Penang Hill Restaurant
April 25, 2007
Filed under Food trips & events
We like our “first” to be memorable. Our first plane ride, our first date, our first day at work… even our first taste of a foreign cuisine. When I chose to eat at Penang Hill at the Promenade in Greenhills over my daughters’ objections who wanted a repeat of our Teriyaki Boy dinner just a week earlier, my intention was to have a memorable “first”. Well, it wasn’t quite as successful as I would have wanted. Not that everything was bad. Some of the things we ordered were quite good, actually. But the overall dining experience left much to be desired.
Because it was our first time to dine at Penang Hill, we weren’t sure just how large the servings would be. So, after choosing two appetizers, a vegetable dish, a meat dish and rice, I told the waiter to leave one copy of the menu with us so I could browse through it and familiarize myself with the dishes. Just in case the servings are too small, we could place additional orders pronto.
Less than two minutes after placing our orders, someone tried to take the menu away. I said please leave it as we might want to order more. You’d think that made things clear but, no. A few minutes later, someone took the menu away even before I could open my mouth. The place wasn’t even half full. I’d understand that they needed every copy of the menu if the place was packed. But only three tables were occupied and there must have a been at least a dozen. Talk about customer service.
What about the food?
The samosas were okay. The dipping sauce was, in fact, very satisfactory.
The dumplings were good too.
The nonya fried rice was okay. Not extraordinarily good but it was okay.
The sambal kangkong was too salty for my taste but still good.
The braised beef brisket was… ahhhh, that was where everything went wrong. Fortunately for me, I don’t have false teeth. Otherwise, they might have flown off to the next table. It’s not that all the beef cubes were tough. Some were tender but the others were really bad. And that leads to only one conclusion. The beef in the pot did not come from the same piece of meat. Hence, the difference in quality. I don’t run a restaurant but even I know the risks of buying pre-cut meat. It is a rule of thumb in any good kitchen to cook a dish using meat from a single cut so that the tenderness is uniform.
To make a long story short, we won’t be going back to Penang Hill.
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hi connie!
speaking of beef..have you tried JONAS’ beef pares??! Grabe, melts in your mouth ang beef nila (sobrang tender!) at one order of pares is 98pesos lang–2 people can actually share because of the large serving! I frequent Jonas at the 2nd floor of Rob. Pioneer.
Hmm.. the food doesn’t at all look authentic. This, from someones who actually resides in Penang, M’sia at present!
So sorry to hear of your experience, but your comments on the beef brisket was very helpful.
Hi,
I use different cuts of meat many times before, and I always turned out fine. I cut the not so tender meat a little bit smaller than the tender meat. I guess it is just the matter of making sure every peice is tender.
julie, i’ll take note of that. robinson’s pioneer is a little out of the way for us though.
Hi ma’am Connie,this is Aida Paulite,”owner of Paulite’s Longanisa”. First of all I would like to THANK YOU, so much for advertising our product in your column Rediscovering Baguio. It helped a lot for us. Ma’am may I know who;s this Lisa your refering to… For those who are interested to buy our product you can contact us at these following numbers: [deleted]; [deleted] or [deleted]. Actually the seminary that your refering to is the place where my husband is working as cook, at the same time it’s just our outlet since our house is quite difficult to find. To make it clear the said longanisa is not a product of the seminary, it’s our family business. Again thank you so much ma’am…please place your order in the numbers given above, 2 days before, to make sure you are able to avail the product,since we always run out of stock…God Bless you always…
Aida, I had to delete the phone numbers you provided pending verification of the info. I clicked on your friendster link and you claim to be 17 years old.
If you have a thriving longganisa business, I find it hard to believe that your husband needs to work as a cook in a seminary.
Ms.Sassy, the said friendster is my daughter’s friendster account, I just need to use it because I don’t have an email account.Just to make it clear for you…
Hi! speaking of jonas, it was one of our favorites for about 10 years ago when my sis was in highschool (coz it was near her school). we went there almost every sunday before dropping my sis to her dorm. their mini siopao is also to die for. but pares alone is superb! too bad its quite far from us now.
Aida, if things are the way you say they are, perhaps you should take the initiative of informing customers when they go to the seminary.
Hi Connie!
I know it’s out of the way for you but if you want good Malaysian/Singaporean cuisine, go to Banana Leaf Curry House at Greenbelt and Roxas Blvd (across the US Embassy if I remember correctly). I’ve dined there only once (way back in ‘03) but having lived in Malaysia before, I can say the food was pretty authentic.
Hi Aggie. I think there’s a Banana Leaf branch In Greenhills. Or is it Gateway?
I myself really like Penang Hill. I lived in Singapore as a child and grew up eating Singaporean and Malaysian cuisine, and a lot of Penang Hill’s dishes are very authentic. Perhaps you were just unlucky with your choice of dishes.
dish, row, singular. There was one bad dish and bad service.
dishes are hit and misses here, u should know beforehand what u want to order and whats good