Xuan Xin Steamboat (炫昇串串火锅) @ Gurney Plaza, Penang.

***This restaurant is no longer offering Lok Lok Steamboat but is still opened for business, steamboats and stir fried local/asian dishes are still available***

Xuan Xin group has well-known for offering a variation of Chinese cuisine in their restaurants, from Shanghai-nese dishes, Ramen to buffet steamboat It is famous of its fine quality and satisfying services provided all over their outlets. Recently marked another glorious moment for Xuan Xin group for the opening of their 4th outlet in Gurney Plaza. So the new outlet is situated on 7th floor of Gurney Plaza (Beside SenQ electronics and Next Stop fast food outlet) and it serves Lok-Lok (skewers) steamboat and barbecue skewers. Well when you think about lok-lok, its either standing by the road side or you are cooking your own skewers under the hot weather and temperature. So Xuan Xin has came up with this new concept of bringing customers into this air-conditioned restaurant yet get to enjoy the joy of enjoying delicious lok-lok. The environment is pretty cozy and comfortable no doubt, but it would be very costly to dine in here in my opinion. Moreover, they are charging government tax and service charge. 

There were 3 types of dipping sauces provided for us, the usual sweet and chili sauce used on Chee Cheong Fun, Thai sweet and sour sauce and Satay sauce (X.O. sauce for Hong Kies) Nothing much interesting about the sauces given, it would be even better if they could provide us with more options and choices on the sauce.

The drinks are quite pricey here, the ice mineral water was Rm0.80 and the ice lemon tea was Rm 3.50. 

There are quite a lot of soup bases for you to choose upon, I had tom yum (Rm 5) and chicken soup base (Rm 3), there are other options too, namely Sze Chuan spicy soup base (Rm 5). You always pick more than 1 soup as they are offering 2 sided pot instead, mix soup base which consists of Tom Yum and Chicken soup base cost Rm 6 while Tom Yum and Sze Chuan Spicy soup base cost Rm 8.

Customers can pick their own desired skewers at these fridges, where those skewers will be tagged with different colors of tagging. Colors indicate the price for that particular skewer. Yellow- Rm1, Green - Rm1.50, Blue - Rm2, Grey - Rm2.50, Red - Rm3, Black - Rm6 and Gold - Rm10. Those fridges have  reminders pasted on them which read: food from the freezer are not refundable. However, there were quite a lot of people who do not even bother about this rule. From what I have seen today, customers simply put back what they had taken from the fridge anytime they want. The management should be stricter on this to make sure customers comply with this rule to ensure total hygiene.

 There is this barbecue corner next to the fridges too, where customers can take whatever they like from the fridge and let the chef to grill for them. Things like marinated meat and seafood can be ideal for barbecue.

It took unusual time for the chef to prepare our food at the barbecue corner, we were waiting impatiently for the food to arrive. Yet, the customer flow was quite few that time, I can not imagine what will happens if the place is full of customers.

Pork belly, marinated fish, satay beef/chicken/pork can all be grilled. As for those marinated meat, they were slightly at the salty side to my liking. But no doubt, they were still good.

One must be wise in choosing the skewers, some of them were not that fresh, but most of them were decent. The must-try will be their prawns. They tasted extra-ordinarily crunchy and springy. Something could have been added or done to them but who cares, as long as they taste good, I do not really mind. There were quite a lot of fish balls for you to choose too, from the smaller sized to the bigger sized.

Their dory fillets were quite fresh too as in they do not possess a pungent smell. Simply boil them in the soup and dip with those sauce, their smooth and juicy texture just rule. 

Something rare and fun was their dried squid. I think its meant to be grilled instead, but I have boiled them in the soup. They were quite chewy and possessed a very strong squid flavor. Just something new and fun to try.....

These were their succulent prawns, definitely look tempting and seductive enough right ?

Aside from those skewers, there are quite a lot of small bowls containing other ingredients. From top to bottom, Enoki mushrooms, Japanese Toufu and rice noodles. One can opt for some noodles to savor the delicious soup too.

Hong Kong Shrimp Paste Chicken Wings (Rm 26 for 4) The chicken wings were just okay in my opinion as in they were deep fried and they were a bit dry for me. The shrimp paste flavor was not strong at all, in fact, I would not even know they were marinated with shrimp paste if I did not ask. 

Ratings:

Taste: 7/10

Price: 6/10

Service: 9.5/10

Parking: 8/10

Government Tax: Yes (6%)

Service Charge: Yes (10%)

Additional Information:

Address: 7th floor, Plaza Gurney, Pesiaran Gurney, Georgetown, Penang. (beside senQ and Next Stop fast food)

Business Hours: Monday to Sunday, 11am - 10pm

Phone Number: 604- 226 0830

Xuan Xin Facebook Page

Xuan Xin Group's Website