One of the places that still serves old style home cooking is no other than Restaurant Lean Hup Bee,  联合美.

This restaurant has been expanding from 1 shop at first to 2 shops today. You can still find the old sign board hanging in front of their right entrance which has been up for decades.

It is not hard to locate this place. If you are driving from Penang using ferry, you will see a traffic light junction once you are out of the ferry. Turn right at the traffic light into the one way street of Jalan Pantai. You will see there is Esso petrol station on your left. Keep driving for 80 meters and you will on see a row of shop houses on your right. Lean Hup Bee is in between the shop houses.

Pig’s Trotter Cooked in Soya Sauce, braised until the pig trotter is soft and it is then cooked with home-mixed soy sauce.

The trotter tasted so soft and it was well marinated. In fact, the fragrance of the toy sauce blended well into the meat. When placed the meat and the lard into your mouth, the lard melted in your mouth and at the same time you could still feel the meat texture as well. The combination was simply divine.

Fried Stuffed Fish with Sambal, this dish is also known as rempah tumis ikan. The fish was stuffed with sambal and some spices. It was then cooked and served with dark soy sauce.

This is also one of the signature dishes. The rempah (spices) was very strong in aroma while the taste of the fish blended in very well with the rempah. The uniqueness of this dish was serving with dark soy sauce. Usually in other places the sambal fish would not be served with dark sauce. However, it was a very unique dish indeed.

Cucumber Slices Cooked in Sour Curry, the cucumber was cut into slices and cooked with prawns and also sour curry.

This was a very appetising dish. The curry was very delicious and it was not very thick. The taste of the curry was sour, sweet and spicy.

Pan Fried Bean Curd, the bean curd was pan-fried together with chilli slices and some spring onions.

It was a very simple yet delicious dish. It doesn’t need any fancy spices nor sauces to complement this. The dish only needs some onions, ginger and soy sauce and it will be marvellous.

Pan fried bitter gourd with soy paste, the bitter gourd was cut into slices and fried with pickled soy beans.

The bitter gourd tasted nice as the bitterness was not too heavy while the pickled soy bean sauce blended very well with the vege. It was a very pleasant dish.

Salty Pickled Veggie Soup, the pickled branch of the veggie was preserved in a salt mug and before being washed and cut into slices. It is usually served together with pork slices in a soup.

The taste of the soup was not over salty and can be treated as stater of a meal due to its appetizing taste.

Overall, the total bill for the above meal was RM38. The dining experience here was acceptable while the taste of the food was excellent. I would definitely make a come back for lunch. There are plentiful of parking slots available just in front of the coffee shop.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room
WIFI Available

Operation hours: 9:00am – 3:30pm (Close on Sunday & Public Holiday)
Contact: 016-477 0660
Address:28 & 30, Jalan Pantai, 12000 Butterworth, Penang
GPS: 5° 39′ 86.96″ N, 100° 36′ 58.79″ E

There are 2 branches of Starview. The first one is at New World Park in Penang Island while the other one is at Prai, Butterworth. The one that I was visiting was at Prai. It is very easy to locate this place. If you are driving from Penang Bridge over to mainland, drive straight heading north to Alor Setar. You will surely pass by Pacific Mall on your left. Turn left to Jalan Besar and Pacific Mall is on your left hand side. Turn left on the first junction and find a place to park. Walk to the left hand side of Pacific Mall, Starview is located at the China Town of Pacific Mall.

My review for Starview Restaurant this round is on the Chinese New Year Company Dinner Set – RM550 (8 Course Meal + A bottle of Red Wine)

Yee Sang, this dish is usual for any reunion or company dinner during Chinese New Year. The ingredients of Yee Sang consisted of strips of raw fish (this time is yee sang), mixed with shredded pickled cucumber, seaweed slices, colored crackers and a variety of sauces, seasoning and pepper powder.

First, place the seasoning, pepper powder and also sauces on top of the dish.

After the preparation is done, all participants has to stand up with your chopsticks ready in hand to toss all the ingredients on the plate. It is also a symbol of prosperity if everyone could toss the ingredients as high as possible.

Four Seasons, this dish has a combination of 4 dishes:

• Seafood pie slices with mayonnaise
• Fried fish pie stuffed with salted duck egg
• Mixed veggie with abalone mushroom
• Fried venison with black paper and dark soy sauce covered with onions

For this dish I personally preferred the fried venison with black pepper and dark soy sauce. The tenderness of the meat was so soft and the black pepper was not too overwhelming.

Seafood Shark’s Fin Soup with Dried Scallop, the shark fin was cooked with dried scallops rather than the usual crab meat. It was then sprinkled with tiny deep fried scallop slices.

The soup was great as it was not too starchy and salty. I simply love this soup.

Double Fried Chicken Delights, the deep fried chicken was deep-fried again with pineapple, dragon fruit and cucumber. The gravy was sweet and sour.

This dish was very appetizing due to the crunchiness of the fried chicken served with sour and sweet sauce, cucumber and fruits. The combination was very special and tasty.

Steamed Grouper in Hong Kong Style, I am not sure with they called this dish “Hong Kong Style”. The whole fish was actually pre-cut before served and steamed with soy sauce, then topped with some ginger slices and coriander.

The fish was fresh. The preparation was simple yet nice.

Braised Three Precious with Vegetable, different types of mushroom cooked with broccoli in starchy gravy.

After all the meat and seafood, this usual vegetable dish will let you take a break from the the rich food.

Seafood Fried Rice, the ingredients included mushroom cubes, dried shrimps, chinese sausages and topped with some spring onions.

I am not sure why the name of the dish is called seafood where I could only find dried shrimps on top of the rice. The taste was very nice, just that the name of the dish was misleading.

Double-boiled Four Treasures with Sea Coconut, this cold dessert was double boiled with lye chee, red beans, lily bulbs, ginkgo and sea coconut. It was then served with ice cubes.

This dessert was very refreshing. I love cold desserts as the ending compared to hot ones.

Overall, the taste of the food here is acceptable. I give my vote to the supporters of Starview. There are plentiful of parking spaces available surrounding the restaurant and the service here is acceptably good too.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room
WIFI Available

Operation hours: 11.30am – 2.30pm; 6.00pm – 10.00pm (7 days a week)
Contact: 04-397 1221
Address:Kompleks Megamal Pinang – China Town, 2832-2934 Jalan Baru, Bandar Perai Jaya, 13600 Prai
GPS: 5° 37′ 54.08″ N, 100° 39′ 93.64″ E

The recommendation for today menu is the cheapest buffet in Penang. All the while in my mind, the cheapest buffet is about RM10.99++. However, the one that I have found out lately is even cheaper than RM10.

The price for the buffet at Green Wellesley Restaurant is only RM9 nett on Wednesdays and Fridays, while Sunday and Public Holiday is RM10 nett. As for children is RM5 per person.

It is not hard to locate Green Wellesley Restaurant. If you are going from Penang Bridge and heading to Chai Leng Park, you will sure route through Jalan Besar. When you see Jalan Kurau, turn left into Chai Leng Park. Keep driving for 30 metres and you will see Lebuh Kurau 3 on your left. Just on your left hand side beside the junction, Green Wellesley Restaurant is there. The opposite of the restaurant is the famous Kuan Nan Coffee Shop.

The restaurant is fully air-conditioned.

There are over 20 varieties of food from the buffet line. It usually starts with the usual fried rice and fried “tao chiam” (Noodle that made from soy bean.)

Besides, you will find the usual sweet and sour fish here.

For those who love spices and excitement, you can always go for the sourish curry fish.

The lemon chicken is the most sell-able dish of all. Just 10 minutes after the buffet started, the lemon chicken only left a few pieces.

Fried veggie and also homemade tofu. The tofu is one of my favorites as it was soft and mild.

Next were the “Chai Kuih” and fried fish fillet.

Following was the salad fruit prawn. There were a lot of prawns in the salad, although the prawns tasted like fresh water prawns, they were fresh and there was an abundance of them.

The satay was well-marinated and tasted just as good as any famous satay stalls in Penang.

Orange cordial available at free-flow.

Besides the orange cordial, there were also ice kacang, cendol and laksa available.

My ice kacang which I couldn’t manage to finish up.

Overall, the food here tasted average. There are only some free car park slots available beside of the building, else you need to park at the city council parking slot. The food is worth the money, at only RM9 you can have so many varieties of food in an air conditioned place.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room
WIFI Available

Operation hours: 12:00pm – 2:30pm (Wednesday and Friday)
Contact: 04-390 8899
Address: Lebuh Kurau 3, Chai Leng Park, 13700 Perai.
GPS: 5° 38′ 48.93″ N, 100° 39′ 25.99″ E

To get to this place, if you know how to get to Sunway Carnival at Prai, where Sunway is on your left and Old Town Cafe is on your right, you are now located at Jalan Todak 4. Just before reaching Sunway Carnival building, you will see Billion Supermarket is on the same row. Right before Billion turn left to Jalan Todak 3, you will see a row of shop houses with one red in between and that is the Clinic Cafe.

The entrance to the clinic cafe is like an entrance to the real clinic where you will see there are wheel chairs placed just beside the door and the seats in the restaurant are just like the hospital beds.

The hungry and thirsty patients are seated at their specified ward waiting to be served.

The doctor handed the menu to us while we are in place. Too bad all the nurses are on leave that day when we get warded

The choice of needles that you can choose when you are there.

The tissue holder for the patients.

The cutleries for the patients.

After taking the order the doctor or nurse will stick the order at the board so that the next shift of doctors or nurses will know what is going on.

Warning to kids, please do not follow the dangerous act below. Below stunt had been practicing for a long time and we had sought approval from the President of the Clinic to perform so. The lady on the picture below was acting like a patient and slept on top of the table to allow us to take a good shot of photo. She is the first lady customer to have done so in Clinic Cafe.

There are a lot of orders around in this clinic cafe. However, the most valuable for money here is the set lunch promotion.

This set lunch came with Ice Lemonade Juice.

Clinic Special Chicken Rice – RM13.80, Served with flavoured rice, boneless fried chicken, tomyam soup and fresh vege with salad. If compared this dish to the previous one, in terms of freshness, this is much better. The Fried chicken cubes were hot and crunchy and the portion was a lot. The tomyam soup was appetizing and desirable. This set of lunch is value for money.

Together with the set, the drink served was Ice Lemon Tea.

Prawn Dipper – RM7.80, the prawns were filled in the wonton skin and deep fried, the taste was acceptable. The specialty of this is the injection of the chili sauce. It was exactly like the medicinal tray for the patient. However, the price for a few dippers with such price is consider slightly on the higher side.

Overall, the concept and the theme of this cafe is very special and attractive. It is a very new concept in Penang. The price of the promotion set lunch is very reasonable. Another plus point of this place is they have free WIFI available. However, the price for the dishes that is not under promotion is slightly on the higher side. In order to attract more customers, the management of this place should consider reviewing their price again.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room

Operation hours: 10:30am – 11:00pm (7 days a week)
Contact: 04-399 1991 (K.K Ooi, Kelvin Chan, Jimmy Ching, M. Faizal)
Address:No. 7, Jalan Tadak 3, Bandar Sunway, 13700 Seberang Perai, Penang.

This time there is a place where we can get not only nice view but also the pleasure of eating and relaxing at the same time. This place is ideal for couples searching for romantic place for dining as well as for those who want to buy dinner for family and friends. It a perfect place to view sunset over the Straits of Malacca.

This place is very near to the port where all the fishermen stop their boat. You can count on them for fresh seafood.

In fact, you could also spot some fishermen fishing by the rock side using fishing rod. Even though the catch will not be much, the enjoyment of fishing counts.

Other than the great scenery, this place is famous for its fresh seafood. If you are heading from North South Express, turn to Jalan Besar and Pacific will be on your left. Keep driving and you will eventually pass through the toll for Butterworth Outer Ring Road (BORR) with Prai exit. The toll collection is RM1.30. Once you are out at Butterworth you will keep using the BORR until Bagan Ajam exit and you need to pay RM1.20 to exit. Follow the exit sign of Pantai Bersih and you will soon reach a few seafood restaurrants. One of them is Ah Chong Seafood (阿仲海边海鲜).

From the sign board below you will notice that the name of this shop is Kantin (Canteen) Ah Chong. The reason being that it was once a temporary canteen for the fishermen.

This restaurant is very spacious and can cater up to 30 tables.

Fresh Grained White Nutmeg Juice – RM15.50, this 1.5 liter drink is more than enough to be shared by 4 people. It was a very refreshing and cooling drink. The drink was not too sweet and was just nice for me. However, the price for this big bottle of drink is slightly too high for an average family.

Other than the usual drink the lady boss of this shop was promoting an enzyme dragon fruit drink stored in a wine bottle. The taste was a bit fermented and tasted like wine. However, there is not alcohol content in this enzyme drink.

Spicy Fried Asparagus – RM8.00, the asparagus was fried together with chili and prawns. The spiciness level was just nice. The gravy was slight sweet and sour and it was delicious.

Claypot Beancurd – RM6.00, it was cooked with green beans, carrot and mushrooms. The gravy was very thick and tasty. Another recommended dish.

Guinness Chicken – RM8.00, the chicken was marinated with Guinness Stout and cooked with dark sauce and some dried chili. The tenderness of the chicken was so soft and flavourful after marinated with stout. The gravy blended well with the meat. It was an excellent and unique dish.

Teochew Style Steamed Garupa – RM34, the garupa was steamed in teochew style with sour and spicy flavour. It was sprinkled with plenty of coriander. The fish was very fresh and worth the price for such a big portion.

Overall, the dishes here are great and worth the money. There are plenty of car park spaces available. With the nice sea breeze it makes the overall dining experience a relaxing one. However, on the downside the price of the homemade drink is slightly expensive. Other than that, it is definitely worth a try for those looking for good “chu char”.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room

Operation hours: 12:00noon – 11:00pm (7 days a week)
Contact: 012-476 7021, 012-402 3418
Address: No 2, Pantai Bersih, Bagan Ajam, 12300 Butterworth.

The couple sushi eating contest.

1st Price:   – Wedding Reception Coordination Service worth RM3800.
2nd Price: – One Couple Lifestyle Photo Session worth RM600.
3rd Price: – Lovely Hand Bouquet worth RM199.

Quick Facts:

• Saturday 8 May: 3pm – 6pm(Finals).
• Registration deadline 21 April 2010.
• Preliminary Rounds will be on 24 & 25 April, 1 & 2 May at Sakae Izakaya, Auto City 3pm – 6pm.
• Participants must pair up to compete in the contest.
• Registration Fee: RM10
• For more information, please call: 04-508 0268

Locating this place is not very hard. If you know how to go to Auto city @ Prai, Penang, you will sure know where is Old Town at Auto City. Keep driving through the end, you will come to Starbucks coffee. Turn right and you will see Sakae Teppanyaki & Izakaya is just in front of you.

Upon entering the main entrance, you will see the grand and exclusive chandelier hanging at the middle of the hall.

There are many teppanyaki counters at the ground level, where “show” chefs will perform “live” cook of the  teppanyaki in front of the audiences.

As for starter, Fei Fei from PenangTuiPui was invited to demonstrate how to prepare teppanyaki fried rice. The ingredients are simple, they are rice, garlic, egg, shojiu (Japanese Wine) and shoyou (Japanese Soya Sauce). Although it looks easy, but you need some skills on the ingredient measurement, duration of cooking each of the ingredient as well as the presentation. Therefore, a master of Teppanyaki takes 2 weeks just to learn how to cook a teppanyaki fried rice.

Besides Fei Fei,Cariso also had the chance to perform her skill of frying teppanyaki fried rice in front of us.

Lingzie also tried out her “flying egg” skill with the teppanyaki kimchi fried rice in front of us.

If anyone would like to learn how to cook a good teppanyaki fried rice, remember to look for Cariso. Cariso’s Brand fried rice, your excellent choice of dish.

If I didn’t tell you which fried rice is cooked by whom you will not notice the difference. However, the one below was the one that cooked by the chef.

And this one is by Cariso.

At the ground floor, besides the main hall with teppanyaki counters, there are also private rooms which can cater about 10pax each for private functions.

Other than the ground floor which serves teppanyaki, the first floor is created for a more intimate ambience. This place is out of the sizzling and hot teppanyaki stove. It the Izakaya sushi and cocktail bar.

A row of shojiu’s….

More to Shojiu’s….

Besides the eating and drinking leisure, this place also provides sushi making workshop which the master chef will provide the tactic and ways to make hand roll sushi. This class is suitable for those looking for team building activities and at the same time you will appreciate the sushi that you have made. For those who are interested, the minimum will be 15 pax per class and RM40 per class. Kindly call 3 days in advance to make the booking.

The ingredients for hand roll sushi.

Tools required for sushi making.

The chef started to demonstrate the way to hand roll the sushi.

Squeeze and turn the other way round and press on two sides.

Place the salmon at the bottom part and once in the position, turn the sushi upside down.

There goes the completed sushi.

Besides sashimi, we also get the chance to learn how to make California roll. In fact, this is the toughest to prepare among all the sushi.

The finishing touch of the California roll. There are too many steps involved, for those who are interested to know more, please call 04-5080268 to find out more details of the class.

The chef-made California roll.

Next is the main ingredient for maki sushi. Yeah, the shrimp eggs.

First, roll and stick the rice.

Place the seaweed to cover its side.

Placing the shrimp egg on top as the finishing touch of the maki.

The mini sushi set which were done by me  At the end I had to finish what I have done. After this class, I am more appreciative of the sushi that goes into my mouth rather than always complaining the rice is too hard or too sticky. After all, we should leave sushi to the pro to make instead of an amateur like me.

Sushi Platter – Fire Dragon Maki – RM13.80, Raw salmon, tempura prawn, salmon roe, shrimp roe, mango & mayonnaise.

Sushi Platter – Rainbow Maki – RM12.80. Raw salmon, red snapper, broiled prawn, crabmeat salad, avocado & mango

Sushi Platter – Mango Soft Shell Crab Maki – RM12.80. Soft Shell Crab, Shrimp roe, mango & mayonnaise

The red snapper was caught fresh from the tank.

This is the fish that was later served to our table.

Seabass Sashimi – RM38.80, Fresh Red Snapper (Groupe) cut into thin slices and served in a very neat and presentable form.

Mixed Agemono with Japanese Curry - RM15.80. Fried breaded chicken, salmon, quail egg & Japanese shitake mushroom served with light fragrant home-made Japanese curry

Sweet Romance Set – RM49.80 (2 Pax). Lovely combination of teppanyaki sukiyaki chicken, assorted tempura, salmon with teriyaki sauce, chicken, squid, half shell scallop & 1 mocktail.

Live Baked Lobster Set – RM129.80. Mouth-watering set of Boston live lobster baked with salt, live seabass, chicken, squid & live oyster sashimi, served with rice, appetiser, assorted vegetables and miso soup

Bubbling Passion – RM8.80. Sparkling Passionfruit.

Chocolate Parfait – RM12.80. Vanilla ice-cream with peanuts, topped with chocolate fudge and chocolate.

Strawberry Parfait – RM12.80, Vanilla ice-cream with strawberry and mango.

Azuki Smoothie – RM11.80. Red bean, shiratama, vanilla ice-cream

Kyoto Sunrise – RM9.80. Mango Calpis, mango puree.

Omo Soft Shell Crab – RM7.80 (2Pc). Soft shell crab, egg crepe, fish floss served with Japanese sweet sauce & mayonnaise.

Love Chocolate Fondue – RM19.80. Fresh strawberry, banana, green tea mocha served with decadent chocolate dip.

Love Cheesecake – RM9.80. Celebrate your love with this delicious homemade strawberry cheesecake.

The bloggers were busy taking photos on the food as always.

Special thanks to the organizer for planning this invited review by PTP and CK Lam.

Overall, the ambiance here is very nice and cozy. Most of the food are delicious and luscious. The service here is great. The price is worth the money for the environment and service. The only drawback is the air conditioning of this place is not evenly distributed. Anyway, the management is looking into this matter seriously.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room

Operation hours: 11:30am – 10:30pm (Mon – Thu); 11:30am – 11:30pm (Fri – Sun), Open Daily
Contact: 04-508 0268
Address:1815-B, Jalan Perusahaan Auto-City, North-South Highway. Juru Interchange 13600 Prai. Penang.

If you are going from Penang bridge to this place via North South Expressway, follow the way to Permatang Pauh, do not exit at Permatang Pauh. Use the next exit after Permatang Pauh which is to Bagan Ajam and Sungai Dua. Once out keep to you left which is on Butterworth Outter Ring Road. After the second flyover keep left and make a U-turn to Jalan Raja Uda. Move forward for another 50 meters and you will see Khuntai Restaurant on your right hand side. For the GPS location, please refer to the end of this post.

By the way, the car park here is free. As you can see, not only the food here is authentic, the ambience is also in a very classical and traditional Thai mood. It gives you the “return to nature” feeling.

There are many small huts made of dried leaves and canes surrounding the main building. For those who want to have an easy access and faster service, you can always choose to dine at the main building.

Otherwise, it would be great to enjoy a private and peaceful meal at the small huts.

Starting the meal off with a glass of cool and refreshing fresh orange juice.

For more Thai-flavour, Thai fresh coconut juice is available too.

For those that prefer more exciting and awakening drink, umbra fruit juice is the preferred choice.

“Steamed Fish with Thai Style”. The fish was served together with another bowl of sauce. You can pour in the additional sauce on top of the fish to make it more juicy and fresh. Another reason of adding the sauce is to have a better aroma from the fish.

This garoupa fish is one of the few items listed as pricing according to market price. Other than that, most of the items listed on the menu have a fixed price and you know you will not be cheated easily. As for the fish, the meat was fresh and the combination of the sour sauce with the juicy fish meat was very appetizing.

Next, Fried Bitter Bean with Shrimp. Small – RM12, Large – RM18.

The taste of the curry was sour, rich and a bit of sweetness. It was indeed a very delicious dish. However, for those who are not used to the smell of bitter bean, this would be a great challenge to them.

Deep Fried Seaweed, Small – RM6; Large – RM8. The texture was very chrunchy and the taste was perfect when dipped with the sweet and sour chilli sauce.

Deep Fried Prawn Ball, Small – RM12; Big – RM20. The prawns had been chopped into cube-size and mixed with flour, water chestnut and also some other ingredients. The sweetness taste from the prawns and also the crunchy feeling from the water cheastnut made a great combination. This is a great dish to have.

Deep Fried Mantis Prawn with Duck Egg (market price). The mantis prawns were marinated with some sauce together with the duck egg. The taste was slightly too rich and overwhelming for me. For high cholesterol people, do not over consume this dish.

Fried Mix Vaggetable – RM6, was tasty and is very suitable for family with kids.

Fried Kai Lan – RM6, same as the fried mixed veggie.

Fried Kang Kung – RM6, another authentic dish that must be ordered. The smell of the shrimp paste was very strong which I love it. Again for those who are not used to the smell of shrimp paste, this might slice down your appetite.

Overall, the price for all the dishes above with 12 pax cost RM154.20. Very resonable for such amount of people and food. However, there are some of my friends complained that the price has increased alot, which is very contradictive. As for the taste, it can be said to be on par with any good Thai restaurant in Thailand.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room

Operation hours: 11:00am – 12:00midnight (7 days a week)
Contact: 04-332 7523
Address:104, Permatang Tengah, 13000 Butterworth, Penang.
Coordinates: 5°26’41″N 100°23’14″E