China House

When I first heard about China House, I was excited.  It was the latest venture from a famous hotelier whose projects have garnered stellar reviews.  Back about nearly 20 years while visiting Kuala Lumpur, a family friend brought us for dinner at Bon Ton, her first restaurant in Malaysia.  I remembered every lasting bite.  At that age, I don't think I've had anything quite like it before.  It was like getting a fix, only this would be one's virgin experience...

Narelle started Bon Ton back then and sold the business to move to establish its namesake in Langkawi as a hotel and restaurant.  Her success spurred and a second resort was founded.  Over time, both were award winners by travel bible, Conde Nast.  When she decided to make inroads to our beautiful island, Penang, I was ecstatic.  She started two separate boutique hotels, one attached with a cafe.

Now Penang can be a tough market, be it whatever business.  Sometimes great ideas do not transcend into great successes and a buyer took over the boutique hotel which included the cafe.

From there, she bought three very long (stretches from one road to the next parallel), pre-war (her consistent trend), beautiful shop houses in the central business district of George Town.

China House it would become, divided into a cafe, restaurant, gallery, private dining and theatre.  I loved the idea instantly, a kind of F&B place that one would not expect Penang to have, and someone like Narelle to bring to life.

On our first visit, we noticed all their staff came from their fortes.  Bartender, waiter, waitress, barrista etc.  They were obviously poached over from their respective places of employment.  Impressive.  Their branding strong, which would be a magnet for more sought-after professionals.

We were seated promptly and menus were handed over.  Orders were taken soon after and we doodled while awaiting hungrily for our orders.

Crayons to doodle

As a breakfast fan, I went with the Big Breakfast, which came with 3 different types of thick quality breads, 3 different dips of east meets west, two sunny side up eggs, sauteed mushrooms and vegetables, homemade lamb sausage and beef patty.  The portion was sizable, especially the carbohydrates.  The taste wasn't bad, yet nothing to shout about and for 35 a pop, pricey I feel.

A had this one above, with avocado, tomatoes and feta cheese.  Quite straight forward, light and simple, but its the thought of pairing them together that seems a complementing idea.

But I have to admit, their desserts fare better.  Ladies can never resist sugary treats and there was an array of them laid out on a long wooden antique table.  A chose the Tiramisu.  No matter where, the common ingredient lacking in this cake is the cheese.  Mascarpone is expensive so usually only a slight hint, but here at China House, it is rich with the creamy goodness but surprisingly very little of the alcoholic bit, Kahlua.  The complete opposite.

Creamy Cheese Cake a la Tiramisu

Our first experience would be a decent one.

Few months down the road, my brother visited during the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities.  Now he's a real breakfast fan so we spent some sibling time here.  This time as we entered, I noticed many of the familiar serving staff were nowhere to be seen and thought they may be off duty during the holidays.

We were not greeted to be seated.  The bartender(ee) looked up and simply looked through us.  Without supervision, we sat ourselves down and waited for almost ten minutes before a menu was produced.  And only after I had waived to request for it.  While browsing through, there were more diners patronising, foreigners to be exact.  They were greeted warmly by the service staff, including said bartender.  Double standards?

The 'friendly' bartender

My brother ordered the Big Breakfast.  He even spoke the national language seeing the native waiter struggled with English, to request for scrambled instead of sunny side up eggs and to change the beef patty to a non-beef  variant instead.  Everything would be taken care of the waiter promised.  After a 45 minute wait, our dishes came and I immediately spotted the errors.  There were NO changes at all to his order.  All that talk about "not to worry, we'll customise your request" was complete baloney.  A different staff, this one with countless years of experience in the industry, served our meals and when we related our request all he could say was "the message wasn't passed on".  So the customer should be facing the consequences for it?

Incompetent waiter #1 beside 'Message not passed on' waiter #2

I felt the least he could have done was to replace it to what we requested.  He said what he said and went off.  Completely unprofessional.  This was a RM35 dish, the most expensive on the breakfast menu and it warranted better care and service.  Obviously they knew of their mistake and the waiter who took our order retreated and never to be seen again.  My brother was furious and China House, you are very fortunate not to have experienced his wrath.  Not for no reason that is.

His

Mine

I saw Narelle, the owner.  This was the second time and I've never before seen a proprietor with a face of thunder.  I thought the first time was a one-off but found it to be a perpetual scowl.  Smile a little, you're in the service industry, no?  In the two occasions there, I didn't see her greeting or talking to patrons, the least you could do is smile or ask if everything was alright.  It seems to me the staff has an uncanny resemblance of her.  Their air of arrogance, possibly taking after her?  I don't know...

What I know is this episode has left a bitter taste in what I thought would be a place for a lazy Sunday brunch with A and friends.  Its disappointing, I hope for their own sake others will not experience a similar  misfortune.  Good luck China House.

China House

153 & 155 Beach Street

George Town, Penang

1838 Victoria Street

George Town, Penang