Established in the 1950s as a traditional Hainanese Coffee Shop in Perlis, Soo Guan Restaurant has since expanded into Georgetown Penang, allowing Penangites to have a taste on its famed Hainanese Chicken Chop that has appealed various VIP including the royal family. The restaurant is located in Lebuh Presgrave, occupying a small lot that offer limited tables hence crowding may occur sometimes.
It is hard to find good Hainanese Chicken Chop (RM 17.50) nowadays so we came here to try out this purportedly renowned dish after knowing the restaurant existence. Indeed, the appearance did not disappoint - a seemingly nicely grilled chicken meat with brown gravy, then served along with fries, buns, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. Undeniably the chef has done a great job with the crust and gravy but the chicken meat was too dry for our liking. We acknowledged if chicken breast is being used then it will be dried, but the version here was way too off the norm. The marination of the chicken meat is lacking in our humble opinion.
Well, everything was good for the Hainanese Chicken Chop but sadly the under-seasoned and dry chicken meat killed off the good work.
Another dish that caught our attention was Mee Hailam (RM 12.90). It looks good and I think they used a different type of yellow noodles that yielded better taste and texture. The overall noodles taste is okay but we feel the sauce was under-seasoned compared to other version of Mee Hailam we tasted elsewhere.
The Butter Kaya Toast (RM 5.50) was good - soft, fluffy and not too sweet. The only downside was the expensive price tag of RM 5.50 for breads. We were disappointed no traditional Hainan coffee though.
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