February 19, 2012

Invited Review : Cheers Restaurant & Bierhaus

Cheers is one of the newer establishments bearing the concept of not only a restaurant, it is also a hang out place for people to have a drink, or even play some pool and darts.


One can opt to hang out at the al fresco area external to the establishment; or enjoy a drink at the bar or at the high tables on the ground floor; or have a quieter ambiance upstairs to enjoy a nice meal.


First up, we were served with a piping hot Homemade Mushroom Soup (RM 9.80) which comes with complimentary Garlic Bread. I love a good bowl of mushroom goodness with some twists of drizzled cream as well as surprising bits of what seemed to me like sautéed mushroom slices. The garlic bread was crunchy and is a perfect match to the homemade mushroom soup.



We were then served with a Cheers Fisherman Sensation (RM 29.80) which consists of 2 types of fish - dory and seabass; prawns, mussel as well as chuka idako (seasoned baby octopus).


According to the chef, 2 types of fish were included in this dish to provide a variety in terms of texture and taste and I thought this was pretty neat. The cheese baked mussels were good sized; and the prawns fresh. I didn't sample the infamous chuka idako but it did not look too bad to me. A fragrant garlic butter sauce was used in this dish and it blended all the seafood well. We can find a good portion of mash potatoes to finish this dish off too.

The next main course was Cheers Seafood Chicken (RM 31.80).


This was a pretty evident fusion dish indeed, as it comprised of baked chicken chop that was then topped with seafood and cheese, then finally finished with mandarin orange sauce. I'm always a skeptic when it comes to orange sauce in any of my food; but the version served here did not come across weird at all. This is the perfect dish for those who can't really make up their mind whether to have a pure chicken or seafood dish and do not mind some good ol' baked cheese. We were also pretty surprised to find some purple mash which is made up of Japanese sweet potatoes. Nice touch, considering the contrast in colour and lightness in texture compared with normal potatoes.

Next up - we had Cheers Burger Special (RM 21.80) which may appear to be a normal double decker burger served with french fries and coleslaw; but one of the patty is made of pork; and the other seafood. The seafood patty is made up of salmon, scallop, mussel and prawn which gave it a really good, chewy texture; whereas the pork patty was equally flavorful. It's seriously a good burger if you were to ask me, as everything else like the bread, melted cheese and salad complemented the patties well. The only thing we need to get over was how to eat it :)



The last 2 main courses were hard core pork dishes, the first one being Cheers BBQ Ribs (RM 29.80).


We learnt from the chef that the ribs were marinated with their homemade BBQ sauce overnight then slow-baked using conventional oven for 6-7 hours; which results in a flavorful, well-infused rib racks. The meat fell off the bone easily and was a pleasure to enjoy. Though the BBQ sauce was normal to me; the texture and juiciness of the ribs made up for it just fine. In this dish, we could also observe the use of Japanese sweet potato mash once again which gave it a good colour combination alongside the ribs and vegetable sides.

Last but not least, the German-influenced dish of Cheers Knuckles for 1 (RM 29.80) was served. Compared to the version I tried here before, I was glad to see some improvement of the knuckles served properly in whole pieces; the skin super crispy and crunchy yet the meat within tender; and most importantly, the beer-reduced sauce was served separately. Another fusion element we found in this dish was the side of Thai salsa which gave it a different twist to this otherwise pure German dish.


In all, I felt the signature dishes were good and worth trying; of course provided if they were prepared with the same amount of passion and sincerity in delivering a consistent taste.

Cheers Restaurant and Bierhaus
3X, Jalan Pantai Molek,
Tanjung Tokong 10470 Penang
Telephone : +604 8999 757