On a recent PH, we chanced upon the opening of the much awaited Xian Ding Wei at Queensbay Mall and we checked it out!
Xian Ding Wei is yet another Taiwanese cuisine chain restaurant and this is the first one that landed in Penang.
The interior deco reminds me a lot of Canton-i, except that they have a lot more varieties in terms of table arrangements, and I felt cosy too:-
One thing Sha observed was that the folks working in the open kitchen was not wearing any mask covering their mouth, and some not even wearing hygiene hats:-
After flipping through the menu for quite some time, we all settled down with set meals (which was fairly pricey and did not come with drinks either)
I ordered a special drink called Vanilla with Longan and Sea Coconut (RM 6.90)
It was super rich and creamy.... which was how I liked it, BUT! Too bad that as soon as I hit the sea coconut, it immediately became waaaay too sweet as the sea coconut itself already came with syrup :( I could not finish this in the end
Michael ordered the Original Pearl Milk Tea (RM 4.90) which did not appear even after all our food were served, and it took many rounds of reminding before it finally arrived (-.-)"'
The rest of them had chinese tea (which was in fact Taiwanese tea actually according to Ann)
Moving on to our set lunch which comprises of:-
A soup of the day
a main course, 3 side dishes
and a choice of either white rice or braised pork rice:-
One plus point we observed was that each of the main dishes came with individual food warmers.
Sha had 3 Cup Chicken set (RM 18.90)
This tasted awesome with the gravy thick, fragrant and flavourful! Goes well with white rice too although all of us opted for the braised pork rice. Sha liked it as well :)
Ann ordered Fish with Tomato and Egg Set (RM 18.90)
This is a pretty appetizing combination as it resembles baked beans with egg in tomato sauce - nonetheless, I felt that the gravy was a bit too thick and sweet
Next up - Lye and Michael's Sweet & Sour Pork Set came (RM 17.90)
This is the least tasty of all according to them (and myself) - the pork was too hard, not flavourful enough, and the gravy could barely be seen too.
Last but not least, my Dry Shrimp Set (RM 19.90) :-
The presentation alone already caught many curious stares from neighbouring tables, some even from afar, I personally was impressed too! :D
Check out the standing prawns! Yep - it doesn't take a math genius to figure out that's 2 prawns in total
The prawns were kinda like tempuras - deep-fried to perfection, and the sauce that complemented it was slightly sweet and spicy - made up of minced meat, chilli, mushroom, etc. Goes well with rice definitely.
There was one thing we all agreed was that the braised pork rice was really good - it looked simple and plain but it was very fragrant and definitely a must-try!
While standing around waiting for our bill which never came, we saw all these fire extinguishers lying around... Sha commented that they purposely placed them there as a way of camouflage
Well, we spotted them anyway :P
All in all, service could definitely use a lot of improvement. Still worth a try (maybe a few months later)
