One Malaysia Themed Buffet Dinner @ Berjaya Hotel, Penang.

Yes, Ken is following the "1 Malaysia" concept, Berjaya Hotel Penang that is located right beside Midlands. Berjaya Hotel is well known for offering one of the cheapest and most affordable buffet in town. Saturdays' theme was "1 Malaysia" which obviously promoting all the exquisite food from all three main races. The buffet is priced at Rm40++ for adults and Rm24++ for senior citizens (above 55 years old) and children. Not only as such, they are having this promotion, where by a kid can dine in for free for every two paying adults. There will be live band performances and a cup of complimentary fruit juice given to every single guest of theirs too. Frankly speaking, the choices were pretty limited. The service provided by their highly motivated staff was very impressive. 

The entree provided for us that night were Shark Fin soup and Cream of Mushroom Soup. I opted for the Shark Fin Soup instead, topped with some vinegar. The taste was exceptionally okay but the texture was not as smooth as I thought it would be. Reason behind this could be the over-used of starch that turned the soup into sticky texture.

One of their specialties was definitely their Ikan Panggang (Malay Style of Grilling Fish) . There were three types of fishes available for us to choose, namely Seabass (Siakap), Stingray (Ikan Pari) and Red Snapper (Ikan Merah Jalur). I am a big fan of grilled Stingray, therefore, it was definitely my choice, the selected fish will be dipped into a curry sauce and grilled to perfection. One can opt to top or have the fish to go with their Assam sauce, where by they have included some chopped tomatoes, assam juice, chopped chilies and chopped onions. It was a very appetizing and tantalizing sauce indeed and it worked pretty well with the fish. The fish was not too fresh and the sauce used was a bit salty in my opinion, but it was okay if you are eating with their special assam sauce.

Curry Fish Head was available too, the flavor of the curry was very strong and it has complemented very well with the fish. You might opt to dip in some bread to savor the flavorful curry sauce too.

Move on to the main course, the choices were rather limited, there were Lotus Fried Rice, Massala Lamb, Curry Squid, Mixed Vegetables, Curry Fish Head, Sweet And Sour Prawns, Roasted Duck With Sesame Sauce etc....Apart from these main course, they have some appetizers as well, Kerabu Squid or Jelly fish, Deep Fried Fish Balls etc.... One of my favorites was their prawns, fresh succulent prawns just pumped me up. Their squids and chicken were not too shabby as well.

These were my favorite of the night, although they were a bit fattening, but I do not mind taking extra calories for them. The red one was baked chicken with tomato paste and cheese, it tasted like Lasagna very much, especially the cheesy and tomato flavor, it has a good mix of chicken meat and chicken ham, whilst the white sauce version was very impressive as well, particularly due to the use of fresh seafood as ingredients, they have abalone slices, Mussels, fresh prawns etc... Love the mussels with cheese.

How can they miss Penang Laksa under the "1 Malaysia" theme ? One can just insert any ingredients they prefer and cook their very own Penang Assam Laksa. Of course, the soup does not taste as good as those famous Laksa stalls but it was decent enough, especially the appetizing sourish soup.

Move on to the dessert corner, I was not left with too much spaces after rounds of sampling on the delectable food, so I opted for the special ones instead. There is actually a kind of dessert/cake that I would love to introduce to my readers which I had that night, Walnut Cake. The walnut cake was cooked with Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar) and it possessed a very unique aroma, the best part was, it was not too sweet and just nice for me, who does not have a sweet tooth. The small little plate with a star fruit as presentation, was actually Gula Melaka Jelly, which obviously made from Gula Melaka, I find it okay only, in fact, nothing special to shout over.

They do have a cendol corner too, which I was told by the staff that it was actually Cendon with Gula Melaka and Santan (coconut milk). If you had previously tried the combination of Gula Melaka and Santan before, then you would have knew how heavenly good is this combination. Topped myself a scoop of ice cream (free flow of Nestle ice cream was available, 5 flavors in total) too. Although it was really good, but I just do not have the extra space to tuck in the whole bowl of this cendol.

Similarly to most of the hotels, they do have a hot coffee/tea corner as well, you can even find chilling cold milk there too. We received our complimentary fruit juice later on, which was apple juice.

Ratings:

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

Price: 6/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap) *Rm40++ for adults, Rm24++ senior citizens and children*

Service: 8.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)

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

Service Charge: Yes 10%

Government Tax: Yes 6%

Additional Information:

Address: 1-Stop Midlands Park, Jalan Burmah, 10350, Penang. 

Contact Number: 604- 227 7111

Business Hour: 6:00pm to 9:30pm, Saturday. (For the buffet themed "1 Malaysia" ONLY)

Website: www.berjayahotel.com