Sushi Kitchen - Penang

Penang is one of those places where vegetarians are really spoilt for choice.  There are countless options all over the island, but especially so in the city area of Georgetown.  Sushi Kitchen is a Japanese themed vegan eatery, which is nestled on a quiet side street of Georgetown.  Admittedly, it's a pretty tricky place to find (especially if you're not familiar with the area), but worth the trouble. This restaurant has been running in Penang since 2009.  It is run by a lady named Milk Yeoh.



Sushi Kitchen
Location: 12 Gat Lebuh Acheh, Georgetown, Penang
Contact: +6-017-402-8103
Opening Hours: Tue-Fri 11.30am-9.30pm.  Sat-Sun 11.30am-2.30pm & 6.00pm-10.00pm Closed on Monday


Upon entering inside this small restaurant, customers are greeted by friendly staff, and a very traditional Japanese themed ambiance.  They even have the traditional chabudai tables.  For someone who has stiff rusty inflexible joints like myself, sitting beside this chabudai table can be torture.  From what I've observed, Asian people seem to be much more flexible than me though, so I am sure it won't be a problem for most.  The place is quite dark.


The restaurant has great ethical principles.  Insisting on never using microwaves, white salt, white sugar, no MSG, no artificial colouring and no preservatives.  Whilst at the same time, priding themselves on using ingredients such as brown sugar, Himalayan pink salt, natural seasoning and everything being 100% vegan and organic.  The menu has a wide range of predominantly Japanese dishes, but food from other cuisines can also be found on the menu.


If you're heading to Penang, then something that definitely needs to be on your list of things to try is the Honey Nutmeg Juice.  Nutmeg is grown in great abundance in Penang, and therefore it features heavily in a lot of Penang snacks, drinks and meals.  Making juice out of nutmeg is extremely popular during the hot summer months in Penang, as nutmeg is a very 'cooling' ingredient.  The taste is quite unusual.  It reminds me of a flowery galangal/ginger flavour, but there is an undertone of conventional nutmeg flavour in there too.  I really loved this, and found myself drinking it wherever I went in Penang.

Price: RM2.50.     7/10
It was quite a challenge scrolling through the menu and deciding what to order, but eventually we settled on sampling the Happy Spicy Noodle.  To put it simply, this dish is amazing.  Having run hungryangmo.com for many years now, and reviewed thousands of vegetarian dishes, it is very seldom that a dish can really 'wow' me - This dish managed to achieve that.  The key to this dish is the delicious hot broth, which is really different to anything I've tried before.  The broth has curdled soy milk, and has an eclectic mix of spice, sweetness, sourness and wonderful aroma.  If you're visited Sushi Kitchen, then I implore you to give this dish a go.

Price: RM6.80.     9/10


Many may find that a trip to a Japanese restaurant is simply incomplete without having a selection of sushi at the table.  Sushi Kitchen have a variety of different sushi options, but we decided to go for the most elaborate one, which is cryptically named Hapiness Family.  This dish is essentially a sushi platter, with a total of five different types of sushi (plus edamame) on the plate.  Although there are a total of 16 pieces of sushi, I did find the price was a little on the high side.  Nevertheless, the quality of the sushi was nice and fresh, and considering we are dealing with organic ingredients - Perhaps I shouldn't complain about the price too much. 

Price: RM26.80.     7/10


Conclusion - Apart from the troublesome geographical location, there is nothing really to fault about Sushi Kitchen.  When I reflect on my visit to this eatery, I can't help but hope that places like this represent the future of vegetarian/vegan dining.  Establishments that sell quality ingredients and healthy creative dishes, which exclude dairy, copious amounts of oil, mock meats and other harmful ingredients.  It is time we go back to basics, and Sushi Kitchen does that perfectly.

Overall Rating
Food - 8/10
Ambiance- 8/10
Service - 8/10
Value - 8/10