New Penang Garden

Like Judi M., I too have been coming to New Penang for years. Many years. I loved the fact that they have all three types of food here (Singaporean, Malaysian, and Thai). I also loved the fact that this place was open late until midnight.

Among those that were my all time favorites were the Roti Canai, Hokkien Mee, Mee Siam, Chow Kueh Teow, Nasi Lemak, and Indian Nasi Goreng.

I was very sad to see that this place recently closed all of a sudden and that a noodle house was opening soon in its place. I will definitely miss it. After all, the place had been here for a very long time.

Yesterday was a hot one in the Bay Area. After a full day of training, I was so drained that even my taste buds were tired. When dinner time rolled around, I wanted Singaporean food since it's sort of Chinese but not quite Chinese (if that makes any sense at all). Since my family and I were in Milpitas already, I decided to take them to New Penang Garden since we had never been there before.

We arrived at NPG just a little before 6:30pm. The restaurant was pretty quiet, with only a few tables occupied. The interior was dark and decorated in a South Asian theme. We were seated at a table in front of the live seafood tanks that totally reminded me of those in Chinese restaurants. The few "sleepy" crustaceans inside stared at us lifelessly, living out their final days in boredom.

Our server brought us menus and water. She was friendly and spoke Cantonese with a noticeable accent. Since it was our first time there, she recommended a few dishes to us. The following is what we ordered:

- Chicken Satay (5 skewers for $6.50)
- Hainanese Chicken Rice ($9.95)
- Chow Kueh Teow (Malaysian stir fried noodles, $9.25)
- Sarang Seafood ($13.95)
- Beef with Sa Cha Sauce ($10.95)

Food started to arrive rather quickly. Chicken Satay was quite good. The skewers were presented nicely with a side of pickled vegetables. They were grilled nicely. Meat was moist and flavorful. My taste buds got a nice jump-start.

Hainanese Chicken Rice was an epic failure. It was basically steamed chicken with a bowl of rice cooked in yellow color 5. Chicken was dry and flavorless and so was the rice. It was NOT authentic.

Chow Keuh Teow was Malaysian stir fried noodles with fish balls, shrimp, egg, and bean sprouts. Flat narrow rice noodles were used for this dish. The dish was on the spicy side. Although the overall flavor was decent, the absence of pork product (Chinese sausage or BBQ pork) in this dish, along with the usage of cheap manufactured fish balls, made NPG's version less appealing.

Sarang Seafood is basically stir fried seafood in a taro nest. The taro nest had the exact same taste as the fried taro dumplings you get at a dim sum restaurant. NPG used a lot of fillers (frozen peas and carrots, sliced vegetables, mushrooms etc) to cover up the lack of seafood.

Beef in Sa Cha Sauce was the best dish of the night. The beef was tender and the Sa Cha sauce provided a very complex flavor profile. It paired perfectly with the yellow color 5 rice.

Service was decent. As I mentioned before, our server was friendly and she did check on us a couple times during the meal. With T/T, the meal came out to $63. In all honesty, NPG's food did not impress me and a 3-star rating is the best I can give them. I am afraid NPG is one-and-done for me.

BONUS MATERIAL:

- Major credit cards accepted.

FOOD: My favorites so far is their rendang fish. Teow noodles were decent too. Portions seem a good size for to go and it took 8 minutes for our food to be ready for to go. So fast! $25 minimum for credit cards is what the sign says behind the cash register. They have pre set combo dinners available that seem like a pretty good deal ranging from $17.95 per person on the low end.

INSIDE: Quite nice with a sitting area in the front that is nicely decorated. See photos for how the inside looks like. Big tables available for large groups.

OUTSIDE: Parking is an outside lot shared with other businesses on the Asian side of McCarthy Ranch. Menu is outside to view to decide if you want to eat here. Photos on the windows of dishes.

Overall I liked this place and definitely will be coming back. Sign says they're open seven days a week until midnight.

I am a fan of this place because of the yummy dishes they have to offer. When I am feeling vegetarian, this is my go to place. It is tucked in the corner of a very busy plaza. The place inside is pretty spacious and the service is not so bad.

I love the fried eggplant here. It is so yummy and flavorful, that I crave it at times. Everything here is very flavorful. They have non-vegetarian options and that is also yummy too. We would also get the salt 'n pepper fish, which has a kick to it. So yummy especially with the vegetables we get.

They offer coconut rice, I personally don't get it but when we do come here at least one of us orders it over plain steam rice.

The desert, fried banana ice cream...heaven! So yummy, either you can get the fried banana's and have mango ice cream on top or you have have fried ice cream, which is a ball of fried goodness with chocolate drizzle and when you break it open...ice cream oozes out. A must try here.

I ended up at New Penang Garden a couple of days ago as it was too late to make it to Layang Layang or Banana Leaf. New Penang Garden is located in Milpitas Square plaza that hosts a ton of Asian restaurants. At around 9 pm, New Penang Garden had only 2 tables occupied which was in sharp contrast to Layang Layang (which would be almost full) or Banana Leaf (which would have a waiting list a mile long, which is surprising but that is for another review). Anyway I was not going to risk driving to another restaurant just to find it to be closed so I decided to get something from New Penang Garden.

I got what I generally get from any new Malaysian restaurant that I go to namely Nasi Lemak ($8.99) to-go which is basically coconut rice served with chicken or beef rendang, sambal, anchovies, peanuts and boiled egg. The default version of this dish comes with chicken rendang so I asked for an upgrade to beef rendang (+$1.50). Communicating with the female behind the counter was a challenge and just getting her to understand that I was fine with the up-charge for beef rendang needed mediation from one of the servers in the restaurant. I had to pay cash as they don't take cards. After ordering it was a reasonable 10 minute wait for the food and I was on my way.

Let's come to the food. The beef rendang can be summed up in one word - crap. It was not like any other beef rendang that I've had. It seemed to be thin slices of beef cooked in a coconut stew. The beef had a slimy mouth-feel, but thankfully it was not chewy. The sambal anchovy was pretty good. Not the best that I've had but still pretty good. It went pretty well with the mixture of rice sliced boiled egg, peanuts and salad. Everything considered this was definitely a below average version of Nasi Lemak.

My advice to anyone getting this dish would be to stick to the default chicken rendang as the beef is just terrible. Price wise it was 5% cheaper than Layang Layang and 25% less than Banana Leaf but the food was not even in the same league of either restaurants. If you are looking for good Malaysian food stick with Layang Layang and you won't be disappointed.

Ever been to a restaurant that was all around ok, where the visit was highlighted by one wonderful dish that's perhaps the only thing you really remember?

New Penang Garden was definitely like that for me. The decor is nice enough to not distract, while the white cloth tablecloths are a nice touch. Service was friendly and responsive. Overall, the experience wasn't too over the top and hence, not too memorable.

My buddy and I ordered the Roti Canai ($3) as an appetizer to share. A reasonable price for each of us to have a few bites of this crispy pancake dipped in curry. We were given way more curry than what was needed for dipping, but that's fine since my body probably doesn't need to load up on so much curry anyway.

The real gem was the Pineapple Fried Rice ($9), which was made with chicken, shrimp and cuts of pineapple, served in the hollowed out pineapple skin. Fried rice tends to be a bit boring, but perhaps due to the presentation I really enjoyed this. The portion size was filling and the amount of stuff that wasn't rice was ample. The sides of the pineapple skin had a thin layer of pineapple remaining, so I was able to scrape this with a spoon and get some pineapple juice out of it to give the rice more flavor. The verdict on this dish? All around very satisfying.

I'd definitely come back to try the Pineapple Fried Rice again. But only if I remember.

I've been coming to New Penang for years. I love that they have Singaporean, Malaysian and Thai food in one place.

One of my all time fave dishes is rendang beef with coconut rice. Penang Garden's version is one of my faves. The sweetness of the rice is a perfect balance to the spicy, full flavors of the rendang beef. Their meat is always fork tender and perfectly cooked.

For appetizers, I love their satay chicken, roti canai (think savory pancakes) and roti murtabak (think crepes filled with beef, eggs and veggies) served with a peanut sauce.

They also have a very tasty nasi lemak (dish which has coconut rice, hard boiled egg, fried fish and chicken curry), laksa (spicy noodle soup) and Hainanese chicken rice which are very popular in Singapore.

We have come here in small and large groups. They are always very accommodating and service has been on point.

One note though, they have a $25 minimum for credit cards which is not posted anywhere.

Might there be favoritism in this particular review? Hell yeah. But I mean... yelp is all about giving shout outs to your favorites, so whatever.

I love Penang Garden. It had been a restaurant I grew up in, practically. Graduations? Birthdays? Family get togethers? We all would just go here.

I'll admit that back in the day (2004-2006ish), the restaurant was more put together than it seems to be today. I loved when a waiter named Andrew use to work there because he'd hook me or my family up all the time.

Anyway, the decor and ambiance may be ~modest~ BUT just try the food. Everything is soooooo good, and they have such a fantastic variety.

My favorites:
roti canai
clams in tom yum soup
any of their fishes
whole crab
mango chicken
coffee short ribs
sauteed vegetables
house special fried rice
fried banana dessert

Because of Michael P., yesterday's dinner rendezvous was my 3rd time at this plaza in less than a week.

It was a pleasant surprise that we ended up here. My dinner counterpart ordered salmon something w/ coconut rice (he loves coconut.. no, I mean he LOVES coconut) and I ordered the special coffee short rib after minutes of contemplating because the menu is extensive. I see Thai dishes, vegetarian dishes, Chinese dishes, and Indian dishes. If you want samosas, curry, chow fun, fried rice, beef and broccoli, ox tail something, lamb, a variety of soups, and a plentiful appetizer selection.. this place can satisfy many taste buds.

Service was good. I was not able to pick an entree so Michael ordered his first. My meal took less than 10 minutes to come out so that was awesome. I later joined him and asked him to try the short ribs. Although succulent and quite sweet, there were no evidence of "coffee" hence the "coffee" in the name of the dish.

He cleaned his plate and I cleaned mine w/ a little help from him.

Wonderful dinner... I just wish the damn beef tastes like coffee because it sounded cool and unique but nevertheless, I cleaned it because the beef was tender and sweet.

Beware- even on a freaking Monday evening, parking was still horrific.

Came here with some old coworkers of mine.

The wait for 3 people was about 15 minutes during a lunch rush hour. They kept saying 2 more minutes for the duration of the 15 minutes.

We were seated and given waters very promptly. Our waters were always refilled without asking even during this rush hour.

Roti - The Roti, I expected to be amazing, but this was what I expect from a roti. It didn't blow me away (relative to like liang liang). The sauce was delicious. Definitely a good dish to get, and it's super delicious, but I wouldn't go and say it's the best roti i've ever experienced.

Spare ribs (marinated in like coffee sauce?) - These were saucy and flavourful. Good with the cilantro if you like it. Otherwise, this dish was my least favourite. It was okay at best.

Black bean fish - I liked this dish, but it's super salty and requires rice or something plain to offset it. The flavour was good, the fish was tender, and this is something I'd order again.

Salt and pepper deep fried eggplant - This dish confused me. If you ever order a jiao yan shrimp or tofu, the salt and pepper balance is great. This dish had an overwhelming sweetness from the batter. The eggplant itself didn't take on much flavour. The salt and pepper were there, but just masked by the sweetness of the batter. If you want a sweet eggplant dish, this is for you, but I prefer my garlicky yu xian eggplant.

Over all not a bad experience at all, I'd definitely come back to try some other dishes. Everything streamlined nicely.