19 Days left for Christmas!!! Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle All the Way~~~~~

It’s school holiday season and the queue to go up to Penang Hill was crazy long! The multi storey car park was full. I drove from lower floor to top floor and from top floor to lower floor, I am not able to get any parking lot. Luckily, there were 2 road side parking lots available when I was out from multy storey parking building. Just after I took one of it, another car came and took the other. Of course, for road side parking, you will need to scratch the parking ticket. It is a red zone in Penang Hill area, which means, you need to have parking ticket from 9am-9pm everyday, to avoid any parking fine.

Since I knew the Penang Hill will pack with people, why I was still there? The reason is, I need to go to David Brown’s Restaurant & Tea Terrace in Penang Hill to try out their Christmas Menu, specially for the month of December. The restaurant management was so thoughtful and got us a fast lane ticket to go up to Penang Hill, we no need to queue up at the normal lane. 🙂 The fast lane ticket is RM30 each (MyKad holder). For normal ticket, it will be RM10 each. To check on the full ticket price, please go to http://www.penanghill.gov.my/index.php/ticket-service.

As you can see, the Christmas decoration is up!! All the decorations are made by recycle items.

I like this view a lot. Like the green and the lotus in the pond. It will be so nice just to sit there and relax, while having a cup of tea or coffee.

David Brown’s Restaurant & Tea Terrace is having 2 Christmas Menus for this year. One will be available for the whole month of December (Except 24 December 2015) while another one is only available on Christmas Eve itself.

Once we have settled down, as usual, the bun is served first. The bun is always good when it comes warm and eat it with the butter provided. The bun will be served no matter which menu you are opting for.

Let’s start with the RM98++/pax Christmas Dinner Menu (which is available from 1-31 December 2015, excluding Christmas Eve).

Appetizer
Soft Shell Crab Salad with Sesame Dressing. The Soft Shell Crab is quite big in my opinion. There are also fish roes in the salad, another YES from me. By using the sesame dressing, I can foresee that many people will like this appetizer.

Soup
Chicken & Corn Soup. It’s creamy and lots of chicken, corn and carrot. It has a strong corn taste which I like.

Main Course
David’s Roast Poulet with Roasted Herbs Potato, Steam Vegetable and Gravy. From the photo, it looks like just a normal 1/4 chicken. However, the chicken is actually marinated with 13 different spices, not including the basic salt and pepper. The taste is complicated to describe.

Pan Seared Grouper with Potato Croquette, Steam Vegetable and Wasabi Mayo. If you don’t like chicken, fish will be the alternative. Again, you can see the fish roes are on top of the grouper. It’s good to eat with the wasabi mayo as it will add some kick to the taste. The fried stuff is not fried banana! By just looking at the dish, it looks like fried banana though. It’s actually a potato croquette. It’s crispy and nice.

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb with Potato Fondant, Steam Vegetable and Lamb Juice. The lamb is roasted with medium rare. The lamb is tender although it looks a bit rare to me.

Dessert
Chocolate Brownie with Caffe Vergnano 1882 Espresso Chocolate Ice Cream. I have nothing to say about this dessert. The dessert from David Brown’s Restaurant & Tea Terrace is always so good. The ice cream is a surprise! I tasted coffee but my friend said it’s chocolate. After looking at the menu, only we knew it is a mix! I like it so much, if can refill, I will for sure ask for another one or two.

Christmas Eve Dinner (RM188++/pax) ONLY for 24 December 2015.

Amuse Bouche
Turkey Croquette with Sriracha Mayonnaise. The spiciness really brings up the taste and makes you to crave for more.

Appetizer
Arugula Salad, Beef Bacon, Tempura Oyster Mushroom, Toast Hazelnut, Balsamic Reduction Vinaigrette. The beef bacon is good. I also like the Tempura Oyster Mushroom. With the Balsamic Reduction Vinaigrette, it’s really taste good and healthier.

Soup
Chicken Veloute with Poached Breast, Eryngii Mushroom and Chive. The soup is not as thick as the Chicken Corn Soup but it tastes fresh. The Eryngii Mushroom and Chicken Breast are the perfect add on.

Main Course
Traditional Roast Turkey Breast with Roasted Herb Potato, Broccoli, Purified Apple Chatney and Turkey Juice. This is a good option for those who wants to eat clean and healthy. The roast turkey is good with the sauce. The color of the purified apple chatney and the sauce are identical. At first I still think both are the same until I tasted the difference.

Pan Seared Norwegian Salmon with Scallop, Spear Asparagus, Tomato Tartar, Chive Potato Cream and Lime Hollandaise. This is another dish I like. Who doesn’t like Salmon? Scallop and asparagus are another 2 items I like as well. Nothing to complain about this one. The salmon is nicely done and the skin is pan seared until crispy. Very satisfied.

Rack of Lamb with Glazed Onion, Conmfit Cherry Tomato, Braised Lamb Pie and Balsamic Lamb Juice. The braised lamb pie is a hit. The lamb is also roasted to medium rare. For lamb lovers, this is the main course for you.

Pre Dessert
Ginger Lime Granita. First time having a pre dessert. It is very refreshing with the slightly ginger taste.

Dessert
Chocolate Mousse Cake with Caramelized Banana, Coconut Gelee, Caramel Pop Corn and Berries. Like what I mentioned previously, the dessert from David Brown’s Restaurant and Tea Terrace is so good. The caramelized banana at the bottom of the chocolate mousse cake is crispy. It’s even better with the combination of caramel pop corn, coconut gelee and berries. It is a mouth watering dessert to all.

Both Christmas Menu will come with a Tea or Coffee with Christmas Cookies. I chose the coffee since I am a coffee lover. It’s good to have it with milk provided.

Any reservation made with full payment for the Christmas Eve Dinner before 15 December 2015 will entitle for a 20% discount. ONLY Christmas Eve Dinner will be served on Christmas Eve.

Overall, both Christmas Menu look good to me. You can see the effort from David Brown’s Restaurant and Tea Terrace for creating all the dishes just for the menu. No need to mention about the Desserts, I definitely like both of them, no doubt on that. For Appetizer, if really need me to choose one (I like both of them too!), I will prefer the one from the Chritsmas Eve Menu due to the dressing. For Soup, I like the Chicken and Corn Soup more due to its corn taste and thickness. Main Course wise, Grouper, Salmon and Turkey Breast are my pick. Maybe the management can think of having a mix and match from these 2 menus, by setting the price in between. To me, RM188++/pax for a Christmas Eve Dinner is a bit too expensive.

David Brown’s Restaurant & Tea Terrace | Sky Terrace
Strawberry Hill, Penang Hill, 11300 Air Itam, Penang.
Tel: 04-8288337 | 018-4096277
Email: st.penanghill@gmail.com
FB: David Brown’s Restaurant & Tea Terrace; FB: David Brown’s Sky Terrace
Website: www.penanghillco.com.my