Sambal 三佰 — Restaurant in George Town

Food - 5/5 for taste and uniqueness Service- 5/5 for attentiveness and warmth Atmosphere - 5/5 for cosiness and comfort

Thankfully we made our reservation and manage to confirm a table for 3. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Ika (I hope I got the name right as I am only writing this some time after my visit) and shown to our seats. With every table, she took the time to go through the menu, recommending their signature dishes, gave us time to think about it and would return after a few minutes to take our orders.

We ordered a few dishes: Kerabu Emping - an appetiser indeed. Grated coconut was moist but doesn't wet the emping. The blowtorch flower was just enough fragrance and not overpowering. As an emping lover, I wish I have this each time I have emping. Definitely recommend this. We ate every last bit. Generous serving as appetiser for 3 pax.

Fish skin kiam kiam - salted egg fish skin, also another appetiser. Very crispy, not overpowering or too salty. A nice snack but because we had kerabu emping next to it, it didn't stand out as much.

Lap mei fan - single serving shared amongst us. We prefer lap mei fan that has strong flavours while this was a little lighter. It didn't have the usual strong Chinese sausage smell. They had a nicely fried serving of pork lard on the top and i can appreciate the effort and skills to get it done so nicely.

Strong sumbat - squid stuffed with minced pork. Oooo this was good. The stuffing was nicely seasoned and it came with the sauce on the side (you can opt to have the sauce served together with the squid instead but we had it served separately so that we can taste what it's like with and without the sauce). The squid was not chewy, the minced pork was not too dry or too wet. The stuffing wasn't dry, the minced pork wasn't cakey and the preserved veg wasn't overpowering.

Nyonya pork ribs - this fell off its bones! Another nice dish that we would definitely recommend. The flavours blended well and complemented the meat. Wasn't hard to eat and meat was soft and juicy.

Lemongrass lychee - I've had this combination elsewhere before but find the one at Sambal more pleasant. The lychee isn't too strong or overwhelming and neither is it too sweet. I found think drink to complement the food well.

Sambal - they serve nyonya style sambal with every dish and we loved it. We tried all the dishes without the sambal first and then with the sambal and the same sambal paired well with all dishes, including the appetisers (maybe we're one of those sambal addicts 😄)

This is a small venue with limited tables but not overly packed. With the number of staff, they were able to serve each table well, without forgetting or sending wrong food orders and all members of their staff were very polite and pleasant. It's a nice place for a cosy birthday dinner with loved ones. Definitely an experience I'd want to repeat and I love that their food options have a nice twist or something unique to offer, something you can't find elsewhere. If you're an out of town visitor, do come and visit Sambal if you like nyonya / local food. It's not a traditional experience, more of a modern and blended take with nyonya influence.

I'm writing this almost 2 weeks after the visit and I can still taste the food...

We came here after a very pleasant experience at their experimental sister bar-restaurant, Belachan. We expected parallel quality and we were not disappointed. The space was surprisingly small and cosy, given its tremendous reviews and potential - but that also meant that the one of the owners, Janelle, was very hands-on in tending to her customers throughout the entire night.

We started the night with a very generous serving, very moorish Fish Skin Hot Hot (which was deep fried salmon skin with mala peppers) - which we ended up taking some home because we wanted to leave room for the other dishes (note: it was still good and crunchy the next day! We told them they should sell these in packets).

Being fans of seafood, we ordered the Drunken Clams and Sotong DeSumbat. We savoured the first dish until the very last drop of its Chinese rice wine sauce laced with aromatic ingredients such as bunga kantan (torch ginger) and red chillies. The stuffed squid was a worthy mention but was perhaps just a touch overdone - flavours were on point though.

You can’t go to a Teochew-inspired restaurant and not have the Teochew mee teow (a.k.a. Teow Chew Nang in the menu) which came highly recommended. Our only regret is that we didn’t have more stomach space to finish the whole dish, because it was really good. They were very generous with the ingredients, especially the bean sprouts (which luckily we were both fans of).

Our meals were accompanied by more local-inspired cocktails (similar to Belachan), and a glass of house white. We were in two minds about having dessert because we were too full by the end of the night, but Janelle kindly treated us to a traditional Teochew dessert called “Orh ni”, which was a cup of smooth and rich taro puree. We licked the cup clean.

There are so many more dishes we have yet to try, and we hope we will get to in the future. Thank you, Sambal, for a very memorable and delightful birthday dinner. This Penangite is...

This was an odd experience. One of the reviewers described the service as 'both distant and aggressive' and I agree entirely. One of a differences between high-end establishments and others is first and foremost customer service. This is what you expect and pay for.

We were greeted from across the entire room by the main waitress (stark blue eyes) asking us whether we had a reservation. Normally, I would not imagine disturbing guests like this but we did answer since she did not come up to us but stood waiting.

We were seated and served promptly and saw a few people come in asking for availability. At the time, there were only two small tables occupied, yet the main waitress signalled everyone away saying she needed at least 45 minutes to prepare the tables.

With time, almost an entire place filled up. We saw all tables waters being re-filled but not ours. Our food arrived with an abrupt 'here you go' while a table next to us got their food explained in detail. The consistency of service just wasn't there.

Two customers next to us kept playing videos on their phones while eating, clearly disturbing others. No reaction from the waitress to address their behaviour. Oddly enough, we saw her being the most attentive to those two rude guests instead of those who behaved politely.

The food was actually quite lovely, so were the drinks. However, our experience was entirely soured by the service. We much preferred the behaviour of the junior waitress who came across quite professional, with a warm attitude and smile.

I am sorry but I would not recommend this place. The junior waitress as well as the chef and kitchen staff...