Nested within a heritage boutique hotel, Yeng Keng Café Bar offers classical colonial cuisine with Hainanese and Nyonya origin. Hainanese are migrants from Hainan province in China from the 19th Century onwards, and they dominated the chef's role in army cookhouses and hotels during colonial era, thus becoming an adept in Hainanese-Western cooking.
It was easy to get Hainan or Nyonya cuisine those days but the culinary skill was diluted over time as the younger generation of the migrants are less keen to develop their career in kitchen, making Hainanese cuisine a rare find in present days. Having said that, Yeng Keng Café is one of the sparkles in Georgetown, serving various Hainanese and Nyonya delights such as Hainanese Chicken Chop, Gulai Tumis Ngo Wa Hoo, Jiu Hoo Char (fried Jicama with shredded cuttlefish) and Bombe Alaska.Â
Yeng Keng Hainanese Chicken Chop (RM 23) is a classic exemplary of marriage between Chinese and Western culture. Chicken chop clearly does not have a place to sit in Chinese cuisine, yet the Hainense chefs working in colonial area army workhouse or kitchen has given a magical Eastern touch to the western cuisine, by introducing a thick brown gravy consists of Western influenced Worcestershire sauce and Chinese light soy sauce.Â
The boneless chicken thigh cutlet coated with breadcrumb is crispy with a crackling sound upon biting, complimented well with the brownish gravy to give it a slight sweet ending.Â
Our favorite in the restaurant will be their Gulai Tumis Nga Wa Hoo (RM 28, small ; RM 52, medium; RM 130, big). It is a savoury dish with Threadfin cooked in a tamarind-flavoured curry with lady's fingers and spiced up with bunga kantan and curry leaves. Best eaten along with rice, otherwise the curry will turn out to be too overwhelming and strong in taste.Â
Any visit to a Nyonya influenced restaurant will land you to Jiu Hoo Char (RM 23). The traditional dish with stir fried turnips, carrot, cabbage, mushroom and shredded cuttlefish can be eaten on its own or wrapped with cabbage. The dish is pleasant with a nice pepper scent.
Yeng Keng Chicken Pie (Small; RM 18), or to be precise - Hainanese version chicken pie is a classic delight which combines pastry elements with Chinese cuisine stuffed within. Puff pastry is flaky on the outside, enclosing a steaming hot mushroom and chicken within. Be sure to eat the chicken pie while it was served hot with its oozing sauce, otherwise it turns out to be too surfeit to enjoy.Â
People who has a special affection toward cheese could go for their Crab Mornay.
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| Assam Prawns (6 pieces; RM 39) |
Private functions, wedding and corporate dinners can be arranged on the first floor on the restaurant with customized menu. Another place to sample Hainanese cuisine in Georgetown will be Hai Nan Town at Weld Quay, the sister restaurant of Yeng Keng Cafe Bar.
Yeng Keng Café Bar  
362 & 366, Chulia St, Georgetown, 10200 George Town, Penang
+604-263 3177
Operation hours: 11 am - 9.30 pm
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Check out Shirleen & Ee Pin's Instagram for more beautiful photos we have taken.
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