Guan Guan Restaurant — Restaurant in George Town

This is a special posting due to 2 reasons. One, this is the tipping point to level 8, admittedly I have been on hiatus for a long while now.

The second holds a more sentimental reason. Guan Guan is a family run business that has been around for a long time since 1945 as stated on the menu. Of course I wasn't there at that time and only discovered them in the 1990s. I have also seen how the design of their menu changed over the years.

Whenever I am in Penang, I will make a trip just for those memories whilst making new ones. You could have lunch and then proceed to walkabout the beach and the night market or walk about the beach and have dinner and then the night market. Btw, I have always told myself to go and try out their neighbour's just right next door but have never gotten to do so right till now. Oh well..

Today we opted for inchi-kabin, kailan salted fish and prawn omelette. All these dishes are somewhat a staple of a peranakan household. Going down memory lane has to have a touch of culture to it no? Especially if in Penang, Nyonya food is a must, eat what the locals eat, right?

Ambience, open air, well ventilated corner shop lot.

Service, I can't complaint, family run so sometimes am being served by children 😁.

Overall, as I mentioned earlier, this posting holds a special place in my heart and how more special can it get than a place that brings me back to yesteryears. So thank you, Google Maps and thank...

I expected food to be more expensive in this zone. When I saw the number of Chinese people dining at this place, I decided to peep at the menu. It was reasonable.

Steam fish 75 - 85RM. Siakup done three possible ways. Thai, teochew and HK. HK is the cheapest as soy sauce is cheap. Suggest that if you don't like muddy taste of siakap, pay more for snapper instead. Not a big siakup maybe 500gsm.

Sotong 40-60RM Star of the show. The salted egg sticks to the flesh. The sotong is not rubbery and still tasty not frozen for sure. They gave roughly like one whole medium size sotong.

Some people comment about poor service. It is just two Indian staff clearing table and sending food, and two Chinese youngster taking order. I assume it's parents cooking and children running the show outside.

The children take initiative to ask the kitchen about fish, and are generally helpful about other dishes. Possibly their reply is a bit rough around the edges (typical youths) but I am okay with their honesty. Some of the highly rated food places are even more attitude as we usually order just one plate to share.

Only around 10 tables available and we were like table 7. Already the new customers table 8 were told to wait 1 hour. We waited around 30 minute.

One fish one sotong one vege one beer. bill was...

Checkout their seafood dishes cooked with garlic. Tremendously good. Fast preparation and fresh. cleanliness is well maintained. cutleries and plates are clean too. never a dissappointment. they accept QR pay for cashless transaction.

This is my second time here in June 2022. My first was in October 2018. I remember it like it was just yesterday, the uncle (as we malaysians like to address the elderly in a respective way by calling them names of our own family) greeted us and welcomes us to a vacant table. his cheerful smile, voice tone caught me by surprise and made me fell in love with this restaurant. the foods are as good as how he greeted us.

Throughout the pandemic, there were a few times i checked out this place from google maps and review praying they are still open.

my second visit yesterday (june 2022), we were greeted by the uncle's granddaughter. she informed the uncle (her grandfather) rests at home now. still healthy, up and about with daily chores and activities. i just wish sometimes he would still be around.

my hope is he will be blessed with many positivity, including this restaurant and their...