Hai Onn Restaurant, Penang by Gneb

Hai Onn Restaurant in Burmah Road has always come across popularly for its Koay Teow T’ng (Flat Noodles Soup) and Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodles) in the morning. Little do people know that it also serves excellent and unbelievably cheap chu char (Chinese cooked dishes) and Hainanese Western Food in the evening.

Hai Onn Restaurant is located opposite the junction to Transfer Road and diagonally from Kamdar Burma Road.

Hai Onn Restaurant is an old fashioned kopitiam (Coffee Shop). The marbled tables (as seen in picture below) are becoming rare nowadays.

The staff recommends their signature Hainanese dishes to us:

Hainanese Chicken Chop – This reminds me of a dish my mum used to cook. It’s an East meets West dish that’s good to eat on its own as well as with rice. There’s egg, chicken cutlets, potatoes and tomatoes slices in it. The savoury gravy is rich and tasty.

Stir Fried Tofu with Leek in Bean Paste Sauce – This is a famous Chinese chu char dish to go with rice. The idea of this dish is to balance the strong tastes between the leek and the bean paste, so that they complement rather than overwhelm each other. Hai Onn has done it perfectly right!

I’m the kind who needs something spicy hot to go with rice, so they recommend to me their Asam (tamarind) based Prawn Curry. There must be about 8 to 9 medium sized prawns in the curry. The soup is so delicious and steaming hot (which further spices up the flavour). By the way, the prawns are all peeled, which is good for me.

So, guess how much all these cost (plus 2 gigantic portion of rice, a can of coke with ice and a cup of black coffee)?

Only RM21!!

Blimey, I’m touched Hai Onn still empathizes with the hardship general public would have to face in this economic downturn. Sob..sob..

My scores (out of 5):

Taste: 5 (I’d give it full marks as I like all the dishes mentioned above)
Environment: 2 (This is just a kopitiam, but I still think they should do up the place a bit)Service: 3 (Kopitiam style, but friendly in general)
Price: 5 (Can I give it a 6?)
Parking: 3 (Illegal parking: in front of the restaurant; legal parking: along Macalister Lane and Kinta Lane)
Address: Burma Road (direct opposite to Transfer Road’s junction)