Ivy’s Kitchen @ Chow Thye Road

July 28th, 2009 · 8 Comments

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Sweet and Sour Flower Crab

Sweet and Sour Flower Crab

Penang is well known of its food and you can get most of them in town area. Unfortunately, some of them were commercialized (e.g. RM14 for a plate of Char Koey Teow) or prepared in less healthier side in order to satisfy customer’s taste bud. Can you get a family-pleasing meal in town area? That’s the question I keep on asking myself, until I found this Ivy’s Kitchen.

Ivy's Kitchen

Ivy's Kitchen

Ivy’s Kitchen is located at Chow Thye Road, same row with Jemputree and Isaribi Tei. For first timer, parking may be little difficult but should not be a big deal after you read this paragraph. You take the Burmah Road. When you see Jemputree, slowdown, stick to the right and you will see 127 Coffee Shop. Turn into that 127 Coffee Shop. You can park inside 127 Coffee Shop. If it is full, proceed to the exit behind and go straight. There you will see a big parking lot. Park your car and walk from there.

Open Area

Open Area

Ivy’s Kitchen is a pork-free restaurant and is operated by a lovely couple – Mr. Tan and Ms. Ivy. Ms. Ivy is usually busy in the kitchen so it is called Ivy’s Kitchen. They operated since 2 years + ago. There is an open space dining area in front of the restaurant.

Aircond Area

Aircond Area

In case you are afraid of  mosquitoes at night, they are setting up an air-conditional area inside.

Swee and Sour Flower Crab

Swee and Sour Flower Crab

This time, we were invited for food review. There were 8 dishes overall including a dessert, but first we had the sweet and sour flower crab (RM30 per kati (600g)). The sauce was surprisingly good and is a thumb up for me who prefer not so spicy food. The dish is suitable for family in which kids are able to put some sauce on their rice. For adult, they can always add some “sambal” if it is not spicy enough. Their “sambal” is good as well (I forgot to take photo here… sigh).

Fruit Juice Party

Fruit Juice Party

Fruit Juice Party

Fruit Juice Party

Before I forget, these are drinks we ordered. Each at RM2.20, they had different colour and I took Cucumber Mint drink, which was quite special compared to other restaurants. Tasted like timun… (what else)

Joo Hoo Char

Joo Hoo Char

One of my family’s favorite dishes is the Joo Hoo Char (Fried sweet turnip and cuttlefish) wrapped with lettuce (生菜). You can’t miss it especially during Chinese New Year. We found it in this kitchen as well (RM10). My expectation was high and fortunately it passed my review.

Joo Hoo Char

Joo Hoo Char

The dark hand is courtesy from Criz.

Chicken Lobak

Chicken Lobak

We had some chicken lobak (RM6) as well. For me, it is just average. Perhaps more “five spice” (五香)  would be good.

Assam Prawn

Assam Prawn

The “Assam (Tamarind) Prawn” (RM4-5 per pax) consisted of medium side prawns and tasted good. They used medium prawns so that the assam paste can easily penetrate the skin.

Sambal Kailan

Sambal Kailan

Spicy food is also one of their specialties. We had “sambal kailan” here. While “sambal kangkong” and “sambal sweet potato leave (番薯叶)” are not new to me, “sambal kailan” is something different and is :sweat: It was priced at RM8 (small), RM10 (medium), and RM14 (large).

Ikan Gulai Tumis

Ikan Gulai Tumis

They do have their signature Ikan Bawal (Black promfret) Gulai Tumis (RM9 per 100g). The spiciness suited my taste bud and the sourness was perfect. Reminded me of my good-o-time when my mum used to cook the similar meal for us.

Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang

This is the special “beef rendang” given by Mr. Tan. Personally I didn’t try it but according to other floggers it was not bad.

Soup of the day

Soup of the day

This is soup of the day (Tofu and seaweed). Price is RM8 for small, RM10 for medium, and RM14 for large.

Dessert of the day

Dessert of the day

Finally we had our dessert of the day, which was red bean cook with longan and sago (RM2.00 per pax).

Red bean and longan soup

Red bean and longan soup

The soup is “kit kit” (thick).

Rice

Rice

With all these dishes, my tongue told me one thing, “The food tastes good and I feel less Ajinomoto in this restaurant!”. Yes, this would be my family’s choice of restaurant (if they live here). I used to dine with grandparents and they are very particular on the food quality (as particular as complaining the peanut appetizer is not fresh or chili padi has not been washed). It may take some time to prepare the food but it is worth the waiting. Of course, we hope it is not because it was invited food tryout.

The restaurant also gives offers for customers. For each RM5 purchase, you are entitled for one chop. Collect 10 chops in a card and get a free set meal, or RM7.50 discount from total bill. For bill discount, maximum of 2 cards are allowed per visit.

As a whole, I would recommend this restaurant.

Other attendees:

Criz – http://crizfood.com/

Jane (Duckie) – http://duckies-food-blog.blogspot.com/

Mary – http://reginatravel-foodparadise.blogspot.com/

Cheryl Wee – http://nuttyeve9.blogspot.com/

Allen Ooi – http://yummy-station.com/


Cynthia (NKOTB) – http://mylovemyfood.blogspot.com/

Place Name:Ivy's Kitchen
Cuisine:Chinese
Address:58, Jalan Chow Thye
Postcode:10250
State:Penang
Country:Malaysia
Tel:013-4337878 (Mr. Tan), 016-4337130 (Ivy)
Working Hour:9am - 9pm daily, Sat 12pm - 9pm

Tags: Food Review

8 responses so far ↓

  • 1 FoOd PaRaDiSe // Jul 28, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    Nice review. I plan to go back and try the cincaru. ^-^
    .-= FoOd PaRaDiSe´s last blog ..Thai Garden Restaurant & Pub =-.

  • 2 Duckie // Jul 28, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    you’re fast too!!!

    hope to see u in future invites!!!
    .-= Duckie´s last blog ..First Invited Revew – Ivy’s Kitchen =-.

  • 3 allie // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    wah… so many bloggers review about this place. Seems like I should stop by one day :)

  • 4 allenooi // Jul 28, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    i’m still in progress on writing. hahaha. thanks for all the info.
    .-= allenooi´s last blog ..Penang Floggers 4th Gathering =-.

  • 5 Cheryl // Jul 28, 2009 at 8:36 pm

    Nice review ya! You sure have the best beef rendang pic :P
    .-= Cheryl´s last blog ..Invited Review – Ivy’s Kitchen @ Chow Thye Road =-.

  • 6 NKOTB // Jul 28, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    very detail review… :) .-= NKOTB´s last blog ..Home Made Pineapple Enzyme =-.

  • 7 SharonHoe // Aug 17, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    Hi Waco,

    Thanks for introduced this nice restaurant to me.

    Among our orders, I prefer the Asam Stingray set, the “kuah” is really different from what you get at outside, really nice, just that i feel that they got a bit of “overcook”, so the texture of stingray got a bit “hard”.

    Besides, the popiah and the red bean paste is quite nice as well, not that sweet, gam gam hor.

    Generally, the price is quite “economic”, Its good to try it out again. (as i still got few chops can claim one set meal already =p)

  • 8 Waco // Aug 17, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    Hi SharonHoe,

    Thanks for sharing. I also tried their Poh Piah and the Assam Stringray recently. The gravy sure special.

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