CRIZ BON APPETITE

If you or any of your relatives or friends would want to plan a wedding banquet, fret no more as Sea Queen Restaurant at Straits Quay, Penang, has the exact locations for your memorable occasion at one of the wedding venues, whether it’s indoor or outdoor. Sea Queen Restaurant has been boasted as one of the great wedding venues in Penang with a few venues within Strait Quay Marina Mall to cater to your wedding reception needs. You can have your wedding reception indoor with a capacity of up to 40 tables or you could also combine another 55 tables outdoor together with your garden wedding reception. Do check out with them on other facilities such as a cruise out to the sea on a chartered yacht for a minimal fee of RM500++ (8 pax). If you are looking for a bigger venue, they do have the Level 6 equipped with private kitchen to cater to up to 200 tables. Well, what about guests who required Halal dishes to be served? You’ll be in for a surprise as they have that thought of too as they do have another section at Level 4 which could cater to the Muslim crowds up to 100 tables. If you had a hard time finding a venue for your wedding reception, do check out with them as they are very accommodative to help you solve your worries.

Before I go into details on one of their wedding packages, let’s have a look at their standard Wedding Menu. There are all together 5 menus (Pearl, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire and Diamond), ranging from RM488++ until RM1188++ per table. The dishes may look as though they had been fixed but the restaurant does allow some of the items to be changed to suit your needs.

We did try out their Emerald Wedding Package (RM668++) which came with 9 items instead of the usual 8-dishes package. We started off with the Five Hot & Cold Combination Platter. The platter came with four hot dishes and one cold dish which consisted of Crab & Minced Meat Rolls, Curry Potatoes in Glutinous Rice “Pear”, Ham & Nori Meat Rolls, Stir Fry Mixed Vegetables with Seafood and Chilled Spicy Jelly Fish with Smoked Duck. I quite like the Crab & Minced Meat Rolls and Chilled Spicy Jelly Fish with Smoked Duck. However, the rest of the item on the platter would need some improvements. The Ham & Nori Meat Rolls tasted too “fake” to my liking. I would prefer this item to be replaced with grilled bacon with minced prawns, something simple yet delectable. Steamed stuffed Shitake mushroom in some eggy sauce would also be nice. The Curry Potatoes in Glutinous Rice “Pear” may look unique but texture and bite wise, it was almost dessert-like to my liking. I would prefer the filling to be more savory base with fillings such as minced meat with spring onions/chives for that extra bite.

Next on the list was the Braised Seafood Soup with Crab Meat. Taste wise, it was proven to be pepped up with rich stock and fresh crab meat. However, I sensed that something was missing from the soup to give it a bit more flavors and texture. I would suggest the kitchen to garnish the soup with some deep fried scallops to justify the quality of the soup.

The Stewed Chicken with Chinese Herbs Wrapped in Aluminum Foil was somehow too mild for me. It lacked the distinctive herbal flavors as I would have expected. I would think Steamed Stuffed Roasted Chicken or commonly known as 8-Jewels Chicken/Pat Po Chicken would be a better choice as a replacement.

We were also served with Steamed Snapper with Siamese Sauce. No doubt the fish was extremely fresh but the sauce somehow did not taste Siamese as I would have expected. It tasted more towards Indian curry with a dash of lime juice. I won’t mind having the dish in other Thai-style cooking method such as the Pla Phat Phet, a galangal and coconut milk enriched spicy curry base or even the Pra Nung Ma-Naew, a lemon juice and chopped red chilies based appetizing gravy. Even a simple plum, salted vegetables and tofu way of steaming would do more justice to this fish dish.

The Pan Fried Sea Prawns was something simple and yet flavorful to my liking. The sauce had just the right aromatic flavors to capture my attention. How I wished I had a plain bowl of rice at that time to savor this delicious dish.

There was also a common dish you’ll see served in most banquets which was the Trio Mushrooms with Bean Curd Roots & Bean Curd Puff. I did find the dish to be most appropriate to be served after a long list of cholesterol-rich dishes. However, it would be great if the kitchen were to tone down on the rich usage of sauce as we were not dining with plain rice.

As usual, the last dish prior to dessert would be a starch based dish, namely Steamed Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf. Somehow having rice in replacement for glutinous rice in this dish was not to my palate. It did not bring out the flavors in the generously added ingredients. There are many signature styles of fried rice available in the restaurant and I hope the kitchen would replace this rice dish with something more unique. Maybe the kitchen can think out of the box and come out with something as simple as Pumpkin Fried Rice, Wax Meat Fried Rice, Crab Meat/Seafood Fried Rice, etc.

The restaurant does have some unique desserts to end the course meals. We ended our meal with Chilled Longan with Syrup and Sweet Fancy Double Delights. The former was something quite common and nothing much to shout about but the latter was something I would love to give them credit for their hard work. We were served with hot mini steamed buns filled with lovely oozy yet buttery custard. On top of that, we were also served a chilled mocha-like dessert filled with fragrant pandan (screwpine) custard. What a great way to end the dinner.

Overall, the spreads for their Emerald Wedding Package (RM668++) was quite standard in any wedding banquet. There are still rooms for improvements compared to the ala carte dishes I had earlier. Though their pricing could be quite competitive on the market, I would love to see more variance in their dishes compared to other wedding menus out there.

You can check out more on my reviews on their Set Lunch Promotion and Ala Carte Dishes by clicking on the links.

It’s easy to locate the restaurant as it’s located within the Straits Quay Marina Mall premises. Drive all the way up Jalan Tanjung Tokong until you see Tesco Seri Tanjung Pinang on your right. At the traffic lights, turn right into Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang. Drive all the way until you see the colonial style mall building. Turn into the left of the building and drive straight until the end towards the beach area and you will see the restaurant. Parking is at RM1 per entry.

Name: SEA QUEEN RESTAURANT
Address: G3 & 3A, Straits Quay, Seri Tanjung Pinang, Tanjung Tokong, 10470 Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: +6010-404 0299, +6010-405 0299
Website: www.seaqueen.my
Business Hours: 11.00am-2.30pm/6.00pm-10.30pm (Daily), 11.00am-11.00pm (Public Holidays)
GPS: 5.459273, 100.314161

RATING:
Ambience: 8/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7.5/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 7.5/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7.5/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Our lovable pair of floggers finally tied the knot after so many years of courtship. It was about time too. LOL! The owner of 43 Café, Jacgy Chan, sealed the vows with his beautiful wife and co-partner of their food blog, Cynthia Lim, at the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, Penang, and thereafter to a wedding dinner reception at the new CRC Chinese Restaurant on 7 April 2013. Let’s wish our lovely couple here many happy and prosperous days ahead with at least an energetic “fire horse” baby next year. Haha! Being the 7th animal on the Chinese Zodiac Calendar, the horse carries the characteristics of nobility, class, speed and perseverance to strive for the best in life. With a “valid license”, I’m sure Jacgy would know what to do next, right? Haha!

Here’s the video on their grand entrance:

Since Jacgy is into pork burger and ice cream business, the event was indeed a porky affair. Even their wedding cake had a pair of cute pigs on it with multi-tiers of red velvet cupcakes, specially created for them by another of flogger/baker, Lingzie.

Don’t you think those 2 pigs (errrr… I meant the ones on the cake) are so adorable? 😛

Here are some quick snapshots of the newly wedded~ 🙂

Here’s a peep at my personalized ang pow packet I had designed specially to be given to the couple. Only two couples in my lifetime had received it and they are one of the lucky couples~ 🙂

As usual, a flogger (food blogger) would always take any advantages to blog on any food on any given opportunity. LOL! Let’s dig into the dishes served on that night. Firstly, it was the unexpected starter – Ice Scream!!! There were 4 choices of flavors to try out for the early birds (White Bunny, Purple Magic, Malta & Black Dog), all courtesy from Jacgy’s own homemade ice cream choices from his 43 Café and with toppings of your choice as well. No commercial ice cream would have these unique flavors. It was simply delicious~ 🙂

Next was the “thank you” gift, a red velvet cupcake with lemon cream cheese topping. This was another moist and flavorful cupcake baked by Lingzie. Thumbs up!

The actual dishes which cost around RM500 were served once the couple, family members, relatives and friends were seated. The first dish was the Hot & Cold Platter. The weird part was that it had 3 items rather than the usual 4-5 items palate. I guessed 3 which meant “alive” in Cantonese would be a significant number for weddings.

One of the items in the platter was the Deep Fried Bacon Wrapped Fish Cake. It was nice and filled with the flavors from the bacon.

Next was the Almond Fish Paste on Toast. This was another nice item with the flavors coming from the almond flakes used. At least, the restaurant did drain the oil well.

The third item which was the Prawn Salad on Fruits was quite fine. It had a generous portion of cooked fresh prawns on green apple, honey dew and carrots. The only setback was that the mayonnaise used was a bit too much for the likings of many healthy conscious diners.

The second main dish was the Eight Jewels Soup which had mock sharksfin, crab meat, ham, fish maw, sea cucumber, wood ear fungus, dried scallops and prawns, was somewhat normal without the flavors from the usage of some high stock. Somehow the whole combination lacked the sweet flavors from some meat stock. Compared to my regular one at Starview Restaurant down the road, the version here was rather diluted.

Why the next dish had the name Dragon & Phoenix or sometimes known as Double Phonenix as roasted chicken and roasted duck would always come onto the same plate during wedding dinners as a symbol of prosperity. I would say both the dishes were prepared rather tastily. However, it lacked the actual condiment which was plum powder and salt. Instead, we were served with just plum sauce.

From the look of the eyes, the next dish which was the Steamed Red Lion was slaughtered in a brutal manner – a sign of shock! Very obviously, it was a reared fish as the flesh was fresh but did not have the firmness as it should have after steaming. Soy sauce wise, it was just a normal grade of sauce.

When we thought we would have the normal Broccoli with Mushrooms, we had a surprise instead. We were served with Braised Mushrooms & Scallops, a higher grade of dish normally meant for Chinese New Year which symbolized prosperity. The dish had a base of steamed white cabbage, topped with braised mushrooms, hair moss and dry scallops, dressed in abalone sauce. Overall, it had the required taste but the dried scallops would have tasted even better if they were to be steamed in high stock with a few slices of ginger.

The last second dish would always be rice based and we had another surprise. We had one of the rarest serving for any Chinese banquet meal which was the Steamed Glutinous Rice with Waxed Duck & Assorted Chinese Sausages. I would say this dish was the best I ever had in any banquet dinner. The glutinous rice was steamed to the perfect texture and combined with the waxed duck, Chinese meat sausages and Chinese innards sausages, this dish was the next best to heaven. Though lacked a bit in the taste of pepper and saltiness, it was still awesome.

We had double desserts. One of them was basically canned local mixed cocktail and jellies in ice cubes. The usage of canned local mixed fruit with the presence of papaya cubes just did not blend in well as a dessert. I found the dish to be rather weird tasting and extremely sweet.

On the other hand, the Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls with Pandan Flavor Lotus Seed Paste were bonuses. The texture and the fragrant from the mixed sesame seeds were bite perfect.

We were entertained by one of the top bands in Penang – Starz Band. The duo had very serenading voices, just the kind that I like for a nice cozy evening.

Overall, the dishes served here are of a better standard than most of the banquet dinners I had attended. However, they still need to buck up on the flavors of some of their dishes. Somehow, I really detested having canned stuff for my dessert.

The new venue for the CRC Chinese Restaurant is located just opposite the club’s sport field along Jalan Pangkor. As you turn in through Jalan Burma into Jalan Pangkor, you can see the new restaurant located within the premises of a clan association named North Malaya Cheah Si Chong Soo.

Name: NEW CRC CHINESE RESTAURANT (美麗華魚翅海鮮酒家)
Address: 22 Jalan Pangkor, 10500 Penang, Malaysia.
Business Hours: 12.00noon-2.30pm, 6.00pm-10.00pm
Contact: 604-229 9737, 604-229 9757
GPS: 5.425386, 100.317358strong>

RATING:
Ambience: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 8/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 7.5/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 8/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)