Gourmet Garden

aaaaahhhh………Still remember Ivy’s Kitchen Combo Meal posted a month ago?

I feel a bit bad towards to Mr.Tan & Ivy for owing the a-lar cart dinner post for such a long time.

Ok now, Ivy’s Kitchen also have available dishes on a-lar-cart order for dinner time besides the lunch combos that cater to the OLs and OMs in the near by office blocks.

At Night they serve Chinese and Nyonya dishes, and the followings are my verdict for some of the dishes served for the invited review dinner do:

The Big Banner hanging in front of the restaurant is eye catching. Jason has given Mr. Tan some ideas to make the restataurant’s brand name more visible to attract those who drive on Jalan Chow Thye. One of them was to place a extended vertical banner similar to that used by Japanese restaurants to show-off its name because the current banner is slightly out of sight by car drivers.

Sweet and Sour Flower Crab (market price)

The sauce combination is thick and very flavorful, and i can taste the distinctive sweet crab meat flavor from the first mouthful.

The flower crab flesh was indeed very meaty & fresh, it is a testament to the quality ingredients that they used here. To be frank, is my first encounter with such a meaty flower crab. Usually flower crab ain’t that meaty. The dish is a good mate for a bowl of fragrant white rice.

It was good, but there was a slightly sweet after taste. Light handed on the sugar is necessary.

Rating for the dish: 3.9/5

Gulai Tumis Chinese Silver Pomfret (market price)

Gulai Tumis usually would be Malaysian’s favourite, when talk and think about the dish one would start begin to experience a  saliva tsunami in the mouth. Hahaha…

What is so special about the Gulai? It is all about the spiciness of the chili paste, sourly taste of tamarind, pungent smell of lemongrass, light perfumery bungah kantan (tourh ginger) to make it became a mouth watering dish.

Above all ingredients, Ivy’s Kitchen version has additional Green Chilies and tomatoes. The Silver Promfret was fresh, but the fish was slightly over cooked because there some late arrivals due to the traffic situation.  I personally would prefer the silver pomfret put into the steaming tray rather into the gulai tumis if the fish still extremely fresh.  :)

Rating for the dish: 3.7/5

Assam Prawns (RM20 for 10 prawns)

Look at that divine caramelised colour!

There are 2 types of assam prawn, either with thick gravy or dried.  And here they served dried and crispy assam prawn with wonderful flavors .

I would say this nyonya assam prawn was very authentic to me. Although here in Malaysia there are tones of restaurant serving the same dish, but rarely you would get the same “good” nyonya assam prawn.

But don’t be sad, you can now taste the very nicely marinated and pan fried to perfection assam prawn in Ivy’s kitchen. The tamarind flavour is not overpowering; sweet and sour on the right balance. Thumbs Up!

Rating for the dish: 4/5

Fried Bean curd with Leeks

This was a simple homey dish with wok hei. It was slightly dried, a little more gravy and leeks should be better.

Again, it was slightly over sweeten.

Rating for the dish: 3.6/5

Tofu with Seaweed Soup

Seaweed soup with distinctive and clear flavours! This is the freshest seaweed flavour and aroma that I never taste before. No wonder Japanese like it so much. But again it was slightly over sweeten with the seasoning.

The soup come together with sliced carrots, fish balls, cabbages, minced chicken balls and prawns, and of course generous amounts of  the fragrant seaweed

Rating for the dish: 3.8/5

Fried Snow Pea Shoots with Bean Sprouts

The combination of snow pea shoots and bean sprout stir fried was not popular not until the recent years. I and jason still remember we had our curry fish head in Alor Star and we discovered this combination of stir frying of snow pea shoots and bean sprouts for the first time back in 2006 or 2007. Something interesting, as the friendly curry fish head chef cum owner told us, bean sprout gives the sweetness and evenly match the bitterness and rough texture of the snow pea shoots.

Anyway, the easiest dish is the hardest to master, more skill is needed. This dish in Ivy’s has that homey taste with wok hei.  But the bean sprouts were slightly overcooked, thus, the loss of that crunchy feeling. But the fragrant garlic bits compensated for that..

Rating for the dish: 3.7/5

Fruits Platter

After all the dishes, big plate of fruits was sent to our table, with chunks of sweet mango, papaya and longan.

Note: ivy’s kitchen is serves pork free dishes.

Average rating for this place:

2.9/5 for value (slightly over priced for seafood, but it was on market forces)
3.8/5 for taste & texture (taste of home cook meals, but there is still room to excel especially on the handling of certain ingredients and the seasoning)
3.8/5 for service
4.0/5 for cleanliness
3.0/5 for atmosphere (not much of decoration. evening got lots of mosquito due to the neighbours plants but they are looking into environmental friendly ways to get rid of this minor problem)

Location:

Add : 58 Jalan Chow Thye, 10250 Penang. (Next to Isaribi Tei and near by Jemputree)

Tel : 013-433 7878 (Mr. Tan), 016-433 7130 (Ms. Ivy)

Business Hours : Daily 9:00am-9:00pm from Monday to Sunday. Saturday 12:00pm-9:00pm.

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