Took my grandma, mom and dad to a nice Shark's fin place in celebration of my dad's birthday :)
It's a very private home dining where prior reservation needs to be made, but we'll soon find out why it's all worthwhile. I was so worried that I couldn't find the place but I found it at last :D
Apparently my Sar Chek (third uncle) frequents this place quite often and brought my grandma and my dad along previously, but this place operated from a bungalow at Pulau Tikus.
The very tastefully decorated interior......... This is kinda like the 'signature' of the owner's 'home', as with his previous bungalows
Table setting
Vinegar and home made chilli sauce that the owner claimed goes well with anything from shark's fin to noodles
Cilantro leaves to go with shark's fin later
We ordered...
2 pots of Large Braised Shark's Fin (RM 50 each)
These were served in boiling hot claypots and were just marvelous - check out the ample shark's fin within.. genuinely good stuff! I normally have my shark's fin with green chillies but we tried with the home made chilli sauce and it was like a match made in heaven - the chilli sauce was so spicy!
Crab Claw Tang Hoon Noodles (RM 35)
The crab claws were huge and it was easy to consume too, given the fact that only the claws were left covering the crab meat and the rest are readily exposed. The crab meat were very fresh and were not overcooked even with the tang hoon noodles together. One thing to note is this dish had strong pepper fragrance to it and it had loads and loads of garlic cloves underneath all the tang hoon
Goose Legs Noodle (RM 30)
When we ordered this goose legs dish, we did not realize that it came with noodles as well, if we knew we would most probably ordered something else that did not come with noodles. Nevertheless, the goose legs were soft and flavorful and unlike the ones we had at Red Bali before. Too bad we did not enjoy the noodles that much because we were all pretty stuffed with the tang hoon from the crab claws dish.
We all loved the home made chilli sauce - even my dad who's pro in consuming cabai etc found it to be extremely spicy and had to stop half way
Thai Fruit Jelly Dessert (RM 8 each)
After all the 'heavy' mains we had and the spiciness built-up within us from the chilli, we initially wanted to have Bubur Cha Cha but we were told that we had to pre-order them so that they would be freshly prepared. So we ended up ordering 2 thai jellies to be shared and they were very timely indeed. The cool and chillness of the jellies were comforting and did a good job ending our sumptuous meal :)
The bill came to RM 181 for 4 pax - about RM 45 per pax for fine home dining shark's fin :)
If you're looking for a home style yet fine dining private setting for a nice pig out of the best of the best - this is the place to be.
Please call to make reservations about 3 days ahead -
Tel : 016-4322 986
Address : 318-A HTE KEAT ESTATE, PENANG
Direction : Take a 3 o'clock turn at the Air Itam roundabout, go straight and uphill right til the end of the road. By then you will be able to see the bungalow on the left.
Went Genting Highlands with KW a couple of months ago and being 'casual' gamblers as usual, we played a fair bit and it was coincidentally almost dinner time when KW's luck striked, so he decided to treat me to Ah Yat Abalone (before the probability of contributing the $ back to Uncle Lim's son anyways!)
It has always been our 'goal' to dine at Ah Yat Abalone whenever we set foot in Genting, and we were thrilled to finally realise it! :D
The exterior...
Very refined deco of flowers in glass encasing..
Interior...
Our table setting.. with chopstick stand adorning Ah Yat Abalone's name
Hand towels..
We ordered juices (L-R) Orange and Honey Dew
And we were provided chilli paste and salted peanuts as well
After checking out its Abalone set and the menus and the waitress' recommendation, we decided to order 1 Abalone set (RM 99++) together with other dishes consisting of : Ee Fu noodle with crab meat and Chinese spinach in superior stock
The Abalone set is made up of:
1. Shark's Fin Soup
The best of all the dishes - the stock was flavorful and braised to perfection - very generous amount of shark's fin - we gulped down til the last drop!
2. Goose Web and Abalone
This was our first time sampling goose web - it's very similar to chicken feet, but slightly longer and more tender.
The Abalone was way too small to tell if it's a good abalone or otherwise :|
But we lurvveeeed the sauce though!
3. Bacon wrapped in Yam
Quite hard and served pretty cold - nothing to write home about
4. Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf
The only upside of this is the big portion of it, other than that, it tasted just like any other glutinous rice
5. Bird's Nest Egg Tart
We felt kinda duped when this was served - not only the size of this is ridiculously small - about 50 cents' coin only; the so-called bird's nest was scattered in a thin layer on top of the egg tart only!
6. Almond Thong Sui (soup)
A very normal almond soup you can get anywhere, nothing fabulous
The side dishes..
Chinese Spinach in Superior Stock
The spinach was a bit too hard to my liking.. as though not well cooked enough. I usually like this dish where the spinach is pretty soft, so that it goes well with the superior stock. The superior stock was pretty good however.
But I forgot to take a picture of the Ee Fu Noodles with crab meat (too busy sampling all the goodies! ^.^ )
The Ee Fu noodles with crab meat was full of crab meat and the noodles were pretty springy - I liked it
The bill came up to about RM 203+, quite pricey judging by the portion of most of the items in the Abalone set
In all, we were pretty impressed with the Shark's Fin soup but the rest of the dishes in the Abalone set were way too small, given the price - namely the Abalone and Bird's Nest Egg Tart.
The waitress did recommend that we 'upgrade' the abalone to a slightly 'superior' Mexico abalone for about RM 35+ (I think) but we declined - with hindsight, we wouldn't have 'upgraded' anyways since the set itself was pretty pricey already
Another point to mention was the other dishes that we ordered - the portions were way too big! We were struggling to finish the Chinese Spinach and Ee Fu noodles... If given smaller portions, we would have been able to enjoy them better as they tasted pretty good.
When we enquired one of the waitress as to why the portions were so big when we have asked for the smallest, we were told that those are the smallest portion already, so KW sarcastically told the waitress that no one can come in and dine alone in this restaurant then? Since the portions are 'fixed' to be so huge?
Ah Yat Abalone Forum Restaurant - a place we would most probably dine in if Uncle Lim's son were to shed some generosity at the gaming tables for us :P
