As the name suggests, Gurney Drive offers Penang specialties, from char kuay teow to assam laksa. It's a good thing we went when we did, because a few days after our visit, the ceiling collapsed at JEM (which has been riddled with problems since before it even opened), and the mall is now closed indefinitely. We were there with A's folks for a rather early dinner, so we weren't all that hungry and ordered some stuff for sharing that we maybe otherwise wouldn't have.
We ordered a plate of their Penang Lor Bak, which had a portion of ngo hiang and fried tau kwa. I didn't have the tau kwa but the ngo hiang wasn't too bad. The sambal chicken wings were quite disappointing. Despite being described as being marinated with sambal, I could barely taste any sambal at all. In fact, it was just a generic, somewhat tasteless fried chicken wing.
Their "must order" Penang prawn noodle soup wasn't too bad, all things considered, though the soup was a bit thin until you mixed in the chilli paste that came with it.
The sambal seafood grill had its highs and lows. The prawns were quite good but the squid was really rubbbery. And as for the Penang char kuay teow, like the prawn noodle it was quite tasty, but just seemed to lack that extra oomph.
The food generally is decent, and at least prices are fairly reasonable. Service is excellent, which is a rarity these days in chain joints like this. If we ever go back to JEM though, I don't think we'll be making a beeline here.
A says:
The coffee and service are decent. The food is passable. Compared to the other Malaysian-style diners, it's not as good as Old Town, but better than PappaRich (which has good food but horrible coffee). And certainly better than the Singaporean branch of Madam Kwan's (which is bad in every way possible).
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