Ed and Cher: 03/01/2009

Finally I made it here to this restaurant. It has been 4 times already where plans to go here were canceled in the very last minute ever since the place opened. So with a few of my colleagues, we were here on a Friday after work for dinner.

Place is rather small so it would be best that you make your reservations the day before. I expected the place to look a bit like Manhattan Fish Market, but it was just plain and simple.

Looking through the menu, I found that there is actually more drinks than food. Food choices here were quite limited. 8 main course, 3 pasta and 5 starters.

To begin with starters we ordered ourselves the soup of the day (Potato and Leek Soup), Calamari Rings and Ceasar Salad.

The potato and leek soup was not that wonderful. It was rather diluted and had not much taste in t. We were a bit disappointed by it.

The Calamari Rings were good. See the picture above and it will get your mouth watering.

Ceasar Salad was good and tasty also. Just the right taste to it.

Since the shop was called Blue Reef Fish & Chips, we tried out both choices of fish and chips- Battered or Crumbed. What was new to me was that I never knew the Westerners eat their Fish and Chips with salt and malt vinegar. The waiter asked us which we would prefer, homemade tartar sauce or malt vinegar. We took both in the end to try it out.

For me I did not like having the fish with the malt vinegar, I still preferred the homemade tartar sauce which was lovely.

Between the crumbed and battered, I preferred the crumbed. But I did not quite enjoy the fish because it had a strong "fishy" taste. Halfway eating, the fishy-ness taste got into my head and I started to become real jelak of it.

Fish & Chips- Battered

Fish & Chips- Crumbed
sorry, picture was taken from the website as I totally forgot to take a pic of this

Other than the usual fish and chips, they also have fish served with buttered rice. You get to choose from steamed fish with a choice of ginger & soy sauce or sweet & sour sauce.

Steamed fish with ginger & soy sauce

Steamed fish with sweet and sour sauce

Address: Blue Reef, Permai 32, No. 22 Lebuh Permai 4, 11200 Tanjung Bungah, Penang, Malaysia
Tel: 604-8999128

There’s a new makan place near Queensbay called OXO Cafelab. It is located just behind The House of Dumpling (Parallel behind the row of shop houses where HSBC is) Environment in the restaurant is quite comfortable and nice. It is a two storey building. Downstairs you can opt to sit outside and enjoy the night breeze or be inside to enjoy the cushion seats. Upstairs on the other hand, there is a section with tables similar to KFC and an indoor playground for kids to have their fun time or parties. Then at another section, there were 3 places where you could have a private function to cater for around 10 pax.

Downstairs

Upstairs KFC look-a-like and the playground

Upstairs

Here at night, there is a simple live ban singing downstairs and you can sit around and chill out. In my visit there last Monday, I left the place after dinner when the band started to play. They were singing country music songs. Pretty good.

Service here, well I have two experiences here in just a day.

Monday Lunch

I came here with my collegues for lunch. There were 8 of us. An hour before we arrive, we had placed orders through the phone and OXO confirmed our bookings and orders. We arrived at around 12.15pm. Sat down and I informed the waiter that orders were already made earlier on the phone. As we were seated there, there were a lot of people that day and the workers seemed to be running all over. We waited for 10 minutes, and nothing had arrive on our table. We did inform the waiter and they kept telling us ok ok. Then another 10 minutes passed, not even the drinks or soups were served to us, empty table. So I got up and went to the counter to complain,

I “Hi, how is our orders, nothing has been served, not even our drinks or soups”

The guy, “Mr Boss, I passed you Cheryl’s orders just now, have you keyed in?”

The Boss, “No you didn’t pass me anything.”

The guy, “Yes I did, it’s a blue paper which I gave you that had Cheryl’s orders”

The Boss, “No nothing, I don’t have anything on me. Can you remember her orders, key in the system. I will personally ensure she get’s it fast”

…..sigh they had lost my orders and I had to re-order with them again.

Sat back at my table and waited again. Could hear The Boss instructing the kitchen “Cheryl’s orders fast, 8 soups”

We waited for another 5 minutes, there were soups coming out but were going to other tables. Yea right The Boss “ensure Cheryl get’s her orders fast” was a total bull. We were all boiling inside already. Made several complains again to the waiters and The Boss, all said alright, alright and nothing came. Made one last reminder again loudly with the Boss and 3 soups arrived. Other 5 of us waited for our soups, but instead the main course came out. Made another complain to the Boss “what is happening here, why only 3 soups, and now main course coming out and we don’t even have our drinks yet?!!??” The Boss, “Sorry Cheryl, let me check on this”, then he walks away and shouts to the kitchen, “What is happening to Cheryl’s orders, why they haven’t got all their food yet? Is there no one taking care of them?”

At this time, there were several other tables complaining about their orders and the kitchen was going crazy. Workers were crowded in the corner and the superiors were giving out instructions on what to do. Everything was in a mess.

Finally, the soups and drinks came. But they missed out on the buns, so we reminded them. Bun came later after 5 minutes served nice and hot but they FORGOT about the butter. I think we had made 3 reminders to them for the butter and after a while the butter came all frosen hard when our buns were already cold.

It was a freaking nightmare there that day for lunch. Service was really crappy. Superiors also were not professional enough to handle the crisis. It was a total turn off for all 8 of us. All of us said will not come back to this place for another month or so till their crappy service is fixed. I was so sure to really post bad comments about this restaurant in my blog, but I gave it another shot in the evening again. Brought my mum here for dinner.

Monday Dinner

I told her about the whole crappy service we had. We sat upstairs, the waiter there was good. We placed our orders and before I could even sit for 2 minutes, the soups arrived. I was really impressed. Then the buns WITH butter arrived and followed through with our main course after 5 minutes. I had nothing to complain that night. Service was perfect. Total opposite from lunch time. Like a negative and positive result. Seems they manage to get themselves together.

So aside the service complain, below is what we had. All of us ordered the set lunch which consist of a cordial drink, soup of the day or salad, main course and dessert.

Soup of the day was mushroom soup. During lunch time, the mushroom soup was diluted and not creamy (probably with the chaos happening), but dinner time, it was improved.

Mushroom Soup

Salad was a mix salad with bed of lettuce served with Norwegian Smoked Salmon, Croutons, Cherry Tomato, and Home Made Dressing.

Salad

S01- Crispy batter deep-fried fish with potato of the day, summer vegetable and homemade tartar sauce (RM 11.60)

Those that ordered this said it was good. Tartar sauce was good. The potato and vegetable served were all the same for everyone. The potatoes were cooked in butter and had a strong herb taste. Then the vegetables which were broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and lotus roots (I call it pigs nose) were stir fried in a nice flavored way. Had the same kind of herb taste in it too. I liked both of it. At least it was tasty compared to some places where everything is just plainly boiled.

S01- Crispy batter deep-fried fish with potato of the day, summer vegetable and homemade tartar sauce (RM 11.60)

S02- Grandma’s Traditional Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce with Crackers (RM 11.60)

Not sure what it mean ‘sauce with crackers’ but the sauce served, didn’t seem to have any cracker bits in it. Colleague that ate this said it wasn’t anything to shout about.

S02- Grandma’s Traditional Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce with Crackers (RM 11.60)

S05- Grilled Fish Fillet, Emperor Prawns and Potato served with Fresh Orange Butter Sauce (RM 16.40)

The word Emperor Prawns made it sound like the prawns were huge, but when served it was 2 tiny prawns, which the head was connected to a popiah skin roll which had been stuffed with minced prawn meat. Fish slices were grilled and topped with the orange butter sauce. Taste was pretty alright. But the portion was rather small.

S05- Grilled Fish Fillet, Emperor Prawns and Potato served with Fresh Orange Butter Sauce (RM 16.40)

S06- Juicy Chicken Piccata with Boxthorn Fruits and Plum Sauce Combining (RM 18.70)

I ordered this for lunch. Chicken meat which was grilled and served quite juicy. The sauce taste was alright not so strong plum sauce taste but it was tasty enough to enjoy. Ate up all those boxthorn fruits which I would not normally eat when it’s in the herbal soups. Serving portion was pretty alright for me.

S06- Juicy Chicken Piccata with Boxthorn Fruits and Plum Sauce Combining (RM 18.70)

S13- Fresh Submarine Bread served with Stir –Fried Chicken accompanied with Side Salad and Condiments (RM 22.20)

This dish was a bit misleading. The menu says chicken, but the picture in the menu shows beef slices, so I thought I was having beef, but when it arrived, the beef turned out to be diced chicken meat. Picture on the menu and what was served was totally different. Menu picture also showed some potato chips together and green salad, but when served it was the usual potato and vegetables. I was slightly disappointed. The taste was so so only. Lacked in that “Ooumphh-ness” taste. Pretty expensive also for a sandwich.

S13- Fresh Submarine Bread served with Stir –Fried Chicken accompanied with Side Salad and Condiments (RM 22.20)

S14- Braised Lamb Shanks with Root Vegetables and Fresh Baguette Bread (RM 26.90)

Portion was big. Taste wise, it was missing that “Ooumphh-ness” taste. The taste of the gravy wasn’t intense. Could have been better with a bit more herbs to intensify the taste more.

S14- Braised Lamb Shanks with Root Vegetables and Fresh Baguette Bread (RM 26.90)

Me, Cheryl, sucking and making sure I get all the meat out from the bone

A11- Italian Soft Crispy Hawaiian BBQ Pizza (RM 15.90)

The pizza dough was a strange thick square shape. It reminded me of Pizza Hut’s Parmesan sticks. Taste wise, it wasn’t so good. This is not part of the set lunch/dinner menu.

A11- Italian Soft Crispy Hawaiian BBQ Pizza (RM 15.90)

A32- Assorted Fresh Pancakes with Maple Syrup and Condiments (RM 8.10)

It came served in 3 cute round pancakes, strawberry, chocolate and original. Then at the side it was served with some green salad. There were 3 condiments, butter, honey and strawberry jello-type-jam. It was a fun dish to eat. Taste wise, ok-la. This is not part of the set lunch/dinner menu.