CLOSED - Restaurant review: Penang Spicy Garden – authentic Malaysian flavours

Penang favourites such as laksa, char kway teow and satay clams are packed with flavour and good value at this small husband-and-wife-run restaurant in an out-of-the-way Tsuen Wan mall

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Penang laksa at Penang Spicy Garden in Tsuen Wan.

Published: 12:00pm, 19 Apr 2016Updated: 12:19pm, 2 Oct 2017

Tucked away in an obscure mall in Tsuen Wan, Penang Spicy Garden is a surprising hit, serving authentic Malaysian food. It’s a small place with just a few seats, run by husband-and-wife team the Chuans. The husband works in the kitchen and his wife looks after the front of house.

The condiments are bought in a nearby Indonesian grocery.

The exterior of Penang Spicy Garden in Tsuen Wan.

The Penang laksa’s (HK$58) brown broth is made from frying dried chillies with oil, and it’s fragrant with lemongrass. Though a bit oily, the soup, which contains plenty of shrimp and clams, was so delicious that we finished it.

We also liked the strong flavour of the Penang Fukien fresh shrimp noodles (HK$58), which has a broth made by boiling the shrimp shells for three hours.

The Penang char kway teow (HK$53) has flat rice noodles that are stir-fried with duck eggs and pork fat, giving it much stronger flavour than usual.

If you want any of the special seafood dishes, you need to call the restaurant before 3pm so the chef has time to go to the market to buy fresh seafood.

We tried the spicy and sour golden prawns (HK$88) with lemongrass, ginger, minced garlic and chilli. Although the prawns have the taste of tom yum and chilli, the dish is a bit dry.