Restaurant Bali Hai Seafood Market @ Gurney Drive, Penang

When you had too much of hawker food, you'd prefer to have some other type of food to satisfy your taste bud. So, what other food they have in Penang besides the uncountable number of hawker stalls? Many people would associate Penang with hawker food, however there are few places in Penang that serve decent seafood as well.

One of the more, if not the most famous seafood restaurant is located at the happening street of Gurney drive. Situated in the heart Gurney Drive, within footsteps away from the surrounding luxurious hotels, Restaurant Bali Hai Seafood Market caters those who crave for seafood but yet decline to travel any further than Georgetown.

Restaurant Bali Hai Seafood Market

The wide span of the restaurant area is huge, and can accommodate up to hundreds of tables.

Huge restaurant layout

Since the restaurant is surrounded by the luxurious hotels, it is no surprise that you will be able to spot quite a number of westerners having their share of seafood.

Special area, the Hut

This is not a typical seafood restaurant. Indeed, they have the very reason to call themselves a restaurant seafood market. There are numerous stacking of huge tanks consisting of different live seafood for your pick. Each of the tank is plastered with a price tag according to the daily price of the seafood, a very much a resemblance of visiting a seafood market, if not better!

Stacking of huge tanks consisted of live seafood

There were a lot variety of live seafood to choose from. Whilst some I may have seen and tried before, there were also some seafood that are totally new to me.

Some variety of fish
I seriously have no idea what is Empurau Fish. At RM 38. 80 for each 100 gram, this Empurau is definitely more than a fish.

Two of the many different type of prawns

Some of the shell seafood products
For those who have yet to come across with Geoducks, they are actually on par with abalone in the luxurious seafood league in Chinese cuisines.

Snow Crab

Variety of Lobsters

Cocunut (RM 4.50) and Beer (RM 13.50 for large bottle)
Chilling us on the humid weather of Penang.

Since we are still pretty full after the hawker food session at New Lane, we just ordered a kilogram of meat crab, prepared by roasting them. Since, it is not an easy way preparation, the crab was served after 45 minutes.

Roasted Meat Crab (RM 52 for 900 grammes)
I'd always enjoyed this way of crab preparation because. As opposed to those stir-fried gravy crab preparation, this style of preparation requires fresh and decent sized crab. As such, I get to value the freshness and taste the sweetness of the crab meat.

Best part of the crab, the claw
The preparation of the crab in this restaurant is exactly how I'd want it to be. The crabs meanwhile are fresh, with the succulent and sweet meat. Whilst I enjoyed eating them, however, I'd prefer them to come in a bigger size. Perhaps, it will be better if we did with 2 kilograms.

The total bill came to Rm 77.90 inclusive of the drinks that subjected to 5 % government and service charges. Well,the fact that this restaurant is located at the happening tourist street of Gurney Drive, hence the price was on the expensive side. Apart from that, it is definitely one of the biggest seafood restaurant that stock plenty of seafood I'd ever visited to date.

Roasted Meat Crab: 6.5/10

Atmosphere: 6/10
Price: 4/10
Verdict: A place that offered a variety of live seafood but with an expensive price tag.

Restaurant Bali Hai Seafood Market
90, 90A, 90B, 90C & 90D
Persiaran Gurney
10250
Penang
Tel: 04 - 228 8272
Fax: 04 - 228 1272
Email: seafood@balihaiseafood.com