Penang Delight- Welcome to the Simple Life

About a week or so ago, we met up with my mum's cousin for dinner. It was good catching up, having not seen them for quite a while. We decided to go to Penang Delight and I was excited, to say the least, as I terribly miss my hometown comfort food. I have heard of this place in passing and was excited to try a place that was hopefully more authentic than your run-of-the-mill Tropika, Banana Leaf etc.. (that's not to say I don't enjoy the food at these places)


Review Snippet
Overall: Good; A good change from the usual Singaporean haunts
Food:Singaporean/Malaysian
Price: $10-$20 per person
Ambience/Service: Chaotic


Penang Delight
3885 Rupert St
Vancouver, BC V6R 2G7
604-566-9898

The restaurant was simple and quaint, channeling the rustic village atmosphere of Malaysia/Singapore in yester years.

We started out with some appetizers. From top to bottom: penang shrimp roll (ngoh hiang), penang tofu, roti canai and chicken skewers (satay).The appetizers were all really good and picking a favourite would be tough... The ngoh hiang was perfectly crisp and power-packed with shrimp, chestnut and meat filling. The penang tofu(which was more like thai-syle tofu) was crisp on the outside, soft on the inside with a good amount of thai sweet chilli sauce over top. Chicken satay was very tender but the peanut sauce lacked a certain kick. And the roti canai was a little sweeter than the roti prata i'm used to back home but it was still tasty- perfectly doughy yet crispy all at the same time.

These were my favourite mains! The sambal prawns were juicy and the sauce was pretty tasty but could have been spicier. Everything in Canada can be spicier :P Given that sambal is hard to prepare I was just happy to be able to have a sambal infused dish. 


The mango fish was more thai than malaysian but I enjoyed it a lot. The fish was fried to perfection while leaving the meat tender. The sweet chilli sauce was great and the sour mango slices complemented it really well, adding an extra punch.


The malaysian specialty vegetable dish was quite good as well, especially the eggplant.

The curry based dishes were a little disappointing mostly because the curry was not "lemak" or coconut-y enough. But there were ample ingredients in the laska dish as well as the chicken curry dish.

Now, on to my fav part of the meal- DESSERTS. Missed my nonya kuehs (little cake things) sooooo much! So this made me very happy :) The one at the top is malay kuih. It has a green base that is gelatinous but slightly firmer and topped with a coconut layer, coconut flakes and milk. My favourite was the bottom dish which was a pandan crepe that wrapped a filling of coconut pieces drenched in brown sugar (gula melaka). Heavenlyyyy. This two dishes are defintely must-haves for the coconut lover! I definitely want to come back and try the rojak (one of my fav singaporean dishes) and the friend banana (goreng pisang) with vanilla ice-cream. Goreng pisang is my childhood dish.. I have so many memories of my nanny going to the nearby market and getting fried banana and sweet potato fritters for an afternoon snack...probably did not help my loyal membership to the TAF club at school, but that's okay. TAF stands for trim and fit, for those unaware of the eccentricities of the Singapore school system. It is essentially a program for fat kids in public school. Oh the wonders of the schooling in Singapore...


I will definitely be back to Penang Delight for a sampling of their many other offerings! Their menu is extensive and left us spoilt for choice. But probably for lunch as it was a bit too chaotic at dinner time for my liking. -Sara