Review Penang Cafe & Restaurant - Otahuhu

This is an amazing place to dine in. The interior may not be the best to look at, but this dime of a place is delicious. I've been here with family and friends 10 years ago and the food quality hasn't changed nor has the taste but its even more fantastic. Check out a few dishes!❤ Coconut Squid, Coconut Prawn, Coffee Pork, Sambal Beans and Curry Roti, Honey Garlic Chicken.

Every dish we ordered was great! Love the Hainanese chicken, no other restaurant in Auckland as do it like this. I reckon if the eatery was located more central, would be much popular! Friendly service too.

Hands down the best Malaysian restaurant. Owner is friendly and the food is superb. The steamed chicken is succulent and tender, it also comes with the special chicken rice. The roti is also the best - crispy outside and fluffy inside. I order these two things every time I go. My whole family loves this place.

I originally wanted to try Sam woos but I did a walk through Otahuhu town center and stumbled across this small place and I'm so glad I did. The food is absolutely delicious. Even though I was only was ordering something that sounded familiar to me with also adding a dish we have never thought to try and golly gosh it was super. Staff were friendly and they knew that we unfamiliar with the menu and tried to assist us as much as they could. Awesome.

The owner Kitty is very friendly. Their food portion is quite big with reasonable price. Hainanese chicken rice & coffee pork chop are one of my favorite. Highly recommended!

Best chicken rice in Auckland. I eat there every week and no chicken rice in Auckland will beat this one. I highly recommend it and I’m sure you will love it. If you’re out of Otahuhu it’s worth the drive.

Tried out this place on a whim and glad we did! It was a Monday night and not too busy, we had a group of five and ordered a reasonable amount of food which all came out quickly and was delicious. The Hainan chicken, coconut battered squid and coffee pork chops were great.

The food is delicious. Coconut prawns and coffee pork are my favorite!!!😍

I love this place, the steamed chicken dish is so good and the owner of restaurant is very nice and friendly

Awesome food as usual and the service, we've been going for the last 6 years, and never disappointed

Wonderful Hainanese chicken, good food for reasonable price

Great food, service was good, lots of parking and easy to get to off mway, recommended

Chicken rice, Penang cafe!

Great food. Reasonably priced as well

Cantonese speaking owner. Awesome food!

Best Malaysia food in NZ

Foods are delicious, environment is average. We ordered fried rice, fried noodle, coffee bones, and hainan chicken. We loved the fried rice, its flavour is fully textured but a bit salty. The coffee bones is a must try, sweet and a bit crispy, very delicious! I recommend this place and it's not pricey at all!

7/7/2018 come for lunch with husband.<br/>The atmosphere is a terrible smell like something never wash. <br/>My husband try to order char koew tiew, she said is sold, than he order char new.<br/>Husband said two star, not good.<br/>I order a spicy salt fish fillets on rice, at start is a little bit of spicy, and then more you eat feel more spicy, I pass to husband.<br/>The fish is fried well but lack of juice, I wish they have some sauce on it. The Bak choy is not in good look. If we come again, we not go to have here, just takeaway.

Special tofu is the only good thing on the menu. Possibly the best egg tofu I've had . Food is over priced. Bland flavour with lots of msg. Atmosphere is terrible. I dont know how this place is still running after 18yrs. However I will go back. Just for that tofu👌

Love the variety of their food. Have been a couple of times over the past few years with family. It does tend to get packed towards dinner time. Staff are friendly, located on the main road so parking is normally a hassle.

Had dinner here and tried the Hainanese chicken with the rice. We also got their special tofu dish.<br/><br/>The chicken and rice were ok. It's not the best and it's not the worst. The chicken was tender but it didn't seem like authentic Hainanese chicken. It was just soaked in a mixture of soy sauce and sesame oil. For the price you pay for it being specially made is pretty meh.<br/><br/>The tofu dish didn't seem like tofu at all. It tasted more like steamed egg custard with a distinctive egg taste rather than tofu. We asked them if it had egg in it because one of our friends had an egg allergy but they were persistent on saying it was tofu. Our friend decided not to risk it because it definitely looked, smelt and seemed like egg.<br/><br/>Staff were a bit cold and not very helpful. The decor is very bland and the place seems very dull and in need of a re-vamp.

Had 2 meals from this place , food was delicious , really enjoyed it , then my cousin found a piece of gray hair 😝 all i can say is please eat with cautious people.

I have to say that the Hainan chicken rice from Penang cafe remind me of my tour on Singapore. The chicken is absolutely great! As well as the price is valuable. The staff is friendly❤️.However, the environment is not that fancy and good, it just like the normal Chinese restaurant. Recommended for foodie who come for real food but not the environment. Definitely will visit again!

This place has been opened for many years. Not expensive. Apparently quite popular! My family and I are not expert in Malaysian cuisine, so the food is good enough for us. Small restaurant, only 1 staff who is also the boss. The only disappointment is NO CHICKEN. It is famous for chicken, and chicken sold out already at 6pm???

Disappointing fried noodles - sad, considering this is the only Malaysian restaurant in the area. I remember the roti canai being very good back in the day when I used to have lunch here with my parents. We'd travel all the way from out west, but judging from the service and the standard of my dish, I definitely won't be coming back any more.

My wife and I have been coming here for years. We have always had, and continue to have the same quality of service, and the food never disappoints. Absolutely Awesome!<br/>We love the family business informal atmosphere which is the next best thing to eating at home.<br/>Long may it continue - AAA+++

For what it is, we enjoyed our meal. Pork  ribs, beef randang and chicken in sauce and BYO/ Husband thought the meal was excellent considering we out fro a reasonably quick cheap meal when most other places were closed. A certificate. Will return again when in need of cheap nice flavoured food.

Agree with Kelly below. Went recently. Food terrible. Bland and insipid. There was hardly anybody there. Do the locals know something? Maybe it has changed hands?

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. FOOD QUALITY HAS DROPPED DRAMATICALLY. <br/><br/>My family have been coming here for years and years but I haven't been in the past year or so. The food was absolutely delicious (regardless of having a stomach ache or two after). Everything use to be super tasty, packed with lots of flavour and you walk away feeling really satisfied. <br/><br/>I am currently sitting at Penang cafe so disgusted at the quality of food I have just eaten. The hainanese rice is a bright yellow (completely off from actual proper hainanese rice) and tasted like ordinary white rice with drops of food colouring, the Asam fish is now diluted and has a horrible lingering after taste in your mouth, and If the taste isn't bad enough.. The fish soup had fish in it that hasn't been scaled. <br/><br/>I have no idea how a restaurant can get this bad in a year. A once loyal customer is not one anymore. Disgusting. Don't waste your money here, it would be better off at McDonald's.

I love the Hainanese chicken rice here!<br/> Restaurant has been open since I was young, family used to regularly come here as this was one of the few Malaysians operating roughly 15 years ago. <br/><br/> Since then there has been many more Malaysian restaurants opening all around Auckland. We still come back here for probably the best Hainanese chicken rice in Auckland.<br/><br/> Service is a hit or miss, since we've been regulars for so long we get the better end of the stick when it comes to service, most of the time haha. But I do agree with the rest of the reviews that the staff can be. . . Inconsistent with their service.<br/> Anyhow, food is delicious here! Across lunch and dinner all the dishes we've tried are always satisfying and delicious!<br/>Will be back for more food 😁

Found this place driving by and thought to try it out as I love Malaysian cuisine. Walked into the restaurant to find the owner lady/hostess just stare at me and not acknowledge me at all. I asked her if I could order some takeaways please, to which she took a copy of the menu and shoved into my hands and walked away. I should have walked away then, but decided not to judge the food by this lady's hospitality. I tried asking her about the vegetarian dishes, but she was just rude and abrupt with her answers. Left the restaurant with sambal beans and sambal chicken for my partner, got home, only to find that my dish was definitely not 'sambal' beans. Was something else, had a funky taste to it and was made from frozen beans. My partner pulled apart his chicken to find it pink inside! So definitely not going back there again. What a rip off at $19 a dish and extra for rice!!

Like usual, my friend dragged me to the dark sides of the city in search of restaurants like searching for jewels in the dark. We found this Malaysian restaurant packed with people. So, we pushed ourselves through the door like we needed to be punished for our sins. We stood there like idiots to be shown to seats. A lady (owner) showed us to a dirty table which she said would be clean in moment. We sat there for a while starring at the curry stains in the table cloth. The lady came and quickly wiped the sheet and gave us a single menu. Dear god, the prices were high for an alley way establishment. This could only mean one thing, either we are going to feast on delicious food or we are going to get ripped off. <br/><br/>We ordered the beef rendang and some vegetable stir fry on a side of rice (which costs extra). The food took a while and tea was absent. Asian food without tea is unholy and the whole alley way experience was getting a bit annoying.<br/><br/>The plates arrived after a while or you could say were acrobatically placed on the tables. The cutlery said don't eat the food and try to gap the place ASAP. We received the vegetables first before the beef. I think the lady wanted us to have some fibre before devouring the cow. We finished the heavily salted stir fry vegetables with the cold rice.<br/><br/>When the rendang did finally arrive after my friend did a pilgrimage to the counter, we felt an overdose of salt kicking in. The beef was tender but the spices did not infuse well with the beef. This was a disappointment, after all rendang is a jewel to Malaysians. <br/><br/>The experience was disappointing and we asked for the rest of the rendang to be taken away as we did not want to waste it. The lady was kind enough to give us a take away container that we had to scoop the curry ourselves.

Went there for a lunch one day after meeting a business associate in Otahuhu. Beef rendang was not well prepared. <br/><br/>Received poor service from the lady behind the counter (possibly the owner). Found out that she actually hails from Mainland China (her last name is Zhou) and not Malaysia. Talk about authenticity.... <br/><br/>Disappointing.

I have been here twice and have got sick both times after dining here. I eat out a lot and have never had issues elsewhere. Have to admit the food is delicious. Checked their rating on the council website and it's a B. Obviously room for improvement. Not sure if I am ready to go back yet.

We have eaten at this restaurant a few times over many many years and never been disappointed. Their coffee pork is quite frankly superb! Its not a big place so would recommend booking. Service very good and staff always friendly. Thoroughly recommended for a cheap and cheerful meal.

highly recommend tropical chilli fish! the sauce is amazing :O<br/>also, the Special tofu is crispy on the outside, silky on the inside. the hainanese chicken rice is tasty.<br/>a bit of a shame that there is only one person working in the front though

The menu is different, and the place was recommended by a friend - so we headed to Otahuhu to try Penang. <br/><br/>The food was not authentic unfortunately for us, was definitely diluted to Kiwi tastes. The sambal did not taste anything like it should be and was sweet :( Not happy..