Penang Garden - San Francisco

Yum yum! We ordered hainanese chicken rice, beef rendang and char kway teow. Order was ready for pickup in 15min during lunchtime on a Sunday. Tip: it *seems* that you can place an order on their website but apparently it doesn’t work and they don’t receive orders placed on their website. The best way I find is to look at the menu on their website and call them to place your order. They plated the hainanese chicken rice beautifully even though it was a takeout order. Will come back soon to try the laska and get a whole hainanese chicken to go!

Initially I had my doubts peeking in at 6pm, there was nary a table filled...the interior was kitchy and there was a rather large poster advertising that they were once featured on Food Network. But, it came highly recommended, so let 's go. We began our meal with the roti which I thought was just okay. I felt it was cooked unevenly, one side was beyond paper thin missing some flakiness while the other side was almost too doughy. We were also warned to eat it quickly or else it wouldn 't taste good...I admittedly wondered why because roti is usually flaky yet moist due to using a lot of oil or butter . But I think I figured it out: Penang Garden 's version probably doesn 't use a lot of oil, which explains why it became hard and dry rather quickly after delivery. Next came our entrees, we opted for the Hainanese Chicken, Shrimp Paste Okra aka, 'Lady Fingers ' , Tom Yum Noodle Soup, and Golden Sand Fried Pumpkin and Frog. Originally we wanted the Hainanaese Chicken Rice but we were informed that this plate isn 't really for sharing cause it only comes with 5 pieces of chicken. So we 'built ' our own version ordering the Hainanese Chicken and a bowl of chicken rice on the side. I will give kudos to the chicken. It was a skinny ground runner salted right and cooked perfectly. It was tender and moist and accompanied by a delicious garlic ginger sauce very gingery btw . The chicken rice, though, lacked some oomph. It was also a bright yellow which points to the fact that it was probably just flavored with chicken bullion. Continuing on, the Shrimp Paste Okra was cooked very well. It was fresh, bright green, crisp and not slimy in the slightest. The Tom Yum Noodle Soup was sufficiently sour and hot without being overly salty or wayyy to spicy. I also loved the assortment of fruit and vegetables within especially the quartered tomatoes and bright green, still crisp snap peas. The amount of noodles was also very generous. As for the Golden Sand Fried Pumpkin and Frog, it was deep fried very nicely and not too oily. The 'golden sand ' which is basically salted egg yolk was also not too heavy/overbearing on the pumpkin or frog. The frog was also separated nicely at the joints and did not contain any broken bones. All three of these dishes, I 'd recommend! At the end of dinner, we looked over their dessert menu but nothing really stood out. We were, however, given complementary bowls of the house dessert black rice simmered in coconut milk. This was a really nice creamy end to the meal. Overall, I thought this meal got better and better as it went on. I wouldn 't say I highly recommend Penang Garden, but it certainly warrants a try if in the area. It also wasn 't too expensive at the end of the day $25/person for dinner .

Came here for group dinner. Had 7 of their dishes, everything was very good. Coconut shrimp, beef redang, coconut rice, shrimp paste okra, Hainan chicken, curry chicken. They tone down any spiciness of the foods to accommodate our tastes. Food came out very quick, great customer service for our 16 people group.

The food overall are pretty good, especially the Hainan chicken, very tasty and tender, definitely will come back!

There's not many Southeast Asia cuisine restaurants in Chinatown. This is probably one of the best ones. Although the food is good the restaurant could use another waiter when the restaurant fills up. In the past I have actually seen people walk out because they were not being waited on. I would come back here in I'm craving Southeast Asia food. You can find anything from Indian to Malaysian to Singaporean food here. Some of the dishes are fusion created by the chef and are quite good.