Neighbourwood Restaurant Bukit Mertajam

This is one dammmmmn good Michelin Star Restaurant. The Sourdough and Butter including the Mackerel with avocado is fantastic 👍 Also the Berkshire Pork Belly are simply awesome and mouthwatering… dammmmmmmmn good 👍👍👍👍👍👍 #neighbourwoodbukitmertajam #neighborwood

What can I say but WOW. It’s obvious the chefs have a great passion for food and creating wonderful dishes. Please put this restaurant on your must do list if you are visiting Penang.

The service was good, but you’ll need to be patient while waiting for the food. The quality definitely lives up to its Michelin recognition. Recommended dishes: 1. Jumbo squid 2. Burnt tomato bruschetta 3. Half chicken 4. Pasta alla gricia 5. Allspice chicken

Disappointed by the Service and Standards We waited nearly an hour for just two starters, despite checking in with the server multiple times. Not once did anyone proactively inform us of the delay or offer an explanation until I asked directly—only to be told it was because my dish was grilled prawns. Honestly, if prawns took an hour to grill, they’d be charred to a crisp. That response felt more like an excuse than a reason. When the prawns finally arrived, I was shocked to find that the intestinal tract hadn’t even been removed. Upon raising this with the lady in charge, she simply smiled and said, “Yes, that’s how we serve them.” I’m sorry, but that’s not acceptable from any kitchen, let alone one charging premium prices. Given that I had to return to work, we also requested our mains be served promptly—but they only arrived 30 minutes after the starters, adding to the already excessive wait. The lady did apologize after I voiced my concerns again, and offered a small loaf of bread as a gesture. While the apology was appreciated, the overall service, food quality, and value did not meet expectations. Would I return? No. Unfortunately, the experience fell well short of what was promised

Great service from the friendly and professional team there. As first time customers, I appreciated the time, effort, and patience from the server to explain to us the dishes and the recommendations based on detailed observation of us. They knew what would be ideal and gave us the right expectation. The pricing was also very reasonable for the quality of food and service. Would definitely return during special occasions.

For Xmas Eve, our family of 5 tried this Michelin Bib Gourmand resto for the first time. Food was delicious and professionally plated, service and ambience were good. We noticed a crew of mostly young male chefs in the kitchen, and young female waitstaff serving the customers. We are pleased to see young locals of our neighborhood working hard and hope that this experience will become their training ground and stepping stone to something bigger in their future culinary career. We will come back another time for the desserts.

A most improbable location for an attempt in fine dining within a nondescript blue collar neighbourhood in BM - but I’m sure discerning mainland diners very much welcomed this outpost. Bib Gourmand did and inscribed it into their listing. It was nice that they didn’t make a fuss when I showed up an hour early for my reservation. After all it wasn’t that busy on a mid-week evening. While the decor is intended to convey an upmarket vibe, it manages to feel quite relaxed, homey and casual, populated with Hokkien-speaking locals and families. The manager who took my orders capably made some good recommendations, providing essential details about the preparation and key ingredients. She did advise that some dishes would require more preparation time and asked if it was alright with me. I wasn’t in a rush. The sizeable tomato salad (7/10) arrived first. I liked that the tomatoes were peeled, cured and had a very unique tasting dressing. Because the oysters needed more time to marinate, the lamb rack (9/10) was served first. Beautifully chargrilled to perfection, it was smoky, very umami and still moist. Kudos to the chef for pairing the strong meaty flavours with an aromatic turmeric curry leaf sauce. It went very well together. The cold oysters (7/10) were last to arrive and although they were plump, sweet and appetising, the sequencing was very odd and not complementary to the meal on the whole. Picked the strawberry sabayon (7/10) to end the meal. Found the berries to be unripe and quite sour although the sabayon made with XiaoXing wine was excellent. While I thought the food was uniformly good and of high quality, the service level was uneven. Aside from the manager, the rest of the service team was not very observant and neglected to clear my table promptly after each course. Rather annoying. Prices are very premium for this location but deemed reasonable given the quality.

Found this place on Google Maps and was attracted by the high ratings and comments. Sourdough, butter, mackerel with avocado (7/10) - Sourdough had nice soft chewy texture and slightly charred. Nicely paired with the mackerel avocado toppings. Turnip, feta, croutons, balsamic eggplant (9/10) - A mix of the ingredients above may sound weird but the dish was refreshing, had a good play of texture and a sudden burst of flavour to whet our appetite. Allspice chicken (8/10) - Stuffed chicken wings, grilled to perfection. Nicely seasoned. Tender and juicy. Half chicken (8/10) - Nicely grilled. Chicken meat was super tender and juicy. Nicely seasoned as well. Seaweed conchiglie (9/10) - Pasta was cooked al dente with chunks of sweet scallops and tender squids. Unique ingredient in the pasta, laksa leaves, made the dish unique! Grilled pork loin (9/10) - By the time this dish was served, we were quite full already but the perfectly grilled pork loin was hard to miss. Meat was tender especially the parts near the bones and nicely seasoned. Fats were rendered properly. Overall, this place surpass all our expectations. At such an unassuming place, BM, and to find such a fine restaurant is such a gem. We enjoyed the meal very much and thanks for the good service. Highly recommended. Will return.