Idealite Wellness Restaurant @ Gottlieb Road, Penang.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle has been a dream for most of us, however, how many of us can really maintain or improve our eating habits ? With all these mushrooming of health-conscious themed restaurants, sometimes its a real headache on choosing where to go and what to eat. Fear not, Ken has a good recommendation here. Lucky me, I was invited to this Idealite Wellness Restaurant for some sampling, which is located at Gottlieb Road, Penang, right beside Waterfall Hotel and next to Double Dragon Restaurant. They mainly served organic vegetarian food, and one of their mottoes is to invent new menu during 15th of every month. Strive to educate the public about healthy eating lifestyle, they do organize talks in different areas of Penang. They are very particular in choosing the ingredients, for example, they use organic brown sugar (有机黄糖，priced at Rm9.70 per kg), Himalayan Salt (喜玛拉雅山盐，Priced at Rm5.80 per kg) and even quality Olive Oil as their cooking oil. With the use of all these exquisite ingredients, they priced their food at very reasonable prices, and most importantly, with no government tax and service charge (nett price). Parking can be a problem especially during peak hours like weekends.

We started our meal off with this Curry Tofu Salad (咖喱豆腐沙拉，Rm 5.70). The Curry Tofu Salad was not something that can be accepted by all range, I was one of the majority that find this dish a bit odd. The sourish taste from the yogurt just does not blend well with the Tofu in my opinion, and the mild curry flavor was not being tasted. It could be my problem, but I just do not find the combination works.

Vege Sushi (蔬菜壽司，Poh Piah version, Rm 6.70). It was a very refreshing dish, the Poh Piah (Chinese Spring Rolls) has some carrot slices, cucumber slices, cabbage, jicama (turnip a.k.a Mangkuang), fresh lettuce and some sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Some lime juice was then squeezed on top to added the refreshing flavor. A very good dish/appetizer to start our meal off indeed. Be sure to finish this dish off fast, else the outer layer (Popiah "Pui" or skin) will gets soggy in a short while.

Vege Sushi (蔬菜壽司，Seaweed/Chee Cheong Fun version, Rm 6.70). I'd personally prefer this version over the Popiah version, could be due to the flavored seaweed which has replaced the bland Popiah "skin". The taste was pretty much same, especially the squeeze of lime juice.

Popiah (健康薄饼，Rm Rm4.70), unlike the sushi vege, this was more to the usual Popiah we can get out there, the ingredients were pretty much same as well, which it has jicama as its main ingredients. I find no uniqueness in this dish as it was a decent but commonly found dish to me (but of course, the healthier way). We were given some chili sauce to go with the them too.

Seaweed Roll Sushi (紫菜寿司卷，Rm 7.70) was another type rolls we sampled, wrapped with seaweed and lettuce, the inside fillings were more or less same as the vege sushi above. The vege sushi wrapped with seaweed/Chee Cheong Fun still prevails in my opinion.

We were told that the making of this Chee Cheong Fun (酵素珠常粉，Rm3.70) was very complicated, they did not insert Benzoic Acid while most of the Chee Cheong Fun found in the market do. The less-oily Chee Cheong Fun here, was very obvious that they have a springier texture as compared to others. As for the sauce, no shrimp paste was used, but they do have other substitutes which they were reluctant to publicize to make the sauce looks exactly the same as the real (shrimp paste) Chee Cheong Fun sauce. Overall, I find this dish decent.

As for the set meals, we had Dry Curry Set Meal (香辣乾咖喱套餐，Rm 9.70) was very good and worth the value, especially the dry curry potatoes. Although it was on the spicier side, but it was very flavorful and worked well with the brown rice. The brown rice worked in a way that I was not expecting from the beginning, it was rather smooth and soft, unlike my previous experience on brown rice, which they tasted hard and chewy. Some coleslaw and Tofu topped with some Tom Yam paste were given as side dishes too. I'd love to recommend this dish to spicy lovers.

Eryngii Mushroom Set Meal (特色杏鮑菇套餐，Rm 9.70) was another impressive set meal offered by them, the portion was obviously big but the most eye-catching part is none other than their sliced Eryngii Mushrooms. We were told that the mushrooms were stir fried with some black pepper sauce before and topped with some toasted sesame seeds, but it does not possess the peppery flavor to me, it has a hint of sweetness too, works well with the brown rice. 

Hakka Lei Cha (客家擂茶飯，Rm 12.70) was one of their recommended specialties. Unlike other Hakka Lei Cha I have tried before, the Basil-flavor in this soup was not too strong and was just perfectly fine for me. The rice was first topped with some chopped carrots, cabbage, soy beans, sweet leaves, deep fried Tofu, long beans, chick peas, some ginger and some sesame seeds. The fresh green soup will be then poured into the rice, one shall savor the brown rice, together with the ingredients and the soup together. Recommended.

Move on to the noodles, we had this Organic Green Curry Ramen (有机青咖哩拉面，Rm 9.70) too. Customers may opt to choose from the three choices of noodles (Ramen) to go with their desired soup base. The curry was very sweet and it tasted a bit like those we had in Jawa Mee, except with a heavier basil taste. We opted for the Pumpkin Ramen for this dish, the Ramen's texture was still good and did not turn soggy despite we took quite some time to snap photos before we can savor this dish. Well, overall, I find this dish so-so only. 

Well, I am not a big fan of their Tomato Spaghetti (番茄意大利麵，Rm 9.70) too, as it tasted a bit bland to me. It lacked of a pinch of salt in my opinion and it will be great if they can offer something spicy to work with the spaghetti too. Although they failed to maintain the al-dente texture of the spaghetti but it still falls on the acceptable category. We were also told that the Tomato Puree/paste was home made, they blended their own using fresh tomatoes and some Sweet Basil. 

Another version of Organic Red Curry Ramen (有机红咖哩拉面，Rm 9.70), unlike the Green Curry version, this bowl of Ramen loaded with ingredients, namely Tofu Pok (deep fried Tofu), long beans, chick peas, bean sprouts and some Tofu. The curry flavor was quite strong in this dish but I do not see the uniqueness of this dish, just mere not-spicy-curry flavor. We have also chosen Spinach Ramen for this dish, but unfortunately, the noodles failed to have a significant flavor.

Organic Lo Ramen ( 有機滷味拉麵 ，Rm 9.70) was another dish that failed to impress me, the soup has a very very strong Star Anise (八角) flavor which cannot be accepted easily, moreover, the radish was another failure too. I have no idea what happened on their radish, but it just tasted horrible in my opinion. Improvements definitely needed for this dish.

Organic Dry Ramen (有機乾撈拉麵，Rm 9.70) was something that makes me wanted to go back and ask for more. We opted for the Buckwheat Ramen this time, the noodles were supposed to be dried and served with some sourish sauce or rather, vinaigrette. It feels like eating some fresh greens salad instead of having a heavy meal, everything was so down to earth, just like salad. It shares some similarities with those China/Korean (Bibim Guksu) style of preparing cold noodles (凉拌面). Highly recommended.

Idealite Wellness Restaurant has some attractive and creative set meals for kids too, this Kiddy Meal (小孩营养早餐，Rm 10.70) will be offering in the morning only and the Hello Kitty model will only be made upon request. It comes with two home made buns, some fruit salad rolls, a hard boiled egg and two slices of watermelon. Talk about the fruit salad rolls, it has some papaya strips rolled in between, it tasted really like fruit salad but being served together with some bread.

I do not expect a vegetarian/healthy concept restaurant to serve steamboat, but they actually did it, here's their Tom Yam Steamboat, with Brown Rice (營養健康東炎火鍋，Rm 17.70 for 1 pax, Rm 27.70 for 2 pax) and of course, it does not come with any meat at all. Plenty of vegetables were added namely sweet corns, seaweed, eryngii mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and lettuce etc. The soup was on the sour side and it was not spicy at all. It would be better if they could increase the spiciness of the soup, but you can always ask/request for the level of spiciness you desired right ?

As for desserts, we had this Signature Sesame Paste (招牌黑芝麻糊，Rm 5.70) and it was really good. Not only black sesame seeds were blended, but also some Millet were added to give the extra flavor. It was not too sweet and just perfectly nice for people who does not have a sweet tooth like me. Recommended.

Bubur Cha Cha (Rm 4.70) was okay only as due to healthy issues, the use of Coconut milk was substituted by some organic powder and as such, causing the lack of some flavor for this dish. 

In order to make this Seven Color Bean Paste (七色豆養生糊，Rm 4.70), the chef uses the ten multi grains which consist of Sorghum, Millet, Buckwheat, Pearl Barley, Oats, Mountain Red Rice, Black Rice, Brown Rice, Parboiled Rice and Oat to cook with some beans namely Mung Beans (Green Beans), Azuki Beans (Red Beans), Black Beans, White Kidney Beans, Soy Beans etc.... The overall taste and texture were something like the Red Bean Soup, with a touch of those flavors obtained from the grains.

Dragon Fruit Konyaku Jelly (龍珠果蒟蒻 ，Rm 1.70 for three) was something impressive, the unique bouncy texture was something special, the jelly has a very fruity flavor too, as if you are chewing on some fresh fruit slices. Recommended.

As for drinks, we had (from top left to top right, bottom left to bottom right) Organic Masala Chai (有機馬薩拉口味茶，Rm 3.70), Organic Lemongrass Green Tea (有機柠檬香草绿茶，Rm 3.70), Organic Assam Tea (有機酸梅茶，Rm 3.70), Pumpkin Barley (金瓜薏米，Rm 3.70), Organic Cocoa Oatmilk (有機朱古力植物奶，Rm 4.70), Organic Five Grain Energy Oatmilk (有機五穀植物奶，Rm 4.70) and Organic Soy Milk- Sugar Free (無糖有機豆奶，Rm 4.70). I personally prefer Pumpkin Barley and Organic Soy Milk if you'd asked me.

A big thank to this handsome chef here- Chef Hung for preparing all the wonderful dishes. He has been engaging actively in educating the public on how to cook healthy food as well. You might want to link to their Facebook Page for more information on their activities.

Ratings:

Taste: 7.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)

Price: 8/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)

Service: 8/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)

Parking: 6.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)

Service Charge: No

Government Tax: No

Additional Information:

Address: 27C, Gottlieb Road, 10350, Penang. (beside Waterfall Hotel)

Business Hour: 8:00am to 8:00pm, Closed on every Monday.

Contact Number: 604- 226 3650

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