CEO came to town and threw a dinner banquet for all managers. He chose the dinner menu, the most expensive one no less.
Opened in September 2009, the Maple Palace Chinese Restaurant is a Cantonese restaurant in Penang, Malaysia housed in a rustic, historically preserved building.
Situated in the newly upgraded Maple Gold Club along Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah in Penang, the Maple Palace restaurant is in close proximity to the beaches of Penang and a variety of local landmarks, as well as a short drive to the bustling city centre of Penang.
There are private rooms and a big dining hall that can seat at least 30 tables. The space is a combination of Chinese décor and Victorian elements, and the menu is extensive.
RM268++ Special Individual Set Menu
美宝阁三小品（避风塘虾球，荔枝虾丸，蜜汁黑叉烧）Maple Palace Treasure Trilogy (Prawn w/ Fried Garlic and Dried Chilli, Lychee Prawn, Honey-glazed BBQ Iberico Char Siew)
The first course is a trio of appetisers. Chinese food in Malaysia uses bolder flavours and seasonings. The Iberico BBR charsiew 蜜汁西班牙黑叉烧 is one example; it is much sweeter and robust than the ones in Singapore. I liked the typhoon-shelter style prawn ball 避风塘虾球 best; crispy, garlicky on the outside, crunchy on the inside. Not a fan of the lychee prawn 荔枝虾丸; the lychee is just the appearance and not the taste or filling. And what’s with two prawn balls in one dish?
椰皇虫草花陈皮螺头汤 Double-boiled Sea Conch Soup with Codyceps Flower, Dried Tangerine Peel served in Coconut
Next up, a double-boiled soup in a coconut shell. The sweet and fragrant soup used coconut water as the base, chicken and pork bones to boil the stock and added sea conch, codyceps flowers and dried tangerine peel to enhance the flavour. It’s like drinking a non-spicy laksa broth.
红烧南非鲍鱼伴海参 Braised South Africa Abalone with Sea Cucumber
Two ingredients that are basically tasteless, the abalone and sea cucumber need the other items to help impart them with flavours. The sauce was full of umami and savoury tastes, made from boiling many ingredients for a long time to extract a rich stock and further reduced to the right consistency for the red sauce.
黃灯笼椒酱蒸鳕鱼 Steamed Cod Fish with Yellow Capsicum Sauce
We had an interesting discussing what fish is this. I said it’s Chilean sea bass, aka Patagonian Toothfish, aka cod. We concluded what we have been eating was not true cod, aka Atlantic black cod. Well, they are taste like cod to me. I didn’t enjoy the sweet, yellow pepper sauce.
香煎龙虾仔面 Crispy Egg Noodles with Baby Lobster
Half a local spiny lobster served on deep fried egg noodles, aka shang mee 生麵. This is one of the best way to prepare the lobster.
荔枝奇亚籽玫瑰茶 Lychee Rose Tea with Chia Seed
And for dessert, a cold Chinese sweet soup made with aiyu jelly, attap-chee, chia seed and canned lychee with pineapple. Something my mother used to prepare at home with the different canned fruits 🙂
甜蜜擂沙汤丸 Glutinous Dumpling in Golden Grated Peanut
And the hot dessert is a glutinous rice ball filled with tausah (sweet bean paste) and coated with crushed peanuts and sesame on the outside.
Overall it is a good Chinese restaurant, but I would not agree it’s fine dining. The food is delicious and no MSG is used. They incorporated some influence from other regional cooking technique but it is still mainly a Cantonese restaurant. Forget about the drinks in the place, only Tiger beer and Guinness that tasted weird. BYOB if you need.
Maple Palace Restaurant 美寶閣
47, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, 10050 Penang , Malaysia
Tel : +60 (04) 227-4542/9640/9690
Visited Jul 2024
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