Bak Kut Teh Dinner at Old Green House

Old Green House Bak Kut Teh (14 March 2016)


Recently I asked members of my Penang Hawker Food Facebook Group to recommend to me bak kut teh stalls in Penang. Among the suggestions, two that struck my interest are the Bak Kut Teh at Old Green House and Khoon Klang Bak Kut Teh on Perak Road.

So on Monday, 14 March, 2016, my wife and I made a trip to Old Green House to try out its bak kut teh. (In fact, we attempted on the day before, but found out that it was closed; we later discover that the coffee shop doesn't operate on Sundays).

The name of the stall is Beng Kee Claypot Bak Kut Teh 明記砂煲肉骨茶. Judging from the number of claypots stacked up at their stall, I gather that this must have been a very famous bak kut teh for a long while already. I straightaway told the seller that my friends on Facebook have recommended his stall so we come to try it. We ordered the bak kut teh for two, along with the eu char koay and oily vegetables. I wanted to order yam rice, but was told yam rice wasn't ready, so we settled for white rice.

We must have arrived rather early - around 6:10 pm - for it took some 15 minutes for us to receive our order. As we sat at our table, we felt that the place has a lot of flies. We had to shoo the flies a number of times.

Finally our bak kut teh arrived at around 6:25 pm. Here's our order:

Old Green House Bak Kut Teh (14 March 2016)


There is a pot of bak kut teh with all the various ingredients, and a generous helping of enoki mushrooms at the top. I like enoki mushroom (my wife doesn't, so it's all mine!) The oily vegetables are also topped with meat floss. The bill was RM30.

In our opinion, the amount of rice provided was too little and uneven (my wife's bowl has much less rice than mine). While I would understand that it is difficult to keep equal portion for every bowl, they should at least try to ensure nobody gets too little rice. It's like forcing us to order extra rice.

We immediately ordered one bowl of extra rice, at 70 sen. My wife felt they offer too little soup. When she asked for extra soup, she told me afterwards that she heard one of the women servers said something along the lines of, "How can ask for extra soup one?" I didn't hear it, for if I did, I would surely be pissed off. It has been the usual practise at all bak kut teh stalls we go to, that the soup is free flow, or at least, with one topping up. Some places even bring extra soup to your table without your asking for it. Nevertheless the girl who brought us our bak kut teh brought extra soup to top up our bowl.

The taste of the bak kut teh is okay, though we have no peace having to shoo off the flies the whole time. Perhaps we should have taken a different table. This one is too near the drain. The RM30 meal is sufficiently filling for two diners, but I do notice that the amount of meat isn't much. We look forward to trying out the Khoon Klang Bak Kut Teh to see how it compares.

Old Green House Bak Kut Teh (14 March 2016)


Here I am trying out the Old Green House Bak Kut Teh (14 March 2016)

Address

Beng Kee Claypot Bak Kut Teh
Restoran Old Green House,
Burmah Road, Penang

Beng Kee Claypot Bak Kut Teh is available every evening except Sundays.

List of Coffee Shops in Penang and Coffee Shops in Malaysia