I found some old pics of the food I took pictures of when I was still in the planning stages of this blog. My original plans included doing a dedicated section talking about my favorite appetizers and another section about my favorite deserts. Let’s kick this one off by talking about one of my favorite appetizers served by Penang Hill – Spicy Crablets! Here’s the picture that I was able to take a I think sometime last year, 2008. I just used my Nokia N95 for this so please don’t mind the picture quality.

Looks yummy? Let me tell you all about it after the jump.

So what’s so special about this dish? Well, Filipinos are used to just Crispy Crablets. You know the one where restaurants just cook the small crabs in butter and breading and then serve them together with soy sauce and vinegar? If you want a taste of that, Chicken Inasal in Metrowalk serves a mean Crispy Crablet dish. Anyway, the reason why I liked Penang Hill’s version is that they marinated it in some sweet yet spicy sauce that really brings out the taste of the crab. Again – let me emphasize: it brings out the taste of the crab. Sometimes the sauce overpowers the actual viand but in this case it enhances the taste.

I can’t exactly remember the price, but I’m sure this is under P200. Other than being a great appetizer, I’m sure people who want to get some drinks will also find this nice for “pulutan”.

Click this link for the full review of Penang Hill. Man, the should pay me for all the exposure they’re getting from this blog. Hahaha!

Next restaurant up for review is Finio. A cozy little place situated along Tomas Morato. Like Penang Hill, it’s not that attractive from the outside. However the food inside is just fantastic. I can still remember the sweet taste of their Leche Flan. OMG. I want. Hahaha! Review ill be posted Tuesday afternoon.

I can’t count the number of restaurants in Greenhills. There are so many really to remember. I can recommend you one gem of a restaurant that we’ve been regularly going to for a few months now. Penang Hill offers a variety of Asian food but mainly focusing on Malaysian dishes. It’s hard to actually decide on going to this restaurant since it’s situated in the middle of Promenade. They have pretty stiff competition surrounding them – Teriyaki Boy, Cibo, Tender Bob’s and Little Asia to name a few. However, Penang Hill is actually one of the best restaurants in the Promenade strip! Here’s one reason why.

Did I get your attention now? Hahahaha!

QUICKIE FACT SHEET
Name: Penang Hill
Location: Promenade, Greenhills Shopping Center, Ortigas
Type: Asian Food – focusing on Malaysian Dishes
Price Range (per dish): P200 – P900

Full review of Penang Hill after the jump.

I’ll start things off by talking about the picture that surely got your attention. Yes, I am talking about Penang Hill’s Tiger Shrimps in Salted Egg Sauce. This will cost you P395 but it is really well worth it. First let’s talk about the shrimp. They use big shrimps for this dish and yes I mean the kind where you actually need a knife to cut through the meat because it’s big. Rarely do you find restaurants that offer good shrimps (well Bubba Gump is good too). Another reason is the sauce. You can literally use it as “sabaw” for your rice. It tastes soooooooo good that thinking about it makes my mouth water already. You haven’t tried the best of Penang Hill unless you’ve tasted this. Promise. Get it. It’s really good. Yummeh!

Next up we have the Roasted Chicken. They actually have several versions of this but all of them have the same cuts of chicken and they all come with three sauces – Ginger, Curry, and Teriyaki sauce. Basically you get the chicken, take your pick of sauce and eat to your heart’s content. This is good for 2 people and it already comes with rice and warm soup. It will cost you P250 I think. If you’re on a tight budget but you still want to impress your date, go here. Just order the chicken and get 1 more cup of rice and you’re good.

We also ordered this really cool rice dish but I completely forgot what it was called. I’ll edit this post later on when I remember what the name is. Sorry about that guys, hehe. It’s nothing really special save for the really tasty sausage bits and fish (dilis). This goes really well with the Shrimp which I just talked about earlier.

I think Penang Hill is actually a really good restaurant. The only thing holding it back is the branding of the place. It doesn’t have strong recall and I don’t think it can engage Filipino consumers easily. Maybe our culture is still too westernized to appreciate nice Asian food.

Oh just a note – the crab here is also superb, but it will leave a hole on your pocket. They price it at P90/100 grams.

SUMMARY

Rating Card
1 – Waste of money
2 – Satisfactory – just okay. Nothing special
3 – Wow, something to remember.
4 – OMGWTFBBQ I WANT MOREZZ PLZZ

FOOD QUALITY: 4
DISH PRICES VS QUALITY: 3
CUSTOMER SERVICE: 3
RESTAURANT CLEANLINESS: 2
RESTAURANT OVER-ALL RATING: 3

Penang Hill is a good date place and it would also be a nice restaurant to meet up with friends. They also serve beer here and they have a smoking area just outside.