Tasty Or Not?: Classy 8-Courses Dinner at G Hotel, Gurney Drive, Penang: An Enjoyable And Informative Evening

J invited me to go with him to a allergies-nutritional (I think I’m ‘over-nutrition’, haha) talk at G hotel @ Gurney Drive, Penang yesterday. I was his plus 1. I’d been to G hotel for about 4 times before this to attend different functions and talks and in all those functions, they served buffet dinner. The buffet dinner was nice, not great, just nice. Out of the 4 times there, I can only recall enjoying one of the buffet dinner (the most recent one), where they served soft shell crabs and Peking duck together with other dishes (sorry, my Samsung Galaxy S was out of battery at that time, food blogger worst nighmare!@#$).

Nice table arrangements!

Kit Kat on my plate!:)

We arrived there slightly late, about 5-10 minutes late and the chairman had already started with his welcoming speech. Most of the tables were occupied and left with only one seat. Hurriedly, both J and I went to a front table with still 2 empty seats.

Menu: Not buffet. Instead, 8-course dinner, yay!

However, I was taken aback when I saw a cardboard in front of the table written ‘vegetarian’. Omg, did I sit on the table serving vegetarian?! I looked at other tables and all the seats were occupied, meaning I’m stuck at this vegetarian table! Only later did I realized that the vegetarian cardboard was only meant for the man sitting next to me. Fuh, what a relief, hehe.

The foods start parading out one by one after the talk…

Three Hot & Cold Combination. The mussels were huge, fleshy, very chewy and intensely flavorful with every bite. Mini octopus was a little plain, some sweetness but I couldn’t taste any intrinsic mini octopus taste. Prawn salad with mixed fruit was nicely prepared. The prawns were fresh, sweet and clean (prawns cleaned properly and its intestines taken out) and the fruits were cut into tiny cube size.

Close up photo of my mussel, prawn and mini octopus

Hot & Sour ‘Szechuan’ Soup. There was tinge of spiciness and sour only. The rest of its taste was a little confusing (generally taste sweet) in view of the various seafoods that they put in it. Interesting and thrilled to eat chunks of sea cucumber, crab meat and shark fins with every spoonful.

Close up photo of my hot & sour 'Szechuan' soup

Crispy Chicken with Thai Chili Sauce. It’s crispy but the crispy skin is tasteless! The chicken was ‘too’ lightly marinated. I know it’s mixed with Thai chili sauce but that doesn’t mean that preparations on the chicken skin and meat can be ignored. To make things worst, the Thai chili sauce was too little and thinly spread out.

Close up photo of the crispy chicken with Thai chili sauce

Sautéed Prawns in Tomato-Chili sauce. Prawns were fresh, sweet and clean. Chili and tomato sauce? Get real! Two overwhelming taste won’t make a great sauce. Instead, the sauce was…forgettable. What a waste of fresh prawns.

Close up photo of the sautéed prawns in tomato-chili sauce

Braised ‘Bailing’ & Black Mushrooms with Broccoli. Broccoli was too green! (hope I’m not eating pesticide-coated broccoli) and mushrooms were nicely cut into small pieces and cooked till soft and juicy (absorbed some of the sauce). Nice.

Close up photo of braised ‘bailing’ & black mushrooms with broccoli

Deep Fried Red Lion Fish with Magnificent Oyster Sauce. Fresh fish shouldn’t be fried, unless it’s freshwater fish. Confusing? Well, a fresh fish should be steamed to maintain all it’s original flavor but freshwater fish may taste ‘swampy’ if preparations was inadequate (not enough washing, ginger, etc). I’m no expert in fish but the fish was nicely fried on the outside and yet still soft on the inside, good. I won’t use the word magnificent here, just plain, diluted oyster sauce that don’t even stick to the fish.

My neighbor vegetarian dish, rice with ‘fish’

Real fish and vegetarian fish, which is which?

Pineapple seafood fried rice. The pineapple was negligible and so is the amount of egg. The seafood was adequate and evenly mixed with the fragrant rice.

Close up photo of the pineapple seafood fried rice

Hot ‘Leng Chee Kang’. Omg, too sweet! Just like drinking concentrated sugar water! What a waste. There were a lot of ingredients but I was turned off by the extremely sweet sugar water. Another dish without purpose.