Taipei 101

My Ratings: 3 Stars
Cuisine: Taiwanese and Japanese

Location: 35G Pesiaran Bayan Indah, 11600 Bayan Lepas, Penang (opp. HSBC/Queensbay Mall)
Non Halal
RM10-19 per person
Contact: +604 4641339

Taipei 101 Penang has been around for more than a year but now it is back in 2011 with a new menu that will suit everyone's taste of Taiwanese food and snacks found in famous Taiwan night markets. For those who crave for Japanese cuisine, Taipei 101 also has a variety of bento items and gyozas for the whole family.

We tasted 11 food items and 2 drinks from the menu and pictured below. They were:-

Pop-corn Chicken (RM5.00)
Roasted Lemon Chicken with Noddle (RM9.90)
Roasted Lemon Chicken with Mee Suah (RM9.90)
Braised Pork Trotter cooked in claypot (RM12.90 per set)
Spicy Pork Ribs cooked in claypot (RM11:50 per set)
Ginger Duck Claypot Rice (RM11.50)
Honey Sauced topped Fried Cod Bento (RM17.50)
Fried Mushroom (RM4.50)
Fried Dumpling (RM5.00)
Sweet Potato with Plum Powder (RM4.80)
Seaweed Potato Chips (RM5.00)
Winter Melon Lemon Tea (RM3.90)
Ice Blended Green Bean (RM4'90)

Overall, the food has strong, full bodied flavours and my pick of the day would be Spicy Pork Ribs, Ginger Duck, Braised Pork Trotter and the Honey Sauced Fried Cod Bento. Taiwan's favourite snack dish would be the sweet potatoes in plum powder. I find the Ice Blended Green Bean most refreshing on a hot day and of course healthy too! The prices are reasonable and value for money, especially for the set meals. The portions are sufficient to satisfy any hungry man or woman too. For example, the spicy pork ribs claypot set meal is served complete with spicy tofu, omelette and rice for only RM11.50 plus 5% discount if you hold a Taipei 101 member card. This definitely make Taipei 101 a good alternative food haunt to the surrounding restaurants and food court foods of the nearby mall that will not bust your wallet.

Menu choice is extensive which allows diners to try new dishes with every visit or to take away or have your meals delivered to your doorsteps. Yes, Taipei 101 has free delivery service (until 7:00pm) which covers from e-Gate to Bayan Lepas, Sungai Dua, Bukit Jambul to Inti College for orders > RM25. Move over McD, Pizza Hut, Dominos delivery, here comes Taipei 101 delivery service.

There are ample parking in the area or you can park inside the nearby mall multi-storey parking and just walk across. Opens Mon - Thurs: 11:00am - 3:00pm and then 5:30pm - 10:00pm. But on weekends starting on Friday, the operating hours are from 11:00am - 10:0pm. Cash term only.

Yin Siang@127

My Ratings: 3 Stars

Cuisine: Taiwanese

Location: 127 Hawker Center, 127 Burmah Road, Penang

Non Halal

RM5-10 per person

I totally enjoyed my previous dining experience with my chicken wrapped with bacon from the Funky Monkey stall at 127 hawker center, I decided to return to taste the other street food dishes there.

I noticed that there is a new stall opened since my previous (first) visit. It is a Taiwanese noodle stall. Named "Yin Siang" which has a fragrant meaning to it. The stall has basically 3 types of noodles with 3 types of gravy, so practically you will have 9 different combinations. The noodles are infused with vegetable flavour namely spinach and carrot, giving it its distinctive green and orange colour and the third noodle type is Dan Dan. The owner reassured that the noodles are all naturally flavoured and coloured from the green of spinach and the orange of the carrot.

The 3 gravies are braised duck, prawn and pork knuckles. I ordered the pork knuckles with spinach noodle because pork is my favourite meat. Run by two sisters and had just recently started the business in early May. The dish was served in no time. At RM4.50 per plate, the portion is sufficient. The pork knuckle is delicious with a right balance of saltiness and the meat is tender. It complements well with the spinach noodle. I am looking forward to trying the other combinations in my future visits.

I was still feeling hungry so I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki. At RM7.80 per serving, I found it to be a little expensive given the taste is just OK. I was expecting a different Chicken Teriyaki. Normally teriyaki sauce is sweet stir fried with meat of choice from beef or chicken or seafood. However, the chicken teriyaki I ordered was different. The chicken was deep dried in batter first and served with a topping of shaved bonito flakes. The bonito flakes is delicious but I don't quite like the fried with batter first approach. I just simply like the meat marinated in teriyaki and slowly cooked until the teriyaki sauce is caramelised on the hot pan. Furthermore, the salad is served on the same plate as the meat. This is a no-no. The salad at the end tasted both sweet and savoury from all the terryaki meat juices mixed together with thousand island dressing. In my opinion, the salad should be served seperately.

Amanda had a plate of Emperor's noodles from the same seller of the Arab Fried Rice. I forgot to taste it first but Amanda said the taste is OK and less expensive than the Arab Fried Rice price.

Ample parking inside and behind the food court center

Kocha Taiwanese Delight

My Ratings: 3 Star

Cuisine: Chinese/Taiwanese
Location: 229 Jalan Burmah, Penang (beside 1926 Heritage Hotel)
Non Halal
RM15-25 per person

Wanted to try this restaurant for quite a while. I heard from a friend that the interior is cozy with beautiful aquariums of sea fishes. she right, once you stepped in, it does feel warm cozy with small Taiwanese decor and the you know that a lot of effort has been put into the aquariums. Beautiful. This restaurant serve typical Taiwanese cuisine and set meals.

But I went there on a Sunday nite about 8 pm. The restaurant is packed out and I had to wait for a table outside and there was a queue number being given out. It took about 15 minutes for the waiter to call us in to our table.

We were seated at a corner of the restaurant next to the wall mounted fish tank. What a sight! Beautiful fishes swimming around and probably just as curiuos about me as I am about them. Order was quick coz we already know what we wanted coz we looked through the menu.

Amanda ordered spicy chicken wings (3 pieces) for RM8.00 while I ordered the Pork Steam Boat (RM17.00) and hot honey lemon (RM4).

Honey lemon was the first to come out follow not long the chicken wings but the pork steam boat take ages to come out of the kithcen.

The steam boat dish is accompanied with a sauce which has beef in it. So for those who are on a beef free diet, be careful to avoid the sauce. The food that we had was nothing spectacular. I think it is quite expensive for the portions they are serving. Again nothing spectacular. I left the restaurant with room left in my stomach to fill.

No service charge nor any government tax.

Parking is limited, so be prepared to walk or compete with other drivers for parking space. And kinda creepy to park at the side road at night coz it is pretty quiet.

2 star for value for money, 3 star for ambience.

Hand Noodle Restuarant

My Rating: 2 Stars

Cuisine: Chinese Taiwanese
Location: OXA, Pulau Tikus (behind Poly coffee shop)
Non Halal
About RM20 per person

This restaurant serves fresh hand made noodles with wide different varieties like green tea, black sesame, Buckwheat, etc. I had the set lunch which is about RM17++ which include one noodle dish, Haw drink, herbal jelly, pickles. I think it is not value for money considering that the herbal jelly and pickles is hardly a mouthful. Nothing spectacular about the food. Ambience is just OK. Typical taiwanese themed

Parking RM2 but can be reimbused RM1 at the cashier