I must admit that somehow the food outlets at the new wing of Gurney Plaza does not seem to excite me very much. In fact I am most of the time stumped for ideas on where to eat whenever I’m in Gurney Plaza. Perhaps I go too often!
We were there recently and wanted to have a quick lunch as there were errands to run. So we decided to try Xuan Xin Restaurant located on the 3rd floor next to Sakae Sushi.
Xuan Xin Restaurant occupies a rather large space and I love the fact that the place gets a lot of natural light!
A quick glance of their rather extensive menu shows that they served Chinese style dishes. But since there were only two of us that day, we opted for single serve meals.
They had quite a lot of variety of single serve meals ranging from various fried rice styles, various types of porridge and noodles.
I was in the mood for soup. So we decided to try their black chicken herbal soup. It was pretty appetizing with just the right amount of saltiness to the taste.
The beef fried rice came in a huge portion! For me, it was enough for two persons! It tasted mediocre. Not enough ‘wok hei’ for my liking but passable.
We couldn’t resist ordering this dish – the long beans stir fried with mince meat. It’s been a favourite of ours since we first had it at Esquire Kitchen a long time ago. The one here at Xuan Xin is a bit too salty for my liking. But should go better with plain rice.
We also had the fish and beef porridge. A rather odd combination, but worked quite well. The beef was surprisingly tender and the portion was again very generous.
The classic honey lemon tea. And my favourite photo out of the lot! Ah what wonders good natural light can do for photography! lol
Overall, I would say that I found the food mediocre. But I have yet to try their Chinese dishes which I have heard are pretty good, so I’ll come back again for another round. 
I seem to have misplaced the bill for this meal but it was about RM50 for the two of us including two honey lemon drinks.
Xuan Xin Restaurant shares the same owners as the Xuan Xin Steamboat Buffet in Tanjung Bungah (white bungalow next to Petronas).
I had the same fried rice too. But I feel that for mine, the wok hei is just adequate. And I tried their porridge too. Yummy…
The lemon tea photo is indeed great!
Allie´s last blog post..Recipe: Doughnuts
hmm… whenever we recommend ppl to this restaurant… ppl will wonder since when “Swensen” got chinese food?
the name of the shop in chinese pronunciation about the same…..
ok.. I heard their Char Siew is very nice… but it is quite expensive.
PenangTuaPui´s last blog post..Penang Dessert | Cecil Street Market loh han kuo (7th Tiau Lor)
the porridge looks appetising..pity the taste of wat u sampled was less than great..
lotsofcravings´s last blog post..Nolboo Korean Restaurant @ Sunway Pyramid (Old Wing)
LOL at PTP’s comment… Swensen and Xuan Xin… I totally see the mix-up potential! I think if a restaurant was serious about serving good food, they’d stay away from operating in a mall. There’s just that inescapable mall restaurant disease!
550ml jar of faith´s last blog post..Fishmonger, Kohimarama
Ate there once…quite like the horfun fried with beef.
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Fish and beef porridge? That sounds like quite a unique combo… must try that some day, but shared, of course… if the portion is that generous.
Life for Beginners´s last blog post..Gods and Children
agreed! natural light even more important for my camphone, as in dark condition, the pics came out horrible. and i cant use the flash either.
gurney got lots fast food, no? if all fail, go to Chili’s. =P
J2Kfm´s last blog post..Starting the Year Off with a Bang?! (Tenji Japanese Buffet @ Solaris Mont Kiara)
the combination of ingredients is interesting. and the interior looks pleasant.
Frankly speaking, I dun feel like going anymore after reading this post. :p
cariso´s last blog post..17 posts in 2008 – I like it!
I like the last pic, … so nice and natural.
New Kid On The Blog´s last blog post..The Living Room Tea Break
i never stepped into the new wing yet! and you are promoting the food there adee… i am so gonna try it when i return to Pg for CNY!!!!
desmond-t´s last blog post..A Bad Time To Graduate
nothing great/no gd outlets to eat in Gurney Plz.. that’s bee nmy gripe abt the plc.. but tot the new wing should tk care of that prob..
thenomadGourmand´s last blog post..La Bodega, Pavillion
I’ve been there and blogged about it back in December. The dishes are okay but the price is on a pretty high side and their service always go haywire during lunch hours :S
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Hi, can see you’re a girl who lives to eat. Me? I eat to live, ha ha.
I have always loved Penang…especially the poh pias and har mee. Sure miss them.
You have a great week, bet regards, Lee.
Uncle Lee´s last blog post..How You Betray Yourself.
Wow, looks good leh.
Makes me hungry
Michael Yip´s last blog post..BBC One’s Apparitions
ooo, the steamboat business is branching into Chinese food eh? food seem to be a lil pricy for the things you had in my opinion
vkeong´s last blog post..Banana Leaf Char Koay Teow @ Nam Heong Coffee Shop, Ipoh
after i read this blog, i went for a try. Omg, the food is totally out from my expectation. I ordered single meal; black pepper venison rice n seafood ??(sang mee). Even the egg on top of the rice they also din fried it properly. The plating is messy. The thick gravy of the noodle is dripping to the table. Sorry to say that this is totally not worthy for paying such a ‘kopitiam chu cha food”.
Aiyo…u sure can fool ppl lor.I went there too after u had posted n its most disappointing.There were only 2 of us n its not many ppl around.Service is bad as bad as the food la.Sad to say u r off yr mark this time!!!!!!!!!!!!
HORRIBLE FOOD!!!piece of stone in the prawn dish a 2 strands of hair in our ice blended coffee.Need i have to say more n the food is below average n so i feel that yr standard r rather poor.
dear benny,
thank you for taking the trouble to leave a comment here. i am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience at this establishment. if you notice, my post did not sing praises of this place either. at the time of writing, i only wrote about the few dishes that i tried which i said was mediocre.
i cannot vouch for the other dishes on their menu as i have not tried them.
i do welcome reader’s feedback about restaurants in penang but personal attacks are definitely not welcomed here. thank you very much.
Hi sorry about the remarks.I dun meant to leave a personal insult but i was rather stunned n disaapointed as this is our first visit there.n to encounter 2 glaring foreign bodies in our dish on our first time is very 2 disappointing.Thank u so much for yr understanding n i appreciate yr views a lot.
I went there with my family before, the food so so nia and the price is expensive.
Xuan Xin Restaurant is having RM0.99 Tom Yam Mee promotion now.
Check out http://www.qmurate.com/offer/245/Xuan-Xin-Restaurant-RM099-Tom-Yam-Mee.html.