Food Review

The Ship (Sri Bahari) Environment	Mango Drink	Seafood Au Gratin
Rum and Raisin Ice-Cream Cake	Set Lunch Free Gift

Other than Little Cottage, there is another restaurant with dim light which is suitable for couple – The Ship. There are two branches in Penang here and the one I am going to talk later is in Jalan Sri Bahari. Even though the slogan is “The Best Stick Steak in Town”, I ordered one Seafood Au Gratin (Prawn, crab meat, oyster, fish meat, etc mixed with egg and baked cheese,  with potato wedges on side) when I first visited it in September 2007. Some meals are only applicable at Sri Bahari branch while some at Batu Ferringgi branch.

An advice when sitting there…. try to sit at the center to have chiller environment. When I visited them first time, I sat along the wall and sweat coming out after the meal. The waitress saw me so pity and recommended me to sit at the center in future. Definitely not a good area for couple who plan to undergo “hot” activity there. Also, the waitress will put a tower on your lap before meal arrival so make sure your “handbrake” is at down position.

As a whole, the food is quite nice and the price is reasonable. The meal (Seafood Au Gratin) as mentioned just now is a set lunch comes with crab meat mushroom soup, mango drink, dessert, and a FREE GIFT. The dessert is an ice-cream cake in Rum and Raisin favor – the favor I like most. It is kind of special considering they give free gift (a magnetic Malaysia kite) to customer as well. With only RM35.00 nett, this place definitely worths a second visit.

Address: 46, Sri Bahari Road, 10050 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 04-2633551/04-2639532
Fax: 04-2630054
Email: [email protected]
Restaurant Manager: Mr. Rahmat Ali
Business Hour: Monday to Sunday (11.30 am to 12.00 am)
Web: http://www.theship.com.my

Japin Restaurant Environment

Kimuchi Cyahan 泡菜炒饭

Gyoza 炸水饺

Hot Gingko Barley Dessert

Located at Island Plaza, Penang, Malaysia, Japin Restaurant is one of the two food tenders on third floor. Businesses in Island Plaza is getting poorer due to competition from shopping complex nearby such as Gurney Plaza. Some empty shop lots are left empty while the management still charging expensive parking fee, in which the watch boys’ attitude can be improved. I went there on one Friday on March 2008 during lunch hour (as usual, travel alone looking for never-try-before shops). Due to the emptiness of the mall I almost wanna go somewhere else for lunch but eventually I entered Japin.

The environment is quite nice actually (see photo). I ordered one Kimuchi Cyahan, Fried Gyoza, and Hot Gingko Barley Dessert. All up to the quality and taste good. At the end of the meal, there were already 4 tables of customers compared to only one when I walked in. Thank god or else the waitress girl will take advantage on me. There is a branch in Queensbay Mall now.

Island Plaza is not bad if you have too much money to spend as there are many high class boutique shops there. Of course the best way is to bank in those money to my account. Hopefully the management will find a way to improve more customers to the mall.

Name: Japin Japanese Restaurant
Address: Lot 3-11, 12, Island Plaza, 118, Jalan Tanjong Tokong, 10470 Penang, Malaysia
Tel: 04-8909006

Chicken Chop Little Cottage Style	'Monte-Cristo' Chicken
Portugese Chicken	Petini De Polo

Located at Burmah Road (nearby CTY Aquatic Shop), Little Cottege really looks like a little cottage. The double-storey shop has has small staircase, dim light, and soft music. A very good place for couple (too bad for me). Anyway, I managed to try few times there while visiting CTY Aquatic Shop (I like fishes). Photos taken are kind of dark due to dim environment there (again, suitable for couples to touch the whole body with one drink……). Getting back to business, the menu for lunch and dinner are different, with dinner costs more for set meals. The set meals usually refer to chicken/fish meals. One of my friends said that Little Cottage is more popular with its chicken.

Tiramisu Cake

For lunch, you can add side dishes, such as Tiramisu cake slice or fruit juice for only RM4.90 or RM0.99 respectively. It also provide plain water by default. The vegetables accompanied with the dishes are fresh and nicely cooked. Once they even provide a peach which tastes really nice and sweet.

Dessert

Dessert

Dessert

The set meal usually comes with a dessert, which is jelly in a tiny glass.

Little Cottage

Good thing about Little Cottage is that despite of nice environment and ambient, there is no tax applied. There is also a Little Cottage branch (called Little Cottage 2) at Gottlieb Road, Penang.
Wikimapia

Last week I visited Tonkibento Restaurant at Lintang Burmah Road and noticed a ramen shop there called Ramen Wang. This Friday, I visited the place and ordered one XO sauce seafood ramen. XO sauce, even though sound like a wine name, is actually made of dried prawn and chili. It is mild spicy (luckily). I added RM5.00 to include one smoothie namely “Tropical Paradise” (crunched with mango juice, pineapple, banana and vanilla), a Shui Gao Soup, and a Gui Lin Gao. According to the advertisement, the noodle is made on the spot using a machine (the machine is displayed near drink counter). The ramen is kind of small for my stomach since it is fried ramen. With soup, it should be “full tank”. Luckily I ordered a fried gyoza. It tastes great with vinegar and ginger slices.

There is even an abalone ramen costs RM45! Would visit again in future.

Restaurant Ramen Wang
11-A, Lintang Burmah Road, Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 04-2277298

My friend gave me a brochure on a Japanese restaurant called Tonki Bento near Pulau Tikus (Lintang Burmah Road, to be exact), so I decided to try it out this Friday. The place is hard to find if you are not familiar with the road there (note that it is not Lorong Burmah Road). Fortunately it is kind of smooth in finding the place. The menu is similar to the one my friend gave me (you can download it below). Other than providing dine-in service, the shop also provides delivery service. I tried to order one Sushi Bento but unfortunately they are unable to make it due to high delivery order (DUH!). As a result, I ordered Chicken and Salmon Teppanyaki set worth RM15.00. Both chicken and salmon taste excellent. A funny thing is that even though I am dining in, the plate and miso soup’s cup are served by take out plastic container. Perhaps this is also a “delivery service”…. to my table.

Anyway, the environment is nicely decorated. There is even a book shelf full of Japanese magazines (excluding *ehem* one). I took a Crayon Shin Chan comic and read while waiting for the lunch to be ready… even though I dunno Japanese.

Tonki Bento Menu

Tonki Bento Restaurant
No. 2, Lintang Burmah, Pulau Tikus, 10250 Penang, Malaysia.
Lunch time: 11.00am – 1.30pm
Dinner time: 6.00pm – 8.30pm
Tel: 017-4757100/016-4390606

I like sushi but sometimes just can’t afford to enjoy it at expensive sushi shops out there. Some hypermarkets do provide sushi counter but the taste is just average, or simply not fresh. So far, only Carrefour and Jusco provides better sushi. Since Jusco is just nearby my house, I used to get one RM10 sushi set as my dinner while performing grocery shopping there. The box also comes with small wasabi and soy sauce packs. Perhaps one of the reasons why Jusco has bigger sushi counter is that the retail outlet is backed by a Japanese company.

Personally I don’t like the biggest Pizza chain stores in Malaysia – namely “Pizza Nut”, even though it is widely available. One of the reasons is that the pizza base is simply too thick with less topping. Most of the time I feel that I am eating bread instead of pizza. US Pizza, even though is not new in Malaysia, provide thicker topping hence thinner base. During my first visit, I ordered one pizza set lunch (Tomyam Chicken favor) worth RM31.49 served with drinks, bread sticks and chicken wings. The chicken wings are recommended but the bread stick is kind of hard (plus it does not come with soup).

A drawback is that the shop is located in a less strategic place, which is nearby Gembira Parade, Green Lane (left of the mall, last shop of a row of shoplots). It may be difficult to find at first if you are less familar with the area there. As a whole, if you are looking for alternative for “Pizza Nut”, you may try US Pizza.