Penang Gurney Drive Review
There can never be too many restaurants with lunch specials near work. A couple of weeks ago, I found a stack of Penang menus in the lobby of my building. I had a decent experience the last time I ate at Penang (Upper West Side), so I was fairly excited about trying out the new location (541 La Guardia Place).
By the time I got around to ordering today, it was past 3pm, so I decided on Char Kueh Teow (#27) and Sotong Goreng (#4) from the full menu. Knowing that fried squid usually has breading, I specifically asked if the Sotong Goreng had breading. The conversation went like this:
Does the squid have breading on it?
No, no breading.
I just want to make sure because I’m allergic to flour. It’s fried with nothing on it, correct?
Yes, just fried squid.
As you can guess, when the food arrived, the squid had breading. It actually smelled wonderful, tempting me to eat it despite the abdominal pain I would experience afterward. Don’t worry, I resisted. So I called the restaurant and the same man who answered the phone actually insisted that there was no breading on the squid. I tried different names like batter, flour, coating… didn’t make a difference. Finally, he passed me off to a lady who explained that they could not do the squid without the breading - but only after I spent another minute explaining what breading was. <sigh> I was given the option of replacing it with something of equal value, so I selected the Thai Basil (#34).
So far, I gave the restaurant the benefit of the doubt. Fine, they didn’t understand what breading was, whatever. But when the delivery guy returned, things took a twist. He glowered at me while he was checking out the breaded squid, like I might have ate some and then tried to return it. Then he handed me a bill for $4.34, which confused me. When I asked him, he started yelling at me in Chinese! Good thing I speak Mandarin. I tried to explain that I ordered a $7 item and was told there would be no charge, but he insisted (well, screamed) that the replacement item was $11. I ended up just signing the receipt; it wasn’t worth the trouble. Looking at the bill after he left, I realized that the lady gave me Siam Basil (#50, $11) instead of Thai Basil, which was $7.
How was the food? Well, the Siam Basil was overly greasy and slightly bitter, sort of your standard bad Chinese food. Didn’t taste like Thai at all. The Char Kueh Teow tasted like noodles and ingredient stir-fried in soy sauce. It was ok, but again, kind of like bad Chinese food. Total bill was $21+ for the two items.
So, I did a little research on the web and it looks like this is not an additional branch of the Penang on the Upper West Side. The name is actually Penang Gurney Drive - they use a similar font and the logo looks identical until you actually inspect it. I haven’t actually been to the restaurant and I doubt I will, based on my initial experience. If you’re brave (or desperate), give them a try. My advice? Avoid this place. It’s just another bad Chinese restaurant masquerading as something else. There are plenty of similar restaurants in the area worth going to, like Galanga, Klong, or Saigon Grill. And they don’t have delivery guys that scream at you in Chinese when they screw up your order.
Add comment February 15th, 2007 | Updated: February 25, 2007
So how’s the food? The quality was surprisingly uneven. Some items were mediocre but some items were as fresh as any I’ve had in New York and Tokyo. The cooked dishes generally fell in the mediocre camp. I would avoid them. The nigiri pieces were very similar to size to those at Yama in NYC. They’re downright monstrous. The length was longer than my index finger while the width was about double my thumb width. There was some variation in quality between the different sushi as well, but the price was better than just right ($5 to $7 for a plate of 6 pieces).