One word of caution - it takes a lot of patience to come and dine here. First, one needs to call ahead and make a reservation. Then, you turn up and a po-faced waitress would show you to your table, and you wait, and wait, and wait for one of the service staff to come take your order. Then, the owner-chef will swagger into the restaurant half an hour later than the official opening time, stop by the table of some regular customer to chat for 10 minutes or so, whilst hungry diners at other tables in a full restaurant would stare at him, surprised at his nonchalance.
We got our food more than one hour after we arrived for our 12 noon booking - and we found out later that it’s quite normal to have to wait for an hour or more to get one’s food.
Anyhoo, these were what we had:
Bak kee th’ng - these are pork strips, first coated in tapioca starch, the cooked in a vegetable soup, giving the pork strips a slippery, gooey coating. The food is bland-ish. There are shredded cabbage to provide some crunch, and chopped scallions for some bursts of astringency.
Oh chien - oyster omelette fried in copious amounts of pork fat, Fujianese-style, i.e. with gooey tapioca sludge worked in. It’s hard to describe the textures in your mouth: you bite into egg omelette with something slippery and mucous-like in-between. The bit of tapioca sludge which hits the hot pork fat would turn golden-brown and crisp. Then, you have sweet-briny bursts of flavor from the tiny, plump local oysters - super-fresh and tasty.
Local diners would drench their omelette with the sweet chili sauce that accompanies the dish.
Taukwa char sua-nah - this is a nod to the locals’ predilection for this Teochew dish of stir-fried tofu with leeks and shrimps. Very tasty version here.
The food here are admittedly tastier than the ones I’d had at Ang Hoay Lor and Quanzhou, but I’d rate it lower than Hock Chuan Heong’s. Of course, like the other 3 Hokkien restaurants, there’s absolutely no ambience to speak of. All are very working-class places, unlike the Hokkien fine dining restaurants in Singapore like Beng Thin Hoon Kee, Bee Heong Palace and Beng Hiang, which had much more finesse.
Address
Sin Lean Heang
360-G-7, Gat Lebuh Macallum, George Town,10300 Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +604-2626954
Opening hours: 12 noon to 4pm, Mon to Sat. Closed on Sundays.
9 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
2
I’m not sure that I’d have waited that long. And wouldnt be returning. There’s reasonable delays, unreasonable delays and just taking the piss.
I won’t return myself. But if someone wants to try it and invite me along, even if it’s for an hour’s conversation whilst waiting, I’ll come - just to see that other person’s reaction on the waiting time.
A fortnight ago, a cousin of mine in Kuala Lumpur queued for 4 hours in a carpark outside a popular new food kiosk there. It only sells egg rolls, and limits each customer to six egg rolls. The queue was 100-people-long.
I won’t do it.
The Hokkien oyster noodles were pretty good - but I’ll only return if it’s to accompany someone who wants to experience this absurd wait-time and “Hokkien food Nazi” attitude.
The only place I’ve ever waited an hour + for was Cervejaria Ramiro in Lisbon, this was before they started taking reservations, and I knew what I was getting myself into. A big plus was that you could get ice cold beer from a dispenser in the waiting area for 2 euros, so that made it a bit easier to suffer through
I remembered having to wait 1.5 hours for a table at Judy Rodgers’ Zuni Cafe in SF years back - I was with 4 colleagues, and we did know the wait-time involved, too. But we had a great time at the bar, as the place has this wonderful vibe.
When we were shown to our table, two in our party (including me) ordered their famous roast chicken with bread salad - which entailed another 1.5 hours’ wait (we cannot order ahead, not until we are seated at our table). But it was great food, and there was so much conviviality. I’d been back to Zuni a couple of times since just for that dish.
Sometimes a wait is unavoidable. What you described was just rude service. Not only would I not go, I’d recommend to my friends to avoid it too. Friends don’t make friends wait! Thanks for the warning.
