Entree Kibbles: Dehappy Seafood Restaurant @ Penang in Malaysia

The tummy was rumbling after we checked in to our hotel in Penang, St Giles Wembley and since it's our official first meal; let's have seafood! My last-minute research brought me to the nearby Dehappy Seafood Restaurant, that had the view of the towering Komtar at the back!

Commanding a decent review score of 4.1 from over 1,000 reviewers on Google Maps, we found a spacious non-air-conditioned restaurant. With its high ceiling, and ceiling fans, ventilation was good and I don't remember feeling hot and humid when I was dining there.

Live seafood tanks with their prices clearly marked out; crabs were RM200 per kilogram, Australian lobster was RM680 per kilogram etc. I am unsure about the prices for seafood, except for crabs where it would cost about S$100-S$120 per kilogram reputable seafood restaurants in Singapore.

Loving the free tissue dispenser and the plastic gloves! In Singapore, the restaurants would have charged us for wet tissue, although some would provide us with a large bowl of lime water to wash our hands. Speaking of that, I think they stopped providing the lime water after COVID-19; guess for hygiene reasons.

Mom would have nodded her head in agreement to see the cut green chilli. For me, I actually fell in love with the coarsely chopped garlic; more about it later.

Pu-er Tea - knowing the amount of seafood we would be ordering for just two persons, a pot of tea would be the most suitable beverage to make us feel less sinful about our meal.

Seaweed Seafood Soup - while I love seaweed and was looking forward to having a nice, steaming hot bowl of seafood soup to placate my tummy before the rest of the seafood were served.

Although it also contained prawns, squids, mushrooms, crabsticks and baby corns, the flavor was more seaweed than seafood. Seafood was generally tasteless with the exception of crab sticks, which are actually processed than real seafood. Disappointing.

Singapore Chilli Crab - first thing I do when it comes to chilli crab was to have a spoonful of their gravy, to determine if it meets the cut! And this gravy was nice; not watery, with cut chilli spiciness and loads of appetising garlic to whet my appetite!

Pity the crab was pretty small at just about 500 grams and the meat was just insufficient to make this chilli crab dish satisfying! The larger Sri Lankan crabs would have been much better.

Crispy Mantou Buns - only starch for us that night.

Thin, crisp shell with soft, sweet insides; the optimal combination for a fried bun that was perfect with the thick, delicious chilli crab gravy! Shiok max!

Salted Egg Yolk Crab - despite the light salted egg batter, the flavor was weak and the meat was stuck to the crab shells, making the dining experience very frustrating!

Shell was soft enough to be chewed through and ingested but I needed a conduit to up the flavor; here comes the chilli crab gravy to the rescue!

Boiled Live Tiger Prawns - at just RM45 for seven plump tiger prawns, these tasted so fresh, with the crunchiness and sweetness much sought after by prawns lovers!

Prawn lovers like Alex!

What better way to taste the freshness of seafood than to boil / steam them! And to enhance the flavor, you would need the coarsely chopped garlic. I never knew it could make boiled prawns taste so unforgettable amazing!

So unforgettable we returned the next day for the prawns again.

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Even though I wasn't happy with the seaweed seafood soup and the salted egg crab (this was a surprise as it was recommended by a few reviewers), just the prawns alone would make us return if we ever go back to Penang!

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