Hai Nan Town Nyonya & Hainanese Restaurant
Written on 8:48 AM by Penang Tua Pui
August 2, 2008. The historical date for something new not only for Penang Tua Pui but also for fellow floggers who were there, including those who were not there. (though we wished you were there).
It is the first time for Penang Tua Pui to meet up with people who share similar passion and interest (Food-lor, what else?).
The company that night was full of laughter as well as sharing/ exchanging ideas and information. It was also a night of getting acquaintance in real life with fellow floggers namely Lingzie, CK Lam, buzzingbee, Cariso, Jason + Gill Gill and Criz Lai.
Oh wait, are we not supposed to be writing about the place we went? Hehehe, here is the story...
There are two outlets for this restaurant, one at Tanjung City Marina, between QEII and the ferry terminal while the other one is at Bukit Jambul, next to Kayu Nasi Kandar.
We went to the more spacious and more attractive dining-by-the-bay out at Tanjung City Marina. Upon arrival, we were captivated with the surroundings as well as the atmosphere of this place. Even the setting of Hai Nan Town was trying to match to the exterior and we were quite pleased with the setting.
The dishes arrived quite timely after we ordered them and choon piah (fried spring roll) was the first to arrive. There were 4 pieces with each about 1 inch in diameter cut into 3 portions and it came with special chilly sauce. (so precise in measuring them?? lolx)
The choon piah were fried till crisp golden brown but a little bit on darker side. It was crunchy and juicy on the fillings at the same time.
The jiu hu char was in fact mengkuang char with cuttle fish. It came with lettuce leaves which you can wrap the jiu hu char. The taste is like typical home cook food. And so does the mixed vegetables we ordered.
The assam curry fish came in one big claypot with sting ray inside it. The claypot looked big but not the ingredients inside. We could see more soup than ingredients and the soup is kind of watery and slightly sweet.
It did not taste spicy also which is suitable for those who prefer less spicy assam curry fish.
The inchi cabin was darker than we thought and not quite consistent in some portions, some were overcooked and some were not fully cooked. We believed the inchi cabin might have been put under intense fire which cooked only the outer portion.
The food here is quite like typical home cooked food which may not be something exceptional for locals but definitely a treat for visitors and tourist who truly looking forward to try out typical Nyonya and Hainanese household dishes.
Also, the price is slightly higher compared to normal chu char but the ringgit is worth for the environment and the ambience of dining by the sea. The money spent for dining here included not just the food but also the setting.
You will enjoy a comforting and relaxing surroundings with sea breeze blowing that will simply mesmerize you and your company. This place is indeed a truly alfresco dining by the sea. Of course every now and then you will get horns from the ferries when they are ready to depart.
This place also have live band at the evening which you can enjoy a couple of drinks or let yourself loose dancing to the tunes~!
This first gathering has been a wonderful get together for us and we would like to thank those who were there for their presence and wonderful company throughout the night.
Special thanks also to Lingzie for pulling this together and bringing the birthday cake for our lovely birthday girl. Also, many thanks to buzzingbee and Criz Lai for the sweet, fantastic desserts that left our mouths “tnee-tnee” even until now.
To CK, Jason and Gill, it has been a pleasure knowing you and we are looking forward to such gatherings in future. Last but not the least, to our birthday gal, Cariso… Happy Sweet Birthday ~!!!
For reservation, please kindly called them up.
Address: 8A, Pengkalan Weld, 10300 Penang.
Tel: 604 - 263 8633
Map (click to get the dynamic map)
More Food Shot
Food by flogger
More random shots
There are two outlets for this restaurant, one at Tanjung City Marina, between QEII and the ferry terminal while the other one is at Bukit Jambul, next to Kayu Nasi Kandar.
We went to the more spacious and more attractive dining-by-the-bay out at Tanjung City Marina. Upon arrival, we were captivated with the surroundings as well as the atmosphere of this place. Even the setting of Hai Nan Town was trying to match to the exterior and we were quite pleased with the setting.
The dishes arrived quite timely after we ordered them and choon piah (fried spring roll) was the first to arrive. There were 4 pieces with each about 1 inch in diameter cut into 3 portions and it came with special chilly sauce. (so precise in measuring them?? lolx)
The choon piah were fried till crisp golden brown but a little bit on darker side. It was crunchy and juicy on the fillings at the same time.
The jiu hu char was in fact mengkuang char with cuttle fish. It came with lettuce leaves which you can wrap the jiu hu char. The taste is like typical home cook food. And so does the mixed vegetables we ordered.
The assam curry fish came in one big claypot with sting ray inside it. The claypot looked big but not the ingredients inside. We could see more soup than ingredients and the soup is kind of watery and slightly sweet.
It did not taste spicy also which is suitable for those who prefer less spicy assam curry fish.
The inchi cabin was darker than we thought and not quite consistent in some portions, some were overcooked and some were not fully cooked. We believed the inchi cabin might have been put under intense fire which cooked only the outer portion.
The food here is quite like typical home cooked food which may not be something exceptional for locals but definitely a treat for visitors and tourist who truly looking forward to try out typical Nyonya and Hainanese household dishes.
Also, the price is slightly higher compared to normal chu char but the ringgit is worth for the environment and the ambience of dining by the sea. The money spent for dining here included not just the food but also the setting.
You will enjoy a comforting and relaxing surroundings with sea breeze blowing that will simply mesmerize you and your company. This place is indeed a truly alfresco dining by the sea. Of course every now and then you will get horns from the ferries when they are ready to depart.
This place also have live band at the evening which you can enjoy a couple of drinks or let yourself loose dancing to the tunes~!
This first gathering has been a wonderful get together for us and we would like to thank those who were there for their presence and wonderful company throughout the night.
Special thanks also to Lingzie for pulling this together and bringing the birthday cake for our lovely birthday girl. Also, many thanks to buzzingbee and Criz Lai for the sweet, fantastic desserts that left our mouths “tnee-tnee” even until now.
To CK, Jason and Gill, it has been a pleasure knowing you and we are looking forward to such gatherings in future. Last but not the least, to our birthday gal, Cariso… Happy Sweet Birthday ~!!!
For reservation, please kindly called them up.
Address: 8A, Pengkalan Weld, 10300 Penang.
Tel: 604 - 263 8633
Map (click to get the dynamic map)
More Food Shot
Food by flogger
More random shots
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What a nice place for hang out, had passed here for multiple time, but never take time to drop in.
Will be there soon
as I know it is quite pricy one....
Jon,
It is indeed a good place to hang out... nice ambience, relaxing setting, and peaceful surrounding (if you exclude the ferry horns).
Also, the night view is quite spectacular as well. How many nice places by the sea we have these days?
dead_cat,
compared to other places, it might be slightly pricier. Food wise, we don't think it has a lot to capture the locals' heart..
The plus factor is the environment. In one way or another, it'll make you feel like want to have your meals there :)
Good for SIEN LIAO only this restaurant becoz of the good environment. Not good to feed our stomach.
a great place to relax after heavy work load...
can ask for wine and sit there for the whole night...
but hor.. the parking is expensive.. RM5
Hi Ben,
the parking is RM5 for QEII while the Hainan Town is at RM3. But we went there before 8pm, not sure if the rate increases at night time?
what a nice gathering, is non-flogger welcome for the gathering?
Can't wait to see the owner behind penangtuapui.com
Sandy Yeoh,
It is open to non-floggers as well. You're a potential flogger too, right? After all, if you can't contribute on writing, you can contribute in ideas and places to eat :)
The owners of penangtuapui.com? We're just as cute as the three mascots above... :D:D
I agree that locals won't find the food anything special but it will thrill the tourist/westerners with its food and ambience.
Nice meeting up with the 3 "mascots" of PenangTuaPui. You all are certainly very friendly and very passionate on food blogging!! *Salute* (need to learn more from you)
Till we meet again next time...Cheers!!
buzzingbee,
it's been our pleasure meeting you as well and we feel glad to share the common interest in food tasting and blogging.
Thanks again for the wonderful cookies :):)
i like their assam prawn, you all shud had order that. But hor.. RM5 for each prawn..
Very nice pictures :-)
May I know what camera model are u using?
Wonderful blog.
Andy Chow,
RM5 per prawn wor... and there are 10 of us, then mah extra RM50. Might as well, get 2-3 dishes for that amount of money :)
hi Allie,
we have two cameras at our disposal.
1. Canon DIGITAL IXUS 60
2. Panasonic DMC-FX8
and of course, some touch ups as well :)
3 hungry souls with 2 cameras? the other one stopping the rest from touching the food? hahaha ...
the place certainly exudes charm, would be brilliant had the food been top-notch.
paying slightly premium price for such outlet is somewhat justified, no?
this is pork-free restaurant, so suitable for gathering on all races...
I like their assam prawn too
Thanks for sharing. A lot more to learn from you guys.
if the ferry can stop from giving us surprise horn... then Hai Nan is a great place to chat chat.. and pat to
Gina:
hahaha, ya right, your comment make me recall about my friend nearly fall down from his seat months back.... lolx
hi guys! excellent photos!! so interesting to see all our different posts about the same event :) (PS: i kinda totally ignored the food! cham hor? lol)
and yes parking at Hai Nan Town is still RM3 even though i came in before 8pm.
parking RM3 is ok la... when u go gurney plaza walk walk also need few riggit la...
nice shot on the food and atmosphere...
wonder if the actual one will be that nice too... haha
2 tuapuis carrying the cameras while the tuapui director was giving instructions on shooting the photo and provide lighting for better exposure..
See, great teamwork~! :P
Oh yea, the premium price is because of the environment and definitely suitable for all races. The whole place itself looks relaxing and like what other readers mentioned earlier... great for SIEN LIAO, pat thor, gathering or being with your loved ones
minus the horn that can make you fall off the chair hehehe
cariso,
Glad if we can help and of course we do learn from all of you too.. :)
lingzie,
Yes, Yes... definitely an interesting moment to see few of us posting almost at the same time... ignore the food, doesn't matter.. just don't ignore the environment. That one more interesting :D:D
Nice site you got here, yum :-)
ane good ler... can have gathering... Tua Pui a.. why u din post about this a?
our group members is your supporter la.. at least can see u all in person ma.... hihi
I was there 2 times having dinner. Both evening also raining. Well, the food there actually to be honest. Nothing much special.
hi Gloria,
Thanks for the support~! We are glad to have supporters like you :):)
Lingzie was the organiser this round although we proposed the venue. Maybe we'll post it up if we organise the future sessions :)
But then hor... Our mascots are cute enough mah, we are just like that in real persons :D:D hihi
hi hongkiat,
thanks for dropping by :)
Jonathan,
Too bad it was raining while you were there. Not much attraction in rain, we guess?
Oh, thanks for the info on the other branch located at Bukit Jambul. I dine in there once 2 years ago with my boss and customers. I remember one of their signature tofu is green in colour. We tried the stingray asam curry too. Not bad, almost like mom's homecooked dish.
Very nicely posted up PTP! How did you get the "other food" shots taken? :P Anyway, it's nice to know you all. Let's have more makan-makan next time. :)
http://crizfood.blogspot.com/
p/s: I'm glad that you got your photo posting issue settled. Welcome back PTP! :)
i need not to read the content of the food review or the gathering, by looking at the pictures, i can feel that the gathering did it very successfully.
Hey, your photo shots is better then my DSLR... :P
Jason has abit missed out when comes to "sharing shooting" with floggers...under pressure...lol
Glad to know 3 of you in person, and happy that you have same ambicious as i, to united penang food blogger power!
Thanks to PenangTuapui, i really love this blog. The food in Hai Nan is just normal nia but the env. is really good.
Criz Lai,
We went to different tables that night to take pictures on different food they ate and they gladly let us do it. They even asked us to take more :P
The truth is: We went there more than once, some shots of "other food" were from previous session :)
Nice knowing you too :)
gill gill,
paiseh nia... we got some *ahem* skills in capturing the moments :D:D No worry, let all of us shoot first and then it's Jason's turn when we're all done.. less pressure lor.. But then, the pressure on him to finish faster so that we can enjoy the food... hahaha
Glad to know you too`! :D
Emmm...Not sure why my best friend is really like the food here but for me i only like the view at night. I had been long time never been there since my friend when to KL and is there any change for the food price?
yuenyuen,
To some ppl, it may relate them to home cooked dishes or maybe the food is just great that they enjoy them a lot :)
We are sure if the price has changed, perhaps it'll be good for you to give them a visit again to find out.. :)
very expensive.. not worth the $$$ at all...
but the environment is nice.......
again... what a great shot on the food... those food like talking to me..
if never read what you are wrting and solely on the photo... it is misleading.... ""sweat...
Hong Beng,
food wise, it may not worth the $$$ spent but like what you said, the environment is nice... so would you rather fork out this kind of money for its nice environment? :)
hi Kuan Heng,
That means our photography skills have improved a lot~!!! hahahaha
and you'll need to read too to get the complete pictures :):)
Talking about Nyonya cuisine, i m Nyonya Kuih and Nyonya desset lover...can u guys recommend any good and authentic nyoya kuih selling around in Penang area?
hi GiGi,
The one we used to go is at Chulia St. There is one small lane between the Famous chicken rice (same row as Air Asia office) and roast pork rice. Go towards the end of the lane where you'll find an old building (red wall, if not mistaken).The building itself is the one selling the nyonya kuih. We used to get a lot from them during event functions.
But we're not sure if they're still around. Perhaps you can drop by and try. Maybe other readers have some other information on Nyonya Kuih too..... :)