Santorini Cafe ~ A review

I'm really thankful for the opportunity that I have been given recently, and thus was invited for this review at Santorini Cafe. Well, even if its an invited event, will still be doing what I have been and that is writing about my beloved food. So, this cafe is located along Burma Road in Penang, its right in between the big aquarium shop and also Little Cottage. So it should not be too hard to locate. On the other hand, parking is abit difficult as Burma road itself doesn't have that many spaces but there is plenty on the side road of Jalan Kedah.
So what does Santorini Cafe serves? Its a mix of local and western food in my opinion. Got to know that one of the owners is from Kampar and they are trying to bring some of their famous fishball mix to Penang. Now my family is also from Kampar so I can pretty much compare to what I have been having since young. Hehehe. This time, I will elaborate on each photo as I guess that is less confusing as we got to sample quite a number of dishes. But it was really just sampling, each person had just a bite or less as there were so many reviewers, but just not that many food :p Do read on ya.

Address : 94, Burma Road, 10500Penang.
Phone : 04 - 2292776 OR 016-4416039


The sign board of Santorini Cafe

 Entrance with many white boards with their current specials

This statue they have is interesting

 The shops opposite this place

 Another view. It doesn't look very big from the outside

 Inside decorations of Santorini Cafe

 Love their "Message Tile Wall"

 More interior shots

 Even have tatami mat style seating at the back

 Santorini Coffee ~ RM6.00. This is a really tall glass of blended coffee and pretty worth the price for the amount. The coffee of course can't compare to a fresh brew from Starbucks but is pretty good.

 Thirst Quencher ~ RM5.00. This is like a fruit cocktail serve in a mini glass jar. Pretty average tasting. Its a cordial drink from Taiwan with some bits of plum in it.

 Santorini Chocolate ~ RM5.50. This is also a drink which comes in a mini jar. I don't think there is anything special. Taste like a cold cup of Oligo.

 Coffee Chicken Chop ~ RM13.90. A chicken chop that has been marinated with coffee. They surely have a creative way to give an old dish a twist. The coffee taste isn't very obvious or overpowering and I do feel that the portion of the chicken is very much generous. Its a whole deboned chicken leg and served with some fresh salad and fried potato pieces. This is a chicken chop worth a try here.

 Drunken Mee Suah ~ RM6.90. This Mee Suah is abit of a disappointment to me as the noodles were overly soft and I don't feel drunk after tasting it. Probably its a very mild taste and the condiments very pretty much just 2 pieces of crab sticks, eggs and some pieces of meat in it. Just so so for this one.

 Butterine Mantis Prawn Rice ~ RM7.90. Now this is a dish which I think is worth every penny. This is a version of fried mantis prawns in butter milk with some mixture of Kong Poh taste thrown in. The mantis prawns were really crispy and the sauce went very well with the rice. There is even a sunny side up so that one will surely make this a satisfying meal. Try this one.

 Oat Fish Chop ~ RM12.90. This is a fish chop that is coated in oats to give it a slight crispiness. The frying and batter is all good but its a let down due to the use of dory fish. Now I'm not against dory but it is a fish that needs to be "treated" more to ensure it tastes well. So this is one I'm not recommending for now.

 Santorini Potato Salad ~ RM5.00. This is a dish that my wife would love. Its a pretty good blend of potato salad and the presentation do deserve some good marks here too. This is worth a try.

 Mama Rice ~ RM8.00. Well this claypot chicken is called Mama Rice by the owners as they say that this is the dish that makes them remember their past so well. I would have scored this one higher but on that day, the chef made this almost into a soup, there was so much sauce that I thought it was a chicken soup at first. I think this really diluted the taste and would have been much better if the sauce were to have thicken up. So, do request to ensure that its not too watery if you try this one.

 Close up of Mama Rice

 Her-mus-ney Chicken Chop ~ RM11.90. This chicken chop is the grilled variety and it just taste pretty typical like any grilled chicken chop. The portion is decent but I can get grilled chicken chop everywhere nowadays.

 Fish Sauce Beehoon ~ RM6.90. This fried beehoon is supposed to be fried using fish sauce which is source from Sarawak. I guess that intrigue me and it tasted pretty good with quite a good amount of condiments on it. I think this is a nice tasting fried noodle and would give full marks if the portion was slightly larger. Try it.

 Western Mix Grill ~ RM20.90. This is a mix platter for grilled items which has lamb, chicken, sausage, egg, potatoes and salad.It is pretty average but the thing that really spoilt it was the cheap sausage used. I would have not complained if it was something like Ayamas Premium sausages which aren't that expensive but the ones used here are really of the bottom rung. Probably skip this one.

 Seaweed Fried Rice ~ RM6.90. When we were first shown the menu, we were told that this is a vegetarian dish but when it came to the table, there were prawns and also chicken bits in it and we were wondering if this is what it was supposed to be. We were then told that there is 2 versions and we were served the non vegetarian one. So for those looking to order this rice, make sure to tell them which one to order. I think this dish is nice as the seaweed blended very well with the rice and made the rice so much more fragrant. I guess this is only applicable if one likes the taste of seaweed which has a salty taste. I like it though.

 Kampar Yue Wat Soup ~ RM5.90. As the name implies, this is suppose to be the fishball soup from Kampar. My thoughts are that the fish balls are just so so, it doesn't have the solid texture and the most letdown for a soup is the soup itself. I feel that not enough ingredients went into the soup preparation and thus it was a very plain soup. Might as well go somewhere else for soup.

 Toast Wonder Box ~ RM6.00. This is a thick piece of fried bread with a hole in the middle filled with 2 flavors of icecream and some bits of chocolates and fruits. I felt that the combination didn't work too well as the mixture didn't taste sweet or match. The presentation of course looks nice and I was expecting it to deliver more. Hopefully they can improve on this one as it really is pretty special.

 Santorini Cracker ~ RM4.90. This is fried beancurd skin with fish paste and its very popular in Perak in places like Kampar and Ipoh. I have eaten this since young and can tell if its good. The one here definitely scored for crispiness but the piece I had was abit bland to the taste. Probably I prefer abit salty as the others felt it was ok. But I feel that at RM4.90, it was a little bit pricey but thats probably because they had to bring it all the way from Kampar? Try this one out