Habana Coffee • Wine • Bistro

*** Updates (21 June): I just found out that the lower floor of Habana is no longer in operation. Not sure if they are still serving food on the upper floor ***

I made my way back to Habana again today for lunch. This round, we ordered some of what we ordered the last round i.e. Seafood Soup, Spaghetti Aragosta, Nasi Lemak, Pizza Siciliana and Calamari Salad.

P/S: The photos were taken with my phone camera so the quality is not great

Nasi Lemak (RM8.50)
The rice was very fragrant and this dish was surprisingly good for a bistro that specializes in International cuisine.


Calamari Salad (RM12.90)
Squid rings salad with black olives, tomatoes, basil, garlic, chili pepper and lemon olive oil. Very lemony and light.


Pizza Siciliana (RM25.90)
Pizza with tomato sauce, mozarella, garlic, anchovies, brocolli florets, fresh tomatoes, black olives and olive oil. The pizza was good and not too "meaty". Perfect for olive and anchovies pizza lovers.


Habana's food is as usual very good. It's sad to note that we were the only patrons at the bistro when we were there. They could really improve on their turnaround time though. It took them quite a while to serve us.

Chiayu Kafei

Chia Yu Kafei is a rather new restaurant cum tea house at Trang Road. The setting is serene and comfortable with old Chinese songs playing in the background. It is air conditioned.

Red dates tea and chrysanthemum tea (RM6 for two)

Golden straw mushroon fritters with kerabu mango (RM6.90)


House specialty tofu (RM7.90)

Stir fried vegetarian potato hor fun (RM6.90)

Overall the food tastes good but the hor fun can be quite "chewy" if you are not used to it. This place is ideal for catching up over a cup of tea. Definitely liked the ambience.

Chayu Kafei Restaurant
33 Jalan Trang 10150 Penang
Tel: 04-229-1028

Humble Beginnings Mille Crepe

The Mille Crepe is slowly taking Penang by storm. One particular Mille Crepe home bakery which deserves to be mentioned here is Humble Beginnings.


What is Mille Crepe?
Humble Beginnings’ Creations are essentially Mille Crepes. A Mille Crepe is a French Cake with “mille” meaning “a thousand”. In our Creations, there are 20 layers of crepes with a delightful combination of Fresh Cream and Vanilla Custard between each layer. The topmost layer is caramelized to give it a nice smoky sugary flavour. Everything is hand-made and hand-layered; a true labour of love. (http://www.humblebeginnings.com.my/)



Eversince I found Humble Beginnings last year, I must have ordered at least 10 cakes from them for parties, birthdays, pot lucks etc. I just love the chilled cream between each layer of the crepe.

My favourite is Strawberry Haven which has lots of fresh strawberries blended into the cream with optional fresh strawberries topping. The sourness of the strawberries goes well with the cream which is a little sweet.

Reminder: The mille crepe is best eaten chilled.



If you are a first timer, go for their signature French Vanilla creation and try other creations as you go along. Price starts from RM55 for a regular (0.9 kg) French Vanilla cake.

Phone orders: 012-6358035 (JB) or 012-4858035 (Pg)
On-line orders:www.humblebeginnings.com.my/onlineorder.html

Habana Coffee • Wine • Bistro

*** Updates (21 June): I just found out that the lower floor of Habana is no longer in operation. Not sure if they are still serving food on the upper floor ***

Habana seems to be popular for the bar cum lounge on the 1st floor of the bistro, especially in the evening. Every time we dine there in the evening, we see droves of patrons going up to the 1st floor. According to http://www.habana.oomph.com.my/ they have a live band playing every Friday night.

The dining area is on the ground floor. Habana serves mainly western / international cuisine. They have a wide selection of pasta and pizza dishes. We have tried their pastas and pizzas and would highly recommend them.

This was our third time at the bistro and true enough it has not let us down as yet. We ordered Saffron Prawns as appetizer, Seafood soup, Spaghetti Aragosta and Spaghetti Con Pesto. For drinks, we ordered a Pink Lady and pineapple juice.

Pink Lady (RM5.50) and pineapple juice (RM5.50)

Saffron Prawns (RM19.90)

The lightly baked prawns with saffron sauce dish was very fragrant with a strong saffron taste.

Seafood Soup (RM15.90)

The Italian style seafood soup has an abundance of seafood e.g. prawns, calamari, clams, mussel and fish. The soup is a tomato-based soup with saffron, chili and spinach. Very special indeed.

Spaghetti Aragosta (RM23.90)

This pasta is by far the best we have tried at Habana. It has slipper lobster meat and huge prawns with chili, tomato sauce and a touch of cream. The lobster meat serving was very generous and gave the pasta dish a distinct lobster taste. A definite must try.

Spaghetti Con Pesto (RM23.90)

This is our second time going for the Con Pesto. It is still as good with lots of pesto sauce, huge prawns (again!) and parmesan cheese. A definite must try for pesto lovers.

As you can see, we ordered too many prawn dishes in one meal so try to go easy on the prawn dishes and try their pizza as well.

Since Habana has adopted an open air setting, it can be quite noisy when you are dining on the ground floor. The noise comes from the heavy traffic along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah. That is probably the only setback of this bistro, else it is very highly recommended for its good pasta dishes and pizzas.

P/S: You may miss this bistro if you are not paying attention as the bistro banner can go unnoticed from afar. Look out for the 7-Eleven at Kristal Point as Habana is right next to it.

HABANA coffee wine bistro
B-02-17 Kristal Point
303 Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah
11900 Penang
Tel: 04-6446121

One One Eight Wang Chao

One One Eight Wang Chao is a Chinese restaurant specializing in Cantonese cuisine. According to their website http://www.118wangchao.com/ this restaurant was established in January 2002. You will find a variety of Cantonese specialties e.g. Monk Jump Over the Wall, Poon Choy and an extensive list of special packages e.g. the sharks fin or abalone packages etc. at this restaurant.

We ordered the following Wang Chao specialty dishes for 8 pax:

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Crispy Home Made Crab Meat Roll (RM30)

The crab meat roll is a house specialty and was highly recommended by the waitress. It did turn out to be a pretty good choice. The skin was crispy and the meat filling was flavourful with lots of cilantro.

Sea Cucumber & Seafood Claypot (RM50)

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Claypot Curry (Indonesian) Prawn (RM45)

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Steamed Cod Fish (RM63)

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Beijing Crispy Chicken (RM27)

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The Beijing Crispy Chicken bears some resemblance to the Peking duck. The skin is very crispy and it is an interesting change from the normal chicken dishes.

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Wang Chao Chinese Cuisine
Tel: 04-6571118
Website: http://www.118wangchao.com/
2-G-2, Pekaka Square, Lebuh Pekaka, Sungai Dua, 11700 Gelugor, Penang.

Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Garden Wing Lobby Lounge Afternoon Tea

The Rasa Sayang Garden Wing Lounge serves afternoon tea everyday from 3pm to 5 pm. The afternoon tea set is priced at RM30 per set.

The set includes scones with cream and fresh strawberries, finger sandwiches, croissant, pastries and a pot of tea. We were given an extensive list of tea to choose from and decided on the Earl Grey.

The pastries consist of two pistachio creme brulee in tart pastries, a slice of tiramisu cake and a slice chocolate mousse cake. The pastries stood out from the rest in the set and we especially liked the pistachio creme brulee.

The relaxed setting of the Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Garden Wing Lobby Lounge:

Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Garden Wing Lobby Lounge
Phone (604) 888 8888
Hours: 9am - midnight

Afternoon tea: 3pm - 5pm

kissA Koyotei Cafe - Japanese Cuisine, Espresso, Liquor, Sweets

Kissa Koyotei is a contemporary yet cozy Japanese cafe tucked behind New World Park, along Jalan Hutton. According to their website http://www.kissa-koyotei.com/, the owners cum chefs of this restaurant are Saito Toshiki and his wife; Mary Lee.

The cafe offers quite an elaborate food and drinks menu. We ordered the Sashimi and Tempura set (RM36) and the Kimuchi Ramen and Gyoza set (RM27). For drinks, we ordered the Mojitto Mint Lime (RM6.80) and cold green tea.

Mojitto Mint Lime


The mojitto has lots of mint leaves which gave the drink a distinct mint taste. We like mint and lime so this drink is perfect for us.

Sashimi and Tempura set

The set was very well presented and the sashimi was fresh. The set came with sashimi, prawns and vegetables tempura, miso soup, chawan mushi, rice and fruits.

Kimuchi Ramen and Gyoza set

We absolutely loved the ramen which is very sour with lots of kimchi and spicy at the same time. Ask for more chilli powder if it is not spicy enough. The set came with three pieces of Gyoza and a bowl of rice.

We ordered the Mini Sweets Macha Mousse (RM3.50) to share for dessert. The mousse is an interesting twist to the green tea ice cream normally serverd as dessert at most Japanese restaurants. It has a strong green tea flavour complimented by red ben and a hint of what may be cream.

Another novelty of the restaurant is the waitresses in maid costume. They were very kind to pose for a picture for us.

This cafe is definitely a welcomed change for the Japanese restaurants scene in Penang. It is highly recommended for its authentic Japanese cuisine and contemporary, relaxed setting.

Interesting washroom signs.

kissA Koyotei cafe
Tel +604.22 66 272
Fax +604.22.64 272
Address No 148,Ground Floor, Jalan Hutton, 10050 Georgetown Penang Malaysia
E-mail address info@kissa-koyotei.com
Website http://www.kissa-koyotei.com/

Lameizhi (Spicy Girl ) Restaurant

Lameizhi (Spicy Girl ) Restaurant is a new addition to the stream of restaurants at Kristal Point. It is next to Siriwan and has another sister restaurant at Nagore Road.


It specializes in steamboat dishes with quite a variety of soup base e.g. duck soup, chicken soup, tomyam, spicy fish etc.

Lameizhi has retained most of comfortable setting and decor of Jurin, the Japanese restaurant which previously occupied this shop lot. The new management has replaced the tables with round tables, with a hot plate on each table. The chairs have been given white covers with a cute Chinese mask imprinted on the cover.

Since there were eight of us, we opted for two sets, one with chicken soup base and another with spicy fish soup base.

The Spicy Fish Claypot (sui chu yu) is a "ma la" base soup with fish (RM28 per set). The fish was fresh and the soup was spicy and "numbing". For those who have been to China and those who love "ma la" dishes, they will definitely appreciate this soup. However, someone did mention that nothing beats the original "ma la sui chu yu" from China. Nevertheless, the spicy fish claypot at Lameizhi did get its fair share of praises and is well accepted by those who have never tried it before.

The ingredients which came with the Chicken Soup set (RM43 per set) was rather limited so we had to order additional ingredients. Apart from that, the chicken soup was suprisingly very tasty and was deemed a good choice.

However, perhaps because they are still new, there is still room for improvement in their level of service. Most of the waiters and waitresses are non-locals and we had some difficulties communicating with them and the only local waiter there appeared to be rather rude.

Anyway, Lameizhi is definitely worth a try and worth coming back for its variety of soup base and comfortable setting. The bill came to RM150.25 with drinks.

Lameizhi (Spicy Girl) Restaurant
Business hours: 11am - 11pm (Daily)
Tel: 04 - 6415958
Location: Krystal Point, Penang (next to Siriwan Thai Restaurant)