If there’s a week that Thai food should be in focus, this week might as well be it. There is no particular reason for this, as there isn’t a good reason that it usually rains just when you get ready to leave work for home.
Anyway, we moved up to Penang, and check out this small little Thai restaurant called Ghee Seng that is situated at Weld Quay, a place I am very familiar with having spent big part of my life growing up at my late grandma’s place right here.
Ghee Seng Thai restaurant, a modest shop lot at Pangkalan Weld
According to my sister, who also happens to be a lover of all things spicy and sour (ie: at the cross hair of that is tomyam), Ghee Seng restaurant serves one of the best white tomyam there is this side of Penang island. So after a karaoke session (more about this later) with my sister, brother, and Haze, we made our way to this familiar old neighborhood for dinner.
Parking at the area can be a little bit tricky, but isn’t anything that a determined mind can’t solve. The restaurant is situated at the ground level of a residential high rise, and can be best described as “old school”. That being said, the place is relatively clean and comfortable.
clear soup tomyam, kung pao mantis prawn
For the four of us, we ordered four dishes to share.
First was a big bowl of clear soup seafood tomyam, and over here the tomyam is made with fresh ingredients you can actually see (and chew if you like). There’s ample amount of chili padi, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, garlic, galangal roots, diced garlic, and lime juice making up the soup. It was spicy, original, and because it is the clear soup type – a lot less oily.
We counted over half a dozen decent size prawns, squid, and chunks of fish meat making up the edible ingredients. It was really a very good bowl of tomyam.
The kungpao style mantis prawn was probably the most expensive dish of the night, but it was also positively delicious. This is one dish that needs to be consumed in a hurry. Leave it a little too long and you lose the crunchiness from the deep fried mantis prawns. The kungpao sauce is top notch.
kailan ikan masin, “siam bak” or Thai pork belly, KY, Melisa, Win Sern, Haze
Another pretty rare dish here is what they called “Siam Bak“, literally Thai meat in Hokkien. It is actually deep fried sliced pork belly topped with chopped shallots, chili padi, and salad. This is a combination of flavor from pork belly, freshness of shallots, and the kick from chili padi. I like it.
Lastly, there’s the customary vegetable, and again we ordered kailan with ikan masin. It was a decent complimentary dish, nothing to shout about.
Other than being a commendable Thai restaurant, two other things stand out for me. Firstly, the first dish was served less than 5 minutes after we made our order, and within some 10 minutes, we have everything already. Lastly, the whole meal for four of us only came to be RM 60 even, and this includes a rather big bowl of tomyam seafood and a mantis prawn dish (known for being pricey). My sister mentioned that usual bill is about RM 30-50 for 4.
Address:
Ghee Seng Thai restaurant
BLK 123-G-06, Wisma KGN,
Jalan Pengkalan Weld (Weld Quay),
10300 Penang
GPS: 5.410566, 100.336284
Tel: 016-498 8325, 012-480 8266
Hours: 11 am – 3 pm, 6 pm – 1 am (Closed Wednesday)
this karaoke room is a bit massive for 4 person right?
As mentioned earlier, we went to karaoke at 1st Avenue’s Red Box prior to this dinner. Because we could only get 2 hours in the normal room, the front desk officer at Red Box asked if we would like to occupy the VIP room for additional RM 80 so that we could enjoy 4-5 hours of singing.
We agreed, and was shocked at the room given. It was literally big enough to play badminton in (if only the ceiling is tall enough). The screen is massive, and there’s even Wii and another LCD TV on the side for kids.
We had a blast trying our best to have a sore throat from 3 – 9 pm.
