Goh Swee Kee Restaurant(1977)Sdn Bhd — Restaurant in George Town

A veritable 'lao piao tao' (old brand name) Chinese restaurant, serving up classic and authentic Teochew (Chaozhou) cuisine in downtown George Town Penang. Despite being Penang born and bred, this was my first visit to this famous restaurant which has been in business for nearly 5 decades. Ambience within is like an old school Chinese restaurant, with vibes of retro banquet eateries of days gone by. The 70s-90s flavour in atmosphere and food taste is still evident, with serving staff being mostly middle aged local ladies. The food quality was wonderful and gained the stamp of approval of my octogenarian Singapore Teochew mother!!! 😁😆🤣. This is no mean feat as mum is still a sprightly 80 year old with 60 years of cooking expertise under her belt. All their menu entrees looks delicious, but based on our visit, we can recommend: 1. the classic Steamed Pomfret Teochew style (super fresh ocean caught fish!!!). 2. the GSK signature Braised Oysters in Bean Paste Sauce (mouthwateringly good). 3. the Basil Minced Pork (a bit of a fusion twist here, but excellent nonetheless). 4. Stewed Cabbage. 5. Deep Fried Prawn Ball Fritters. 6. Teochew style Yam Dessert (Or Ni - lovely sweet yam paste cooked with zesty bits of tangerine peel and ginkgo). Overall, a delicious dinner for our 4 pax group. We'll be back for...

Group of 7 went, and we ordered 6 dishes. The waitress said the chef will prepare the portion accordingly by the number of people. Dishes were pretty big, so perhaps we should have told them to cater for 5-6 pax portion per dish instead. The dishes were generally ok, except the cabbage mushroom. It wasn't nice. We were told by the waitress that we needed 2 bundle of cabbage for our table. It was hard to even finish the 1 bundle due to the texture and taste. The assam seabass fish dish was very very good. The porkrib curry and oyster omelette were okay. Porkribs were boney, not much meat. They should use those long ribs.. The oyster omelette was done the soggy way and not aromatic.

Service was generally good, but the short haired old aunty was pretty abrupt when talking to my elderly parents. In addition, she was seen being rude and impatient to their foreign waiter, as observed by my elderly mum. The foreign waiter was efficient and courteous.

We paid RM350+ for dinner. Tea and plain water for drinks. As a foreigner, I think it's expensive by local standards. Will I be going...

This is my first & will be my last time here. I don't recommend this place. The price paid is so not worth it. Almost RM400 for food we can get for less than RM300 elsewhere (with bigger portions).

Food is surprisingly small portion compared to price paid. The food taste is ok, nothing special (dishes are on the sweet side). I do enjoy their fried prawn balls though. If you do come, try this.

Service is ok. Staff were quite friendly and they refilled our tea regularly without us asking. The food preparation time is ok, just that we had to wait for our last dish. It finally came after we finished our meal (they did apologize for the delay)

The price charged for the wet tissue was a total rip off. And this is the first time I see people serve Popo muruku rather than peanuts.

If you want to try, just know the portion is small and price is high. Remember to ask if you can skip the wet tissues so you don't get charged for it (it's ridiculously expensive). Not sure if they charge for the muruku, if they do, ask how much first...