Restoran Tho Yuen 桃園茶樓雞飯

Restoran Tho Yuen (30 August 2012)


Restoran Tho Yuen 桃園茶樓雞飯 is a Chinese dim sum and chicken rice restaurant along Campbell Street in George Town, Penang. Tho Yuen serves Cantonese-style dimsum such as pao and dim sum along with several varieties of Chinese tea during breakfast time. Towards lunch time, the chicken rice stall takes over from the dim sum.



19 October, 2014: Dim Sum Breakfast

Having heard glowing recommendations for this restaurant, my wife and I were eager to try out its dim sum. As we drove around looking for a parking spot, I saw that within the city block comprising Cintra Street, Campbell Street, Rope Walk and Kimberley Street, there are at least three other dim sum places in the vicinity (Leong Kee, Tai Tong and Yong Pin). We finally found a spot on Rope Walk, and walked from there to the restaurant.

We must have arrived a bit early, because there were still a lot of tables vacant. We deposited ourselves at a table under a fan, and we immediately felt that this restaurant is more airy compared to the one we taste-tested last week, Restoran Aik Hoe.

Dim Sum at Restoran Tho Yuen (19 October 2014)


We picked the dim sum from the passing trolley, and on top of that, we also ordered two plates of chee cheong fun and one hundred-year-egg porridge. When it arrived, we thought the porridge was a marvellous sight. Take a look:

Restoran Tho Yuen Porridge (19 October 2014)


And it was very tasty too. We also enjoyed the various items such as the sio boey. I find that the kao ci given to us was not that well wrapped, but never mind. The char siew pau received my wife's high accolade when she remarked, "I wish I could make one like this." As my wife was quite capable of making char siew pau herself, including making the char siew from fresh meat, that's saying something. She showed to me how springy the skin of the char siew pau, and that it has more filling than the same pau we had in the previous dim sum place.

Restoran Tho Yuen pau (19 October 2014)


However, with all the ups, there are also the downs. One of them is the lok3 mai2 fan3, which is not good enough. The colour was also not dark enough for lok mai fan.

Restoran Tho Yuen lok mai fan (19 October 2014)


The egg tart was quite unusual, and we were impressed by its appearance - it looked a lot like Portuguese egg tart. To me, it didn't taste particularly special, but as I am not a good judge of egg tarts (it isn't one of my favourite dim sum items), I referred to my wife's opinion. She loves egg tart, but unfortunately, for this one, she also gave it the thumb down. She said that the best egg tart she had taken among all the dim sum restaurants in Penang is the one at Maxim's in Taman Pekaka. (We need to go there to properly taste test that place one day).

Restoran Tho Yuen egg tart (19 October 2014)


Our chee cheong fun did not materialize. We checked and was told it was still being steamed. How long should we wait for it? Another 15 minutes. That was too long for us, and in the mean time, we were starting to feel full. My wife ordered a tua33 pau1 to go, to be eaten the following day. (She later informed me that the tua33 pau1 was lousy.)

So all in all, Restoran Tho Yuen gave us both the ups and the downs. Overall, we found that it is much better than Restoran Aik Hoe (which I rated B last week). Also, perhaps due to two chee cheong fun that never came, our bill came to RM29.90. Of course, not cheap, but to be expected if you're having dim sum.

Food Rating: Restoran Tho Yuen
Dim Sum & Porridge (19 October 2014): B+

Parting Comments: This restaurant would have gotten an A- from us, if not for the chee cheong fun that did not arrive, and the below-satisfactory lok mai fan. While the char siew pau was great, the tua pau wasn't.

Getting there

If you go down Campbell Street from Penang Road, you will arrive at Restoran Tho Yuen on your left after the intersection with Cintra Street.

Address

Restoran Tho Yuen
92 Campbell Street
10200 George Town, Penang
Phone: +60 4 261 4672

Restoran Tho Yuen (8 February 2013)

Restoran Tho Yuen is on the map of Campbell Street

List of Dim Sum Restaurants in Penang

Private Guided Tours of Penang

If you are seeking private guided tours of Penang, message Penang Tour Guides at penangtourguides@gmail.com and enquire with them.

 Buy, rent or sell properties in Penang

Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.