Penang Delight Cafe

Every time I pass by Penang to go to Kimura, it seems like it is really packed. Plus the photos online looked very delicious.

Since it was time for dinner with ConsultingGirl, I suggested we try this place out.

Penang is located on Rupert and 22nd. They specialize in Malaysian cuisine.

The interior looks really nice and cozy. They even have some really cute decorations on the wall such as little crabs, coconuts and other decor. This place tends to be packed on weekends, so if you are going with more than 4 people, do make a reservation.

When we went it was busy at first but then it really died down around 8:30pm.

We started with the beef satay ($5.95). It came with 4 skewers of beef and I think peanut sauce. I did not like this dish very much because the beef was a bit tough. I really imagined these be a bit more larger and tender.

It was also hard to dip the skewer in the sauce dish, so you will need to use your utensils to spread it onto the skewer.

The satay at Thai House Royal are so much better.

The next appetizer was the Penang Shrimp ($4.95). It is deep fried marinated pork in shrimp in a bean curd wrap. There were other ingredients in here as well, such as water chestnut and cucumbers. There was also a sweet sauce to go a long with it.

This is was pretty good, I liked the change of the wrapper so it’s not the usual wonton wrapper. This gives the roll more of a crunch and a nutty flavour. The addition of the water chestnuts gives it more texture and i love the crunchiness.

The next dish was the Kari Ayam ($7.95), which is dark meat chicken with potatoes stewed in red curry, lemon grass and coconut milk. We were really unimpressed with this dish because it was mostly potatoes and chicken. This dish also got very very cold very fast.

After we had the first bowl, we went to get more and it was pretty cold by then. Not warm, but actually cold. Maybe it’s not their fault since is was a cold day.

Even if the dish didn’t get cold, I would probably not order this again.

The next dish was the Curry Chicken Laksa ($8.95). In has shredded chicken with rice noodle, bean sprouts, fried tofu in a coconut curry broth. This was a pretty good dish and had this subtle taste and i think it was saffron or some other asian spice.

The shredded chicken was very very shredded, it took us a while to figure out it this was a veggie dish or not. Sure enough, we did find it. If you do want more chicken pieces perhaps getting the Hainanese chicken version of this dish. You can also get beef or fish ball versions as well.

I ordered the Soy Milk with Grass Jelly ($2.50). I thought it was supposed to be a cool drink but turns out it is just soy milk and grass jelly. It was also very small too. 4 gulps and it was gone. This is something pretty basic which you can make yourself.

I actually ordered this drink and wanted it at the beginning of the meal but after reminding the waitress, they brought it at the end of the meal.

Overall, the taste of the food was so-so, not the best but decent.

In the end, ConsultingGirl and I got a very weird vibe from this place. One hour before closing, they started cleaning up the restaurant, putting the chairs up onto the tables and cleaning the floors. We kept thinking they were closing and felt like they were trying to get us out. The weird thing was they were still accepting new customers. We were super puzzled.

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