Dim Sum at Northam Hotel, Penang

How often do you find dim sum restaurants in hotels giving 50% discount? I'd say not often at all! Luckily for us in Penang, the Taipan Fin's restaurant at Northam Hotel offers a 50% discount for certain credit card holders every weekend for their dim sum! If you check out their website:

For UOB, HSBC & Citibank card member only:
-20% discount on a la carte.
-50% discount on Dim Sum.
*The above is not applicable with other discounts and promotions.

Yes! I'm a HSBC card holder, so my friend and I decided to give the dim sum a try one weekend. We reached the restaurant at 11+pm to find that the place was still less than half full. I thought that was a good thing because it meant that our order would arrive faster.

Taipan Fin's restaurant

The ordering process in Taipan Fin's is different from the typical dim sum restaurants, where there would be waiters pushing carts of piping hot dim sum from table to table and the patrons could choose from the carts what they want.

Table settings

Over there, you're given a piece of paper with the list of food available, and you're supposed to mark the dishes that you want with the desired quantity. In a way, this ensures tthat he food is freshly prepared just for you, instead of being pushed around the whole restaurant collecting germs and viruses. :P

Here are some of the dishes we tried that day, all at 50% off! I still kick myself for not keeping the receipt for the meal because I forgot the names of most dishes. However, I recall the price range was from RM4 to RM12 per plate, before discount. I think for a good hotel, the price is very reasonable. :)

Prawn dumplings "Har kau"

The har kau had fresh shrimps, but they're really quite tiny! I guess you can't really compare these with those from Prince Hotel or Grand Millenium Hotel in KL. Well, good thing is the portion would be great if you plan to sample many different dishes without feeling overly full. :)

Meat dumpling "Siew mai"

Siew mai was also small in size, but thankfully not in quality. I think they used pork meat in this but I could taste a hint of prawns too. Perhaps they mixed some prawn shreds inside to make the dumpling taste better.

BBQ Pork meat dumpling "Char siew pau"

Char siew pau was not bad, and thankfully it's small. *LOL* Dumplings like these are really filling so if they're big in size, I'd end up not having any space left for the other dishes. The meat used was lean and flavourful too.

Glutinous rice with chicken "Loh mai kai"

I did not really eat much of the loh mai kai, because I was already very full by the time it came. Plus, the look of the glutinous rice just made me shudder. I did eat the piece of chicken inside though! It's pretty good.

Steamed pork ribs

Pork ribs was probably the least popular among all. The presentation was already dull, the taste was a little too salty for me. Shouldn't have ordered this.

Chee cheong fun

Chee cheong fun was smooth and tasty, just that the prawn filling inside was not very consistent. That means not every piece of the chee cheong fun would have prawn meat inside.

Fried yam cake with filling

Fried yam cake was above average, and not too oily. Recommended!

Fried prawn rolls

One thing I noticed though, even though the shrimps used were not exactly XXXL, they're very succulent and fresh. The fried prawn rolls, for example, were very crunchy, and I don't mean the outer layer of it, but the shrimps!

Fried prawn with additional fillings

This was another fried dish in the menu, with prawns and other fillings inside. I don't really remember much from this, I suppose all fried dishes eventually tasted the same to me. Just like the fried wantan as well. :P

Fried wantan with prawns

Last but not least, we ordered two sweet dim sum, mainly the sesame seed balls with lotus paste inside and egg tarts.

Sesame seed balls with lotus paste filling

Egg tarts

Love those mini egg tarts!

Taipan Fin's at The Northam
55, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah
10050 Georgetown
Penang
Tel : 604 - 370 1111
Fax : 604 - 370 2222