, nor the sea is crystal clear, but it do gives a very nice feeling. Firstly it’s a fish village, and the owner of Good Friend Seafood are fisherman for the past few generations. You can see loads of fishing boat line up along the beach. Secondly, the restaurant is located at the beach itself, and being able to dine at a beach is really wonderful!
Restaurant Kolam Ikan @ Kulim
Restaurant Kolam Air, a not so hidden gem (as it was visited by Ah Xian before) was located in a small town in Kulim, Kedah. It was originally build to breed fresh water fish, and slowly evolve to a small restaurant which had attract huge amount of eaters everyday.
I absolutely love this place as it was far away from town, and gives 1 some very good feel, the kampung (village) feel.
Happily swimming fish waiting to be catch and cooked and eated.
The small atap house there is where the place where you going to dine in. The place is quite small with only 10 tables available, and even the land is not cement!
Ghee Seng Tom Yam @ Penang
Ghee Seng Tom Yam at Lebuhraya Raya Merdeka is just so close to my house in Penang, and I always saw their shinny sign board when I pass by the main road. After reading some food porn by CKLam, Penangtuapui and Criz, I decided to give them a visit by driving my superb Modenas Kriss 120 there.
The shop seems to have a major renovation not too long ago as the interior seems to be very different from what I saw in the internet. I almost thought I went in the wrong shop, but judging from the shop name and the crowd inside, I guess I came to the right place.
Although many people had compliment that the food served at Weld Quay Tree Shade Seafood is very fast and which is true, but the food here at Ghee Seng is even faster! Our chair is not even hot but our food is already on our table!
Belacan fried kangkung. It was not over-fried, but taste-wise it’s just normal. 6.5/10
The Siam Loh Bak here is good stuff. I love the filling as it’s very different from the Chinese style one. The filling is a bit like otak-otak. 7.2/10
Hock Chuan Heong @ Penang
Hock Chuan Heong, although it’s located at the ground floor of some old flats, but it still manage to pull a huge crowd to it every afternoon, mainly due to it’s oyster dishes.
Oyster noodle, 1 of their signature dish here. You can opt for all oyster or mix with some seafood. I absolutely love the noodle here, its very smooth, and the gravy is just great. Besides, the seafood used are fresh too, which makes another big plus for it. 7.9/10
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