Restaurant: Blue Reef - Straits Quay, Penang (Top Pick)

This restaurant is in Straits Quay and fronts on to the Marina. I ate there on recommendation from an MM2H forum member. Essentially it is a fish restaurant and is renowned locally for this with the fish it serves being bought in fresh daily.

The restaurant is very clean and modern looking and serves a wide variety of fish dishes. At the quieter times of day they revert to a simpler, and slightly cheaper, Happy Hour menu where the range on offer is more restricted. You can choose to sit outside or inside and the place was clearly popular despite my being there at about 4pm on a Sunday afternoon.

I opted for a starter of tomato bruschetta at a cost of RM 5 and this was nicely presented having a fresh tomato topping and served with a nicely dressed salad. After this, on recommendation from from the waiter Jeffrey (who was very helpful and friendly), I had the local Grouppa fish in beer batter which was served with fries, salad and tartare sauce. This was excellent and perfectly cooked, the portion being of a good size. Most importantly, the fish was well marinated and very well seasoned making it very tasty indeed, often a serious shortcoming in establishments where without adequate seasoning the fish can taste quite bland. At RM 26 I though it very good value for money. Drinks wise I had a couple of small bottles of Tiger at RM10 each and a mango juice at RM 5 (it had been a long walk!!!

Blue Reef opens from 11am to 11pm daily and has happy hours until 12 noon, from 3pm to 6pm and from 10pm until it closes (sometimes later than 11pm). Although it is renowned for its fish (fried, grilled and steamed) it also serves a range of other dishes such as chicken, lamp, beef and pasta. The lamb shank at RM 38 comes particularly highly recommended. Overall I would say that the Blue Reef is an excellent choice if you fancy a meal of this type and is well worth a "Top Pick" rating.