The location of this place is at Chai Leng Park, Prai. If you are driving from the Penang Bridge to Chai Leng Park, you need to make a U turn on the flyover before entering to  Chai Leng Park. Once turn left to Chai Leng Park, make another left turn on the first exit. Keep driving until about 300 meters and you will see Leng Heong Coffee Shop just on your left and Lekker Claypot House is just located at the shop.

Lekker Claypot House (美味砂煲之家) is the only stall selling food at this coffee shop. Either you can order claypot chicken rice or curry fish head. Both dishes are famous and delicious.

Claypot chicken rice, one of the signature dishes at Lekker. (RM4.50 Small, RM8.00 Medium and RM12.00 Large). The claypot chicken rice had generous portion of chicken, Chinese sausages, salty fish, onions and the rice was well mixed with evenly colored rice. On top of the rice was placed with an egg which covered the rice. The taste of this claypot rice was simply delicious.

The aroma of the curry fish head (RM15.00 and above) was very strong and the spiciness was moderate. The taste of the curry was slightly creamy and was cooked with lady’s fingers and garnished with onions. It was a very seductive dish. For those who are unable to stand the hot and spiciness, do remember to prepare more tissues.

Besides claypot rice and curry fish head, there was also a plate of boiled lettuce with oil garnishing. It was just a simple plate of Boiled Lettuce (油菜) (RM3.00 Small and RM5.oo Big) with some oyster sauce and small fried onions.

Overall, this place is very famous and is packed with crowd. Parking might be a concern for patrons. Nevertheless, the food here was delicious. If you want your food to be served fast, either you beat the crowd by arriving before 11:50am for lunch or 2:30pm for tea time.

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 – 2:30pm; 5:30pm – 9:30pm (2nd week of Tuesday Off)
Contact: 016-456 8073
Address:121, Jalan Chai Leng, Taman Chai Leng, 13700 Perai Penang.

The name of this restaurant is “Will Western Delight”. Whenever I passed by this place  it was always full of people, not only during weekend nights even on weekdays all the table here were full. This has made me to drop by to try out their food.

It is very easy to locate. If you know how to go to Genting Coffee Shop at Lorong Delima 3, Island Glades, the shop is just opposite of it.

This place is still very new. They started their business since 25th of May. They are still new therefore no signboard has been placed except only one banner in front of the kitchen.

This place starts operation at 7pm. When I was there there were already about 12 tables and I still need to wait for about 10 minutes to be seated. After long waited for the seat and managed to place my order, still the food preparation took about 1 hour to complete and served.

The drink that I had was “Guinness Stout, Good for you” Mango juice – RM1.60. The mango juice tasted like from the compressed cordial. Haven’t got the chance to try out other juices yet, not sure if their orange juice will be freshly squeezed.

Cream of Mushroom Soup – RM3.00, the taste of the mushroom soup was like Campbell’s mushroom soup served with garlic bread. The ingredients included some small cubes of chicken meat but the amount of mushroom was scarce and it felt more like cream of chicken soup than cream of mushroom soup. The garlic bread was not kept warm before serving and was very hard. If more fresh mushrooms were added to the soup, it would definitely taste better.

Grilled Fish with BBQ Sauce – RM8.00. Despite the cordial mango juice and the Campbell-taste mushroom soup, the grilled fish with barbecue sauce was good. The texture of the fish was very soft and fresh while the mixture of barbecue sauce was just nice and up to standard. However, the lime slices given were were not very fresh and it felt like they had been freezed for some time. Again, the garlic bread was very hard.

Oriental Style Chicken Chop – RM7.00. So far the oriental style chicken chop was the best among all. The meat was tender and juicy and the skin was crunchy. The brown sauce was also very nice. This is one of the best dishes served here.

Overall, the two major things need to be improved are the service and the mushroom soup. I will be revisiting this place in another month’s time. Hopefully by that time they are well-prepared for us.

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: 7:00pm – 11:00pm (7 days a week)
Contact: 017-413 4330 (William)
Address:5i, Lorong Delima 3, Island Glades 11700 Penang.

Supposingly I have to continue with my Cambodia trip post with all the exotic food experience. But now I feel that this post has a higher priority as it is considered our Penang Flogger’s unofficial 2 and 1/2 gathering with all the high profile bloggers around, except myself. We were honoured to be invited by the owner of Miss Saigon to test out the new food and provide feedback to him before he started to launch the menu. The most important point, we get to test out all the food for FREE, special thanks to Leslie, the Miss Saigon owner upon his generous invitation.

Monday, 17-Nov will be the first day Miss Saigon Restaurant launches their new menu on Vietnamese Street Food. There are dozens of rolls, salad and noodle to choose from. For those who are daring enough to try Vietnamese exotic food, there are plenty to choose from the menu.

This is the interior deco of Miss Saigon, I am not going into details again as I have previously posted on First Vietnamese Fine Cuisine in Penang @ Miss Saigon, eGate.

One of the owners of Miss Saigon, Leslie is giving presentation of how the idea of Vietnamese Street Food came into his mind and why he is looking into changing them into fine cuisine.

The “cat man” is showing us Miss Saigon Street Food Menu while the feast is about to start.

The first category on the street food corner is the summer roll list:

• Traditional Northern Rolls, (Prawn – RM6.80, Chicken Slices RM7.80)
• Farmer’s Egg Rolls (RM6.80)
• Mini Prawn Paste on Sugar Cane (RM10.80) wrapped DIY with rice paper
• Crispy Gourmet Seafood Rolls (RM9.80)
• Crisp Fried Hanoi Rolls (RM8.80)
• Fresh Vegetable Rolls (RM5.80)
• Southern Fish Rolls (RM7.80)
• Classic Hor Fun Rolls (Beef – RM10.80, Chicken – RM9.80)

Personally, I prefer Mini Prawn Paste on Sugar Cane which comes with rice papers for you to wrap with. The prawn paste is a bit sweet and you need to wrap with the vegetable as add-on. I find that this is quite unique and the food is tasty too. The sauce that comes with the Traditional Northern Rolls with Chicken Slices is very unique, it is like mixing with almond or nut. It is creamy and rich compared to the typical sweet and sour chili sauce.

Next on the list is exotic Vietnamese cuisine. It will be an added advantage for someone who wants to experience the different side of their usual tastebud.

• Cinnamon Beef Chunks La Lot (RM11.80)
• Grilled Chicken T-shaped Wings (RM9.80)
• Wok Fried Flower Chicken / Beef (RM14.80)
• Spiced Grilled Eel Cake (RM12.80)
• Villagers Grilled Snail Cake (RM12.80)
• Street Style Salty Soft Shell Crabs (RM13.80)
• Royal Seafood Skewer (RM10.80)
• Frog Curry with Garlic Spiced Baguette (RM10.80)
• Vietnamese Street Beef/Chicken Baguette (RM9.80)

From the exotic food list, I prefer Villagers Grilled Snail Cake and Frog Curry with Garlic Spiced Baguette. The Grilled Snail Cake are cut into very tiny slices and grained together with chicken meat. Therefore when you eat the cake you will feel chewy as it is the snail’s meat. The frog curry is again a bit sweet as it is cooked together with sweet potato and herbs. It gives the feeling that the curry has been modified to suit common tastebuds rather than a truly authentic curry.

The salad and noodle option.

Salad List:

• Sour Green Mango Salad (RM7.80)
• Miss Saigon Salad (RM9.80)
• Cold Glass Noodle Salad (RM6.80)
• Crunchy Papaya Salad (RM7.80)
• Jelly Fish Salad (RM8.80)

Noodle List:

• Crunchy Eel Glass Noodle Soup (RM13.80)
• Villagers Snail Noodle Soup (RM13.80)
• Traditional Southern Beef/Chicken BUN (RM14.80/RM12.80)
• Traditional Vietnamese Chicken/Beef PHO (RM12.80/RM14.80)

Among the many options available, I chose the Villagers Snail Noodle Soup. The soup base is sweet with a touch of sour taste. It is like our Penang asam laksa. For those who loves sour, this is a must-try.

Overall, the food here is nice and some of them are quite unique. However, it is considered quite expensive for street food in Penang. I really hope that Miss Saigon’s boss will consider on reducing the price a bit so that more people will be able to have a chance to try out Vietnamese’s street food.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

MISS SAIGON VIETNAM CUISINE
Address:
1-01-15, E-Gate, Lebuh Tunku Kudin 2,
11700 Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia.
Opening Hours: 12.00pm – 12.00am
Contact Person: 604-377 6083 (Leslie Loh)

Other Attendees
Criz Lai from Criz Bon Appetite
Allen Ooi from Yummy Station
Michelle & Jason Lam from Let’s Chat and Chew
PenangTuaPuis from PenangTuaPui
CK Lam from What2seeOnline
Gill & Jason from Gourmet Garden
Lingzie from Lingzie’s Tummy Treats
Allie & friend from Havenly Allie
Nicholas Chan from Shiok Or Not
Carrie Soon from Cariso Delicacies Corner

This particular shop is located at a stone’s throw away from their previous stall. O & N Coffee shop sells Wantan Mee in the morning while at night the coffeeshop will turn into a chu char “cook-and-fry” eatery.

I am so glad to be there on their first day of opening.

I have been a regular customer of their wantan mee for 10 years. All this while, they still manage to maintain the taste and standard. This stall is run by 3 ladies, looks like they are from different generations. Not sure if they are from the same family.

The stall owner has won the award of “Penang Best Food Year 2002″.

Food presentation wise, you can’t expect too much. It may be due to the limited resources and overwhelming orders. If you are an impatient person, visit this place during weekend is a bad option. This is because the only dispatcher for this stall is the old lady, while the other 2 are on cooking and preparing the orders. Despite the “not-so-tidy” food presentation, the Wan Tan Mee is just marvellous. The texture of the noodle tasted just nice and the cooking temperature is well-controlled. The taste of lye water is not as heavy unlike some other Wantan Mee stalls. The mixture of gravy and sesame oil are very well-balanced that it actually brings out the tastiness of the wantan and the noodle.

Wantan Mee Normal per bowl (RM2.30).

Operation hours: 7am – 4pm
Contact: 016-4657808 / 019-4192528 (Mr. Ng Yong Hwa, Shop Owner)
Address: 1D, Lorong Delima 5, Island Glades, 11700 Penang.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

View Larger Map

The easiest to get to this place is via Jalan Yap Chor Yee. By following the road which goes from Jalan Delima to Bukit Jambul watch out for the signboard of Taman Jade View, turn left at the junction to Jalan Permai, keep driving straight until you see a field on your right, and at this moment you have to slow down for the right turn, just after the turn you will see Passions of Kerala in front of you. 

The prices of all the food are listed down on a white board even before you enter the shop. It is good for first comers who are wary of their expenditure.

The prices of drinks are also listed near to the counter just after you enter the shop.

The banana leaf set (RM4.50) which I have ordered came with four types of vegetable. All these four vegetables came in 4 different tastes - sweet, sour, salty and spicy. All of them were very tasty.

The “Dalcha” (vegetable mix curry) were poured on top of your rice before you started your meal. You can also choose to have chicken curry and fish curry as alternatives. 

I have ordered a Mango Lassi (RM3.50). The taste of the lassi is still up to standard with the average thickness and sweetness. Lassi serves as a good neutralizer for the spicy food that you had. However, I am a bit disappointed to have the cup presented that way. I was expecting the cup to be the one that was normally used for milk shake in Karala at Service Road rather than this normal plastic cup.

The fish curry (RM4) that I have ordered as side dish is nice, and the spiciness and the thickness of the curry is marvellous. I just love the taste of the fish curry. Again, the drawback of this dish is the plastic bowl. It really looks to like I am back to kindergarten eating instant noodle.

3 pieces of fried chicken (RM7.50). Crispy and crunchy which were fresh from hot wok. This was a nice combination with the banana leaf set. Again the presentation of the food is so “potong steam” (disappointed). If this was served at Karala at Service Road they would have served the chicken on top of a banana leaf on a plate.

Rassam soup, the cleansing soup to clear off the excessive fat and cholesterol after the heavy meal. The soup was very sour, for those who doens’t like sour, beware when you order this. 

Overall the taste of the food is comparable to the one at Service Road. I have no complain on the environment as it is quite cosy. The only thing that needs to be improved is the utensils that are used to serve the customers.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Operation hours: 12:00noon – 3:30pm; 6:30pm – 10:30pm (7 days a week)
Contact: 04-657 8550 (Gary G.V. Nair, Managing Director)
Address:5, Lorong Endah 4, Tmn Brown, Gelugor. 11700 Penang.

The name for this location is called Wisma Stallion. Anyway the exact location of this place will not be reviewed yet as I am getting the confirmation from the owner of this place. If anyone is able to find this place after reading my blog there will be special offer provided.

The restaurant is called Stallions Garden, the lunch time is from 11:30am – 2:30pm, while the dinner time is from 6pm – 10pm. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.

This is the inner docoration of the restaurant. This restaurant offers banquets for weddings, birthday celebrations, company events and buffet. Moreover, the parking at this place is FREE and the price of the food is reasonable too.

We tried out a number of dishes and I found some of the dishes were very special. The starter is called “Stallion Garden Double Boiled Emperor Soup” (宝马一品窝). The ingredients of this soup included dark chicken, fish bladder, sea cucumber, abalone and ginseng. It was really an Emperor style of soup.

Next, the “Mango Prawn Wrapped with Japanese Fried Rice Noodle” (日式米粉芒果虾). They used normal tiger prawns to prepare it. However, the fried rice noodle used to wrap the prawn was imported from Japan. The rice noodle was very crunchy. The inner part was stuffed with tiger prawns in mango paste. It is an excellent combination. Something that we can hardly get daily.
 

“Chef Special Broccoli with Sea Cucumber” (海参扒兰花). This is the usual dish for most of the Chinese dining that we used to have. However, the gravy is the main ingredient which made this dish outstanding. A sea cucumber is tasteless by itself and it needs the gravy to bring out its taste. So far, the taste is acceptable.

This next dish is very unique, it’s called “Fresh Garupa in Two Preparations”(麒麟双味班). So far the fish I’ve tried was as good as the name sounded because the fish was really fresh. There were two types of preparation, the left was the deep-fried fish with sweet and sour sauce and on the other was steamed fish with spicy ginger sauce. What made the dish so special was the carrot slice which was stuffed in each slice of the fish fillet. This actually made the meat crunchy.  

“Assorted Seafood with Ee Mee”(海鲜闷伊面). The ee mee was cooked together with all types of seafood including fish, prawn and crab meat. All the seafood highlight were in this noodle. 

Last but not least, it was also my main focus. Something which takes time to prepare in a very unique way, the ”Double Boiled Hasma in Coconut” (椰盅炖雪蛤). The dried hasma which had been rehydrated was double-boiled in a whole coconut with rock sugar to create a glutinous texture and opaque colour. The original taste of hasma is actually unflavoured. However after double boiled in a coconut, the coconut’s aroma had actually soaked into the hasma soup and made the soup even sweeter.

Overall, the food here is prepared in a very unique way. Not only the food looks good but they taste good as well. For the next surprise to come, please stay tuned for my next update.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

There are not much places selling Vietnamese food in Penang. The only place that I can recall is The Food Loaf at Gurney Plaza. However, so far in Penang there is no restaurant which offers authentic Vietnamese food.

Now there is one restaurant at eGate which offers fine Vietnamese cuisine. Last Friday was the first day of the restaurant’s grand opening. I am honoured to be invited by the owner to try out the food and entitled to 50% discount. Now, with all these privileges who still thinks that I am a weirdo food blogger who took pictures over my meal?

The actual location of Miss Saigon is located at eGate, Penang and it’s beside Georgetown Cafe and OldTown Cafe.

Wikimapia’s GPS:

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=5.3763751&lon=100.3157061&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2

The phone number is shown as below. If you are really in a hurry you can call to pre-order your food as the restaurant is still very new and needs longer preparation time.

These are restaurant’s staffs and the counter. Currently there is still no cashier machine and all the bill are calculated manually.

I love the decoration inside as it has a mixture of contemporary and traditional Vietnamese ambience.

My cup of tea which is the Vietnamese Lemongrass Tea. Actually, I wanted to try out Vietnamese Lotus Tea, however there it is not in stock yet. Fortunate enough the lemongrass tea actually tastes nice too, else I will be cursing up and down.

Someone has ordered A&W Root Beer Float. Hm….

Grilled Boneless Chicken Thigh Topped with Lemongrass Sauce. The chicken is well marinated with the lemongrass gravy served with broken rice and vege. The chicken tastes nice and makes your mouth watery when it is being served as the baked chicken with lemongrass really smell nice.

Traditional Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup. Beef slices and koay teow in clear beef broth, served with bean sprouts, mint leaves, lemon and green leaves. This is a very typical and traditional Pho (pronounce as fer) for their koay teow. Beef soup is very nice as they boiled with beef bones for long hours.

While having my dinner, I saw someone sitting across my table is looking at the menu and writing a lot on his diary too. I think he might be another food critic. Too bad I didn’t have a chance to know him. If anyone know him please tell me.

Vietnamese Southern Noodle, Stir Fried Beef. Fragrant beef and rice noodle, served with green salad, lemongrass, peanuts, mint leaves, cucumber and bean sprouts. The beef slices is quite similar tothe traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup, the only difference is there are not much soup in here and they have changed the koay teow to rice noodle.

Fragrant Beef Baked in Bamboo Cup. The serving of this dish is very similar to grilled boneless chicken where there is vege and broken rice. This time the meat is served in a bamboo cup and on top is sprinkled with grained leamongrass. The meat was marinated before it was baked. I love the meat but the gravy is a bit too salty.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Overall, I love the environment here as the place is very cozy. However, there is still room for improvement on their services and foods. I will make another “spot check” next month to see their progress.

Anyway, life still has to move on. Below is the place that I have visited, it is known as Genting Restaurant (Coffee Shop) that located at Island Glades.

Wikimapia GPS location:
http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=5.382838&lon=100.303861&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2

This restaurant has many world class  local delights. The first introduction will be Char Koay Teow stall. The specialties of this stall is they are frying with duck egg. For those who don’t understand chinese, 鸭蛋 means duck egg.

So far, in Penang there is not much stall that fry duck egg char koay teow. The difference between chicken egg and duck egg is the smell and the color contrast of the egg yolk is nicer. Not just because of additional duck egg which makes this char koay teow tastes great, but even originally the gravy and combination of bean spraut, cockles (siput) and chives is a great taste.  

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

The second great food in this restaurant is the “Chee Cheong Fun”(Rice Noodle Roll). I had once told my KL friend this is the world’s best chee cheong fun and he was doubtful about it until he tried it himself.
 
This Chee Cheong Fun is so famous and commercialise, if you ask them to “open up” the rice noodle rolls for you, they will just tell you that they are not free to do so. The difference of this Chee Cheong Fun compared to other is the sauce. Usually the mixture of sauce is shrimp paste, chili sauce and sweet sauce. But for this one, the stall has come out with its own creativity. By not following the norm, he added peanut butter in the shrimp paste. This makes it different. If I tell you is nice, most properly you will feel funny. Anyway, once you try this you will know what is a top class Chee Cheong Fun.


Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

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Price
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Third is the Fatty Keong Duck Rice Stall. This particular stall is not as commercialise as previous 2 stalls, even you go during the peak hours still you won’t need to wait for long for the food.

Usually the duck rice stall that I had introduced before were the roast duck. This one is different, the duck is soaked into a big hot pot with special-made gravy. In Chinese we called it “卤鸭” – Loh Ark. The gravy which has soaked into the duck skin makes it look darker in color. For those who want to have a taste of different way a duck is prepared, this is the stall that you must try.


Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall