Ivy's Kitchen

My ratings: 5 Stars

Cuisine: Nyonya, Chinese, Steamboat, Seafood, Cafe & Hawker fare

Location: 58, Jalan Chow Thye, 10250 Penang

(2 doors down Jemputree restaurant/opp Hotel 1926)

Pork Free

RM10-30 per person

There is an undiscovered jewel in the mass of restaurants in Penang. Ivy's Kitchen serves the best traditional Nyonya, Chinese, Seafood and Steamboat cuisine. Born out of the dreams of Tan And Ivy to set up a family orientated restaurant serving the best dishes of their Hokkien and Teo Chew heritage.

Their strength is in cooking up the long forgotten dishes that our mothers used to make for us like Chilli Crab, Ju Hu Char, Teo Chew styled soup with seaweed and traditional steamboat. Their promise to their customers that every of their dish is home made and made fresh on that day and nothing comes out to the table except quality food.

As a matter of fact, some dishes like the Chilli Crab and Steamboat must be pre-ordered so that Ivy will get the raw ingredients and spices fresh from the market.

The menu may looked simple but ask Mr. Tan for recommendation for the day and soon you will realize there is more to offer and best part of it all the dishes are good. And the best part is that there is variety, you have to make several trips and dine at the restaurant before you get to the end of the menu. Rarely, you can get a restaurant that can cook well for all of its items in the menu buy Ivy's Kitchen is different and is that special restaurant. Here's to Ivy.

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We ordered a lot and we finished them all. We ordered Nasi Lemak, Gulai Ikan, Ju Hu Char, Chicken Lor Bak, Asam Prawns, Assam Gulai Ikan, Laksa, Rojak, Kailan Sambal, Beef Rendang and Bitter Gourd with Taucu. Oh! Yummy.......

Here is my recommendations: Basically, all above............esp. Nasi Lemak set, Curry Fish Head, Beef Rendang, Penang Assam Laksa, Assam Gulai Ikan, Assam Prawns, Ju Hu Char, bitter gourd with taucu, etc. Mr Tan is eager to recommend his Chili Crab and steamboat. I am sure they will taste fantastic! My next visit......

Tan and Ivy is taking reservations for Chinese New Year family steamboat dinner over the duration of the Chinese New Year. Call their numbers below.

I am giving my two thumbs up because I can get basically all my great tasting childhood comfort food here and if you have the opportunity, chat with Tan and Ivy. They have a lot of life & food stories to share....definitely adds to the homely friendly atmosphere. Stop by Ivy's Kitchen as part of your heritage adventure around Georgetown and get to experience a taste of heritage.

Call Tan (+6 013-4337878) or Ivy (+6 016-4337130) for reservations and/or advance orders. Open Daily 12:00pm - 9:00pm. Close 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month. Park car along Chow Thye road or at Cafe 127's car park.

Village

My Ratings: 3 Stars

Cuisine: Chinese

Location: Weld Quay (between Mixed Surnames Jetty and Yeoh Jetty), Penang

Non-halal

RM5-12 per person

The Village no-frill cafe-restaurant, just opened about 3 months ago has been quickly gaining popularity as a place to get a decent seafood bee-hoon th'ng/porridge. The broth can be served in clear soup or tom yam.

They pride in the their fresh seafood and minced pork meat and pork balls and most importantly MSG-free soup base. Mind you the chef even wear a executive hat for a no-frills restaurant. No-frills is no nice decor, open air with a roof and very basic furniture like a coffee shop. Mr Gin runs the Village coffee shop while the seafood bee hoon th'ng stall is operated by a different owner (Siang Ho). Open daily 12-11:30pm for lunch and dinner (close on 1st & 15th day of Chinese moon).

I ordered white nutneg juice with salted preserved plum. Yummy! It is sweet enough and has an aromatic smell of nutmeg. Mr Gin said that the white nutmeg juice is squeezed fresh daily. It is so good for me and it thouroughly quenched my thirst that I ordered another one but without the salted preserved plum. That was even better.

For mains, I ordered coarse rice noodles with minced pork, bean curd sheets and fresh fish meat in a clear broth while Amanda had the same but the Tom Yam version. The clear both is delicious and sweet, however the Tom Yam is rather strong in taste and have a spicy chilly powdery after taste. So the clear broth is my preference. The portion size is average.

Overall, the seafood is fresh and a decent variety from prawns to crabmeat. The chef certainly takes pride in his cooking ability, hence him wearing an executive chef's hat and a clean white uniform. Parking is limited so you are advised to keep a lookout for one and take every opportunity to secure a parking space. Traffic along Weld Quay road is usually busy and slow moving and the road itself is quite narrow due to cars are parked on both sides of the road. Lunch can be quite busy serving office workers their noodle lunch. Mr Gin (drinks stall owner and owner of Village) is friendly and approachable for any conversation. Mr Siang Ho is equally as friendly. Prices are not expensive.

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Steven Goh

Wang Zhao Jun

My Ratings: 3 Stars

Cuisine: Chinese

Location: 73 Rangoon Road, Georgetown, Penang

Non Halal

RM7-30 per person

This place is recommended by TV8's Ho Chiak! programme which airs every Sunday 6:30pm. Situated at Rangoon Road, operating from 8:00am - 2:30pm daily and closes on Tuesdays. This is a top favourite restaurant for local Penangites. It's super packed for lunch right up to closing time at 2:30pm.

Nevertheless, you need to be there early as their specialty dishes are usually sold out before closing time. Their specialty dishes are their Fish Meat Hor Fun (pictured), Sour and Spicy Fish Head Bee Hoon Soup (pictured) and Deep Fried Tofu.

I did not manage to order the Deep Fried Tofu as it was sold out when I reached there about 1:30pm. Instead I ordered the Chearn Jiang Pork Ribs (pictured). If you are not a fish head fan, you can replace it with bite size fish meat. I am not a fan of fish head coz I am just too lazy to work through all the bones in that part of the fish. So on this adventure, I had the fish head replace with fish meat.

All the food was delicious. The Hor Fun taste fresh as it is made as ordered and not ready made. It came with Chai Sim vegetables. The fish peices are very freah and its meat tasted sweet. Ginger is not used in the cooking, so that tells you how fresh the fish is. Served steaming hot in a light soya sauce with a sprinkle of fried garlic. The taste is flavourful. Every other table in the restuarant has a plate of the hor fun.

The Fish Meat Sour & Spicy Bee Hoon Soup came next in a claypot. It has Bee Hoon, fish meat, Thai chilli, tomatoes and chopped shallots. The first taste of the soup, you are immediately overwhelmed by the sour and spicy of the dish. The heat of the Thai chilli is strong but not intense while the sourness makes you want more of the soup after every spoonful. The sour come from preserved plum. I can see that people comes to the restaurant ordering that bee hoon only which clearly shows that it is the top favourite.

The next dish from the kitchen is the "Chearn Jiang" pork ribs. It has a strong flavour, It's deep fried and then served with a savoury and sweet sauce sauteed until the sauce is thick. I enjoyed the dish until the very last piece of the pork ribs.

I will definitely go there again to try the other dishes on the menu. Parking is limited so you must be prepared to walk further. The price for our 3 dishes and 2 herbal drinks came to a total of RM28.40. Slightly pricey but I think it can be justified coz fish meat is expensive.

Call 0125559046/0124709549

Pulau Tikus Night Bee Hoon Th'ng

My Ratings: 3 Stars

Cuisine: Chinese

Location: Pulau Tikus Tua Pek Kong Temple (opp. Seng Heng Electrical)

Non Halal

RM5-10 per person

This stall is situated by the Tua Pek Kon temple in Pulau Tikus. The stall serves good instant cooked Bee Hoon Th'ng. It offers a wide range of ingredients like pig liver, kidney, fresh fish, minced pork, quail's eggs, fish balls, blood, frog, prawns and a lot more.

You can choose a variety of noodles to accompany the soup. They can also cook with rice.

Ingredients is fresh and clean. However, the price can be steep if you choose a variety of ingredients like seafood. The soup is quite tasty and you can choose either clear broth or tom yam. Tom Yam is more expensive.

To summarize, taste is good with fresh ingredients. Can be pricey. Another stall accompanying this stall serves fried Yong Tau Foo