Penang Again – Day 5 – Japanese food in Penang sucks!

With Nic being the ultimate fan of Japanese food, we absolutely had to give a chance to another Japanese eatery while we were up North. We decided to go to a restaurant just down the road  from our hotel which came recommended by my aunt. It's a chain of eateries which I've never heard of before but was apparently well known by Nic. Having had bad experiences with this particular chain at some of the Klang Valley outlets, she nevertheless decided to give it a try anyway. Honestly though, it was a waste of time and money. 

Nippon Yataimura on Burma Street. Do NOT go there. 

Now, don't get me wrong, the food wasn't too bad...if I were eating at a Japanese food stall in a food court. I  also wouldn't have had too much of a problem with the food if the prices were lower because the portion sizes were meant for smurfs children.

Salmon Sashimi...freshness wise-it was okay, but each slice was very thin and about the length of my pinkie (bear in mind I have short fingers!)...RM16.90.

White Tuna Carpaccio...very, very good, but fucking TINY! ...RM6.80...or was it RM16.80?

Aspara Bacon...this was good, but again (sigh) very small. It's such a close up, but yet you can already see it's a small pile...RM15.

 

Teppan Style Tofu...all I can say is 'okay lah'...RM8.

Garlic Rice, served in a heated stone bowl. The presentation on this one was good. Taste wise, it just tasted like garlicky fried rice. And again, portion size was meager...RM11

Teppan Beef...tough, overcooked, puny and generally a waste of good beef...RM18(!!!!)

The decor wasn't too bad. Each table was a booth seat, and they had wooden plaques of each menu item mounted on the wall in rows. I would recommend reading from the actual menu though..unless you wanted to walk the entire restaurant just to decide what to eat. 

They had a long piece of glass which divided the restaurant in half lengthwise and a conveyor belt running around the 2 rows of booths in the centre. But what I really don't get is, why are the headrests on the back of the booths so high? Fashion...or failure?

Being as hungry and unsatisfied as we were, we naturally had to have a couple plates of extra food... 

As bad as the experience was, just before we left, something else occurred that really left a bad taste in our mouth. In attempting to ask for the bill, we waved at a passing waitress. "Wait." was all she said, before walking to the end of the row to spend 5 minutes chit chatting with someone from the kitchen through the food delivery window. To make matters worse, there were no other waitstaff in the area for us to flag down. Finally the manager saw our near futile attempt to attract some attention and brought us the bill. 

When the bill came, we saw that they had overcharged us for something that we had ordered, but was never delivered to us. Nic was so pissed off that once we'd paid the bill, we immediately went to the counter to speak to the manager. Halfway through her diatribe, she suddenly stopped. I thought she simply couldn't think of the right word to use, and continued on her behalf. I discovered later that she'd actually been so angry that she was seeing red and was at a loss for words (a rare, but entirely possible occurrence).

After dinner, in an attempt to grab some internet time, we went to...

I nominate this my favourite place in the whole of Penang! Segafredo Jalan Burma! XD

Saw this stuck on the inside of someone's car on the walk over to Sega's. 

Despite drinks and a shared dessert, our tummies were still unsatisfied so we decided to go food hunting for some 'supper'.

We ended up in a huge joined coffeeshop with lots of choices. Which rather surprised me, because it was pretty late already by Penang standards.

I don't know what this stall was selling, but the things were very nicely arrayed. See if you can find the red crab. (Hint: near the top of the photo)

And then, it was finally back to our hotel...

...for SUPPER!

Boiled see-ham (cockles) with chilli...

Fried oh chien (mini oysters?) with egg and some gummy stuff (starch?). This one had too much gummy stuff in it till I had to dig it out in big blobs and throw it away because I was eating more gum than egg.

Curry mee (or prawn mee, as the locals call it), which was my favourite item of the night. Rather surprising, as I don't normally like curry very much.

Sotong kangkung! (Or squid and..uh..veggies? WTH is kangkung called in english?)

Mmmm...tongue...-I mean, prawn. Yes, I meant to say prawn!

It was all in all, a lovely cholesterol-raising evening.

So far, my gastronomic experience in Penang seems to be failing more than succeeding. On the bright side though, it just makes success all the sweeter.