Khunthai received raved reviews and was very popular among Penang folks.  You just need to Google for Khuntai and will find loads of review and almost all ends with praise.  We decided to try out this restaurant for lunch today and made our way over.  We navigated through the busy Raja Uda road and arrived at the fame restaurant almost an hour after leaving Penang Island.  There were not that many people, in fact when we arrived, there were only 3 tables occupied.  But when we left the restaurant was running close to 40% occupancy.  The restaurant had a high ceiling and fans at every table.  The cooling environment was very relaxing and couple with Thai pop music, the mood was lively.

We ordered our favourite Coconuts and went through the menu.  The menu was extensive, though was Thai based, I could not help to observe the vast Chinese influence in the dishes.  Its also a Seafood restaurant with tanks of fishes and edible Sea Creatures.  We ordered Seafood Tom Yum, Deep Fried Kang Kong, Deep Fried Prawn Balls and White Rice.  We did not had to wait long for the food, looking at the lack of patrons, it would be un-natural otherwise.

Tom Yum was the first dish that came.  The sour taste was overpowering and was not spicy.  After a few sip, it grew on us and we enjoyed it much.  It was not the best we had, it was ok.  The Seafood was fresh and the ingredients was abundant.  The soup was also thick and was not water down.  The little burning charcoal kept the soup warm through out our gastronomical adventure.

Next came the deep fried kang kong and the deep fried prawn balls.  Yes, they do not look like balls, infact, they were actually strip prawns covered with flour to shape like a full prawn and deep fried.  The deep fried kang kong was quite oily and taste of oil after a few mouth full.  We left the dish 3/4 full when we paid the bill.  We finish the prawn, but we dig out the prawn meat as after a few pieces, the flour was over powering.

All in all, the Tom Yum was the only dish we enjoyed.  The dishes did not taste that authentic to us as suggested by the logo, in fact, it was more of a Chinese Thai rather than Thai Thai, if you know what I mean.  Also, the Chinese characters on the logo is already a strong indication.  Khunthai is a lively Thai-Chinese Seafood restaurant.  Unfortunate for us, we did not enjoyed the food that much and did not feel that the dishes were Authentic Thai.

The restaurant received 2 star out of 5 from us.

Photos taken with iPhone 3GS.

A fairly new Thai Restaurant at Krystal Point, we gave it a try and was badly disappointed. When I first walk in, I was wowed by the wall paper. It covered from floor to ceiling and on all 4 walls of the restaurant. Lack of imagination first came to mind and I could not position what the proprietors were striving for. The thai music did set the mood though.

The menu was limited, with just a handful dishes for each category. The pictures were of help, but the food turns out to be 360′ different from the pictures. There were quite a few signature and we tried one, which is the Tuk Tuk Fish.  The fish was nicely presented, but it taste like Chinese steam fish. The fish cakes were the one that did not look like the ones in the photos. It was deep fried with breadcrumbs instead of being fried in paste form. The deep fried kang kong were also a let down, we taste the flour more than the crispiness of the vege.  The Basil chicken were not spicy, and the dish was drench with the source, and the basil taste were not strong.

We left with a sour taste and rated the restaurant 1 out of 5 star.

Blog from iPhone

The new Aeon Melaka Mall house the first Papa Johns Pizza outlet in this state.  With so many pizza shops in Malaysia, and having Pizza Hut, Dominoes and Shakey’s concurring almost every city in the country, I wonder how does Papa John’s fare in this crowded market.  My first impression was that this is another Pizza Hut like restaurant.  The restaurant feel and menu are also similar.  However, after tasting the fresh baked pizza, it is far from similar, infact, it rank 1 among  it’s competitors. 

Value for Money – Average

The prices of Pizza, sides and drinks are comparable with the other Pizza outlets in Malaysia.  During my visit, there were two promotion going on, first is Citibank Card 50% off for 9” pizza and Jusco Card RM5 for second 9” pizza.  With these promo, a party of 5 only spent RM80 for 4 9” pizza. 

Taste – Excellent

The pizza was great.  The dough was not oil soak like Pizza Hut, nor it powdery like Dominoes.  It taste fresh, and with the free fresh tomato paste, garlic butter & marinated chilli, eating the crust of the pizza was not as painful as the other pizza outlets.  I could taste the fresh abundance toppings, putting Papa John’s Pizza #1 among the competitors in Malaysia. 

Overall – Great

In comparison with Pizza Hut, Dominoes and Shakey’s Pizza, no doubt Papa John’s rank #1 in taste.  In term of value, it still trail Dominoes which has the royalty card that gives buy 1 free 1 large pizza.  To-date, nothing can beat this value. 

July 20^th was the maturity date(45 days). I have yet to harvest it as my existing Lemon Apple Enzyme are yet to be finished. It is finishing soon and so what I plan to do is to harvest about 20% out and leave the enzyme to continue to age up to 55 days. And if by 55 days, I still have not finish the 20% that I have taken out, I will continue to let it age. My objective is to try out the taste comparing between maturity dates. I wonder if it age longer will taste better.

This is one of my favorite breakfast place in Melaka, that I have put off blogging about it too often.  The Yong Tau Fu noodle comes with a bowl of noodle and a bowl of Yong Tau Fu.  The noodle has some kind of special oil that makes it very tasty.  In addition, those who loves chili can douse with the chili provided.  For those who like me, just love the natural taste, the rich fried onion with oil taste makes the noodle appetizing.  On the Yong Tau Fu, they have all the regular stuff, stuff chili, stuff bitter gourd, stuff ladies fingers, stuff tau fu and my favorite, fried fish ball and fried tau kee. 

The restaurant is located very close to Bukit Cina (map below) on Jalan Temenggong.  It is actually a block to the left of the Gurdwara center.  It is actually opposite Seng Heng, you can’t miss it.  They finish serving by 10am.