Swensens in Times Square

I DON'T USUALLY PATRONISE CHAINS, particularly huge American franchises, but as I did a review at their Queensbay Mall outlet at the beginning of the year, I was invited to try out the latest Swensen's outlet in Penang's Times Square, not far from Penang Road itself.

It's situated on the ground floor, right next to Old Town, which may mean they have their work cut out; but as the two serve quite different menus, I think they may actually complement each other. Only where local food is concerned might the lines cross each other, but again the dishes are quite distinct so it may be a win-win situation for hungry shoppers at Penang's newest shopping centre - there is a good range for them to select from which crosses the whole spectrum.

Swensen's is one of America's largest ice-cream chains, and although their supply comes from their factory in Singapore, it doesn't appear to have affected the taste nor quality of their products. However, I was more interested to see what their savouries were like, although once again here as all the food is prepared at Auto City (in Butterworth) and shipped out to the other 3 stores (Queensbay, Gurney and of course Times Square) there shouldn't be too much diviation.

So with our hostess Maria Xavier their Asst Marketing and Purchasing Manager and Restaurant Manager Din together with Chef Lim who's in charge of the food there, we started with the Prawn Salad sprinkled with chunks of peaches, longan and raising which comes accompanied by a fairly thick mango and yoghurt dressing. It's quite tasty but a bit sweet for my taste, although I thought the Spaghetti with Slipper Lobster was really rather good especially with a shake or two of chilli flakes ... yummy! One of their bestsellers is the BBQ Half Chicken which is coated with a sweet barbeque sauce made with pineapple juice.

They have also just introduced a range of Asian Delights, dishes aimed at the local market so there are items like Chicken Rice, Crayfish Bee Hoon Soup, Claypot Kueh Teow and Spicy Laksa. The Smoked Duck Mee Sua came wrapped in paper-thin rice tissue a la Thai style and was quite good (even better with my old friend Chilli Padi). Apparently they also do a mean Mee Goreng with beef or seafood but we did not get the chance to try it.

If you have a sweet tooth the Banana Crumble with Butterscotch and Maple syrup served with a large dollop of Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream will be right up your street, but big families may wish to go for one of their Mega Sundaes: the Earthquake - 8 scoops of differently-flavoured ice creams with accompanying sauces! It's all a bit gimmicky and they rather like using dried ice to give it a bit of "drama" but it's quite fun and a bit different. That's Din there pouring the butterscotch on btw, under Chef Lim's eagle eye.

BTW students get a 30% discount off their ala carte, and there's free wifi too so you'll be able to while the afternoon away esp on a day like today when it was POURING outside. And they're even offering an "Eat All You Can" A La Carte Buffet Dinner from 7.30-10pm every evening for just RM38.80++ (RM28.80++ for senior citizens). See, there ARE some advantages to growing old ... !!