Article and Photos by HELEN ONG

The cavernous Wang Chao in Gurney Drive has undergone several name and style changes in the past few years. It is now, as its name would imply, a Chinese restaurant offering live seafood, and is headed by award-winning chef Kevin Chang, who also runs another restaurant of the same name in Pekaka Square in Bayan Baru.

The menu is not extensive, but lists items like Sharks’ Fin Soup, Cheese Butter Crab and other Cantonese favourites. Being a chef also means Kevin Chang has had the skill to experiment, and he’s come out with a few unique and tasty dishes, like the Chin Bi Ji or Beijing Crispy Chicken, something he adapted from the traditional Suckling Pig recipe.

The Wang Chao is also serving what Kevin believes is lacking in that stretch of Gurney Drive: Seafood Steamboat, with a choice of stocks including a quite delicious, spicy Tom Yam guaranteed to make you sweat. All the accompanying raw ingredients: fresh fish, prawns, crabs, fishballs, vegetables and many more are brought to your table so you can have the fun of cooking and eating with the family.

Starting this month, they have also added breakfast Dim Sum and Bak Kut Teh (Herbal Pork Soup) which isn’t just made the traditional way with pork spare ribs but also with lamb and seafood, something he tells me is now becoming quite the in-thing in the Klang Valley.  Congee and noodles will also be available during this time.

The Wang Chao is open from 7-11am for breakfast, and from 11am for lunch. In the afternoon, pop in for a snack (which comes with a juice thrown in) between 3 and 6pm whilst you surf the net with their free wifi.

It’s a super location, somewhere you can sit and watch the world go by whilst enjoying an ice-cold beer or one of their competitively priced range of wines. The breeze which blows in from the sea just opposite can be quite cooling, particularly in the evening.

Wang Chao Restaurant

104 Gurney Drive

10250 Penang

Tel: 016 557 7268