KEN HUNTS FOOD: SOHO Free House @ Penang Road, Penang.

Friday, November 25, 2011

SOHO Free House @ Penang Road, Penang.

If you are a night owl that went out for clubs or pubs a lot, then SOHO Free House should not be too new to you. SOHO Free House is a well-known pub located in the heart of Georgetown, Penang. SOHO group has a few outlets in Penang and the outlet at Penang road consists of two, namely the SOHO Free House and SOHO Penthouse while other outlets are SOHO Country House (Autocity, Juru), QE II (Weld Quay), Chin Chin Bar (Weld Quay) and Chin's Stylish Chinese Cuisine (Weld Quay). It might be a pub for alcohols during late night but many do not know that they are actually operating the restaurant during day time too. Drinks/Beverages can be very pricey here, for instance, a cup of coca-cola will costs you Rm7 while a bottle of draught beer costs Rm8.50 only, obviously beer lovers will opt for the beer. Please note that there will be an additional of 10% service charge and 6% government tax added to your bill unless stated.

They are having a very attractive promotion on main course at a very affordable price. With just Rm7.80 nett, you get to choose ONE from five delectable and mouth-watering main course. We attempted three of the main course that day, namely SOHO Beef Burger, Chicken Shepherd Pie and Roasted Herb Chicken.

SOHO Beef Burger (Rm7.80 nett). The burger comes in two choices, you can either pick Chicken or Beef. We went for the beef instead. The bread was lightly pan fried with butter to gain the buttery aroma and fortunately, the bread was not oily at all. As for the beef, the texture was well kept, the meat was just as juicy as I thought it would be. Reasonably flavored, together with some herbs, the burger works well even without any sauce to complement it. There were some fries given as well. I find the portion quite big too.

Traditional Chicken Shepherd Pie (Rm7.80) is definitely one of my favorites of the day ! Never looked down on this dish as the saying goes by, "never judged a book by its cover". Just like any other Shepherd Pie, its a dish with some meat and topped with mashed potato. The flavorful minced chicken complemented well with the smooth and aromatic mashed potato topping. As for the side dishes, green peas were added in too, I am not a big fan of green peas so I will definitely prefer something else, but it was okay if you are eating together with the Shepherd Pie. Highly recommended.

Roasted Herb-ed Chicken (Rm7.80). The well-marinated chicken thigh possessed a very fragrant aroma, topped with some home-made pepper brown sauce. The wonderfully flavored chicken was very tender and juicy. Although the chicken was very good and impressive, but I find it pretty common as it does not possess any distinctive taste to my liking. The mashed potato was decent to me, the best part was some brown sauce was topped to maximize the flavor too. Smooth and creamy texture were what I was expecting from a mashed potato and they have it there for me.

Other than the main course, we had some side orders as well. This was their Soup Of The Day -- Spinach Soup (Rm4.50 ++). Every set of the soup comes with a slice of garlic bread. The garlic bread was toasted to perfection and has the right crispiness and aroma to my liking. The baguette was extremely crispy even though we have let it set aside for a couple of minutes. The spinach soup was just okay in my opinion, I do not really adore vegetable soup especially when its mixed with cream.

Baked Potatoes With Sour Cream and Bacon (Rm6 ++ for both). There are a few options available too, for instance, to be baked with Cheddar Cheese. I did not try the bacon version, the sour cream was pretty weird for me. I would definitely prefer the Cheddar Cheese version.

SOHO Free House has a pool table and a soccer game too. Good for those who loves to play a round of pool or two with friends. Can be a very good place to spend your afternoon with your closer ones either.