Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Have it the cowboy way at Roadhouse Grill

Did you know that in Penang, there's a restaurant where you could dine in the traditional cowboy environment? It's none other than the Roadhouse Grill, situated in Gurney drive, Penang. When you enter this restaurant, you would be welcome by very colourful lightings as well as dated cowboy paintings from the days of yore.

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Roadhouse Grill


The unique thing about this restaurant is that each table will be served a bucket of groundnuts when seated - well not a full bucket, but it can be refilled. The best part about eating these groundnuts is that you're supposed to throw the groundnut shells on the floor! That's right! They expect you to throw them on the floor and you could actually see many groundnut shells lying around especially at the side of the tables. :) You certainly can't do that in other restaurants now, can you? :)

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Groundnuts appetizer


This is the big barrel that stood right after the entrance, where the groundnuts came from. Somehow, their nuts were different from the ones that I usually eat during Chinese New Year, different meaning bigger nuts! I know this would definitely be great for people who drink beer, like my grandpa used to tell me... "Nothing beats having beer with groundnuts!" Well too bad I don't drink beer.

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Source or groundnuts


I did drink this mango yogurt thing though... And it came in a HUGE glass, or should I say jug? Luckily we didn't order more drinks because this was definitely good enough for two persons. Very nicely done drink, by the way... not too sweet and not too milky.

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Mango yogurt drink


As usual, most restaurants start by serving the bread and butter. I suppose this is a good move, more so if you're already starving and glaring at the waitresses hoping that food would come soon. :P
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Bread and butter


Before long, our first dish came. It was the Hawaiian Pizza. Well, I'm a boring person, all right? I seldom try other types of pizza whenever I eat. It's usually either marinara or Hawaiian, the types that I've tried and tested to be universally safe. :P Anyway, this pizza was pretty good. As you can see, they weren't stingy with fillings and there were definitely generous with cheese too. The best part for me was the crust! I hate pizzas with thick crust, just like the ones in Pizza Hut, you know? It's like eating bread! So thank goodness this pizza had thin crust, like what a good pizza should have.

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Hawaiian pizza


What's a cowboy meal without some beef, you say? Of course we ordered a steak as well, in this case, a mushroom steak. We ordered it to be medium well done and it was right on the spot. The portion was surprisingly huge and the gravy managed to complement the steak pretty well. The sides were pretty ordinary and plain, and their potato wasn't even mashed. But the steak was juicy and marinated well. Commendable indeed.

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Mushroom steak


Another thing that captivated me in this restaurant was the cute decoration that was making the whole place look bright. For example, there was this aquarium which was brightly lit with gold fish in it. Literally made the whole place brighter, I'd say.

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Aquarium


And there was this giant barrel with some cute ornaments on top - A chef and an overly frozen bottle of beer. I wonder where they got the beer bottle from? Complete with ice! *LOL*

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Barrel with cute figurines


And, last but not least, they even have a section called Handphone Charger! How cute is that? You have a mobile phone running low on battery? Fear not! Roadhouse Grill has got just the right charger for you! Never worry of having no battery on your mobile phone anymore! :)

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Mobile phone charger


Overall, the experience dining in Roadhouse Grill was more of the fascination on the decoration of the restaurant, rather than the food. Although, I'm not complaining about the food either. The one thing that I wish for the restaurant to have better of would be the lighting. I found that the lighting in the restaurant was mostly reddish, because of the excessive neon lights that emit this glow. It made all my pictures look like I was near a fire or something. Plus, the lighting didn't make the food look very nice. It would have been nicer to have proper lighting where one could see the food clearly without having to squint. ;)


6 comments:

KY said...

Yah, I agree with you on the lighting part. :)

Unknown said...

wow nice place. i would love to pay a visit if i got the chance =)

Anonymous said...

What a great place to dine! I love restaurants with themes! :)

Thanks for the link! I've linked you up under my hearty blogs too! :)

zewt said...

wow... the pizza loks absolutely yummilicious!!!!

i dont think roadhouse in KL is this good.

iamthewitch said...

ky: :)

irvine: Yea, do pay it a visit and let me know what you think! ;)

cc: I love them too! It just makes the dining experience all the more fun! And thanks for the link! ;)

zewt: Hehe.. Is that so? I never knew there's a Roadhouse Grill in KL! :)

zewt said...

there is.... along jalam ampang... but i think it sucks...