Restaurants almost fully booked minus orders for shark fin soup

The Lunar New Year celebration is about a month away but many restaurants are almost fully booked for the all-important reunion dinner. However, most people especially the youths are losing their appetite for the traditional shark fin soup.>

GEORGE TOWN: Many restaurants here are expected to be fully booked with Chinese New Year around the corner.

At the Daily Fish restaurant, manager Yee Kion Soon said the place was fully booked on the eve, the first and second day of Chinese New Year.

“We still have a few more afternoon slots but the evening and night slots are fully booked,” she said.

The restaurant, she said, offered four packages, with popular dishes being claypot seafood, nyonya steam fish and abalone.

“We have a 10-person course with seven dishes and one dessert.

“Our package is cheaper because we have our own seafood farm in Butterworth,” she said at the restaurant in Logan Road yesterday.

Yee said they also offered a takeaway package.

“We have a small one for five to six persons or eight to 10 persons for families who want to enjoy their meal at home.

“We will be offering all our New Year packages until Chap Goh Meh,” she said.

At the Jade Palace Seafood Restaurant along Abu Siti Lane, general manager Albert Lee said the restaurant was about 80% booked for the festive period.

“On the eve of Chinese New Year, we are about 80% booked.

“We do not have many bookings on the first day as some people tend to go on a vegetarian diet. It should pick up on the second day onwards,” he said.

Lee said the restaurant had many regular customers as it had been around for over 20 years and offered a variety of dishes.

“Although the economy is not too good, families still enjoy the get-together,” he said, adding that the popular dish the past two years had been the steamed tiger grouper.

Penang Koo Soo Kwong Choon Tong Restaurant and Tea-house Association chairman Vinah Yee said most of the restaurants should be fully booked closer to the lunar new year, adding that their 300-odd members were already 70% to 80% booked.

“It used to be always the traditional meals but now people tend to opt for Thai, Japanese, Korean and even Italian food during this time.

“There are plenty of choices and the younger generation tend to be adventurous,” Yee said.

CHAN BOON KAI/ The Star

— CHAN BOON KAI/ The Star Mouth-watering fare: Yee (right) and her top chef Tan Yong Leong showing some of the dishes in the Chinese New Year course meal package at the Daily Fish restaurant in Logan Road, Penang. Right: Tan preparing one of the dishes.