Wednesday, December 2, 2015

59sixty @ KOMTAR Penang

Being the tallest building in Penang and also the 6th tallest building in Malaysia, KOMTAR stands tall at the heart of George Town, Penang and recently renovated the top floors to expand it into F&B & leisure businesses. 
In my memory, I remember it was once called the  云中阁餐厅 located on the 58th and 59th floor of Komtar if I'm not mistaken. It used to be one of the most popular restaurant in Penang and also one favourite restaurant for wedding. 

59sixty has taken over the slots and  reopened their business in the mid of this year and I know that the feedback was very bad due to the bad service and bad food.
To clear its bad name, 59sixty has recently brought over a new chef from New Zealand.

Chef Jason Hall from New Zealand recently joined 59sixty as executive chef to bring back the reputation of 59sixty. He has got 25years of culinary experience and previously worked in many of the big hotels like Sheraton group and some other well known restaurants in London and New Zealand specialized in western & seafood. He is good in developing all sorts of cooking for seafood and focus on new culinary skills for seafood.


Some people couldn't find the entrance to 59sixty as it also confused me as well.
It is located at the entrance in between Maybank & Post office Office KOMTAR.

You can make reservations with 59sixty in advance so that they can arrange accordingly.
You will have to come to the reception counter and the friendly receptionist will give you a sticker to be worn with you.



You will need to get a special permission from the reception counter as KOMTAR is also part of the government building. Only patrons with passes will be allowed to enter the building.

59sixty has all sorts of promotions from time to time. As for now they are having their Christmas Buffet & Set Dinner promotions to celebrate this festive season.

The moment you arrived at 59th floor, this is what you can see. The 59 dining room.

Entering the restaurant, you will be able to find a 360 degrees spacious restaurant that can accommodate big groups. And dining here will let you enjoy fabulous view of George Town Penang as it is located at the top of the island.

Every table by the window will give a breathe-taking view, especially if you are facing Weld Quay, where you can also see the mainland of Penang too.

The table settings can be vary according to different occasions, you can call for reservations so that the restaurant can arrange accordingly.

Dining with a great view.

I like the my seat with the view I'm enjoying, from here I can have a great look at one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, George Town, Penang.

59sixty is serving International Dishes at the buffet spread. Their buffet spread is really amazing and also the restaurant that offered the widest spread in Penang restaurants that I've visited so far.
They do have fried tempura that the chefs will prepare on the spot.

Various sauces available at the Japanese corner, where sushi and tempura are served.

Various of sushi available and on rotation basis. They do have salmon sushi, unagi, maguro and many more.

Appetizers like salad, meatloaf, and many more available on the spread too.

At the Chinese corner, we had roasted duck, roasted chicken, steamed chicken and also Char Siew (BBQ) Chicken. Had to say that their Char Siew Chicken was one of the best that I've ever tasted. It was smooth, not too oily and tasted as great as the pork char siew.

They also have plenty of action stalls ready for service, here we have Noodle Station where they will cook noodles on the spot upon order.

They also have Seafood Corner where you can choose your own seafood and the chef will cook for you on the spot. The seafood selections are flower crab, big head prawn, green prawn, and many more. All the seafood were really fresh and good.
The chef will fry all the selected seafood with some of their homemade chili sauce, I have to say that it is really good and tasty, it was exactly like how my mom cook it. I told my friends it has my mama's taste and I really like it.

Roasted Lamb, Beef and other poultry are available too.

Satay, available in choices of beef or chicken.
Something you should have whenever you come to Malaysia, to go with peanut sauce of course.

Part of the main dishes as below, they have variety of international dishes and also local dishes like Malay cuisine, Indian cuisine and Chinese cuisine. Many of the local dishes are curry like rempah, rendang, kurma and many more.

As Chef Jason Hall joined in, 59sixty is now featuring more seafood dishes than before. 
He will make combinations of western & local dishes to form some special dishes. We can hardly see people cook curry with big head prawn, salmon or cod fish.

Salad, Yau Choi, Lamb burger patty and some cooked potato wedges.

Dhall curry with scallops, chili flower crab, and cheese baked mixed seafood.

There were so many types of sauce available, some I didn't even heard nor tried before. 
There were breads to go with the dipping sauces too.

What really surprised me was the variety of seafood offered at the buffet spread. 
They Seafood On Ice section offers scallops, big head prawns, fresh oysters, flower crab, slipper lobster, and blanched prawns.

My plate of seafood combination, I really love the big head prawn I like and the freshness in it.

We had a great pleasure to have special dishes of the night as 59sixty welcomes Chef Chiu Ching Tse, an experienced and well known chef from Taiwan. He has 33 years of culinary experiences that specializes in Taiwan Kochabi, the traditional and old flavour of Taiwan street. he worked in Australia, Japan, China, Singapore, and this was his first time in Malaysia.

On that night itself, we also have the honour to see Chef Chiu prepared some dishes live for us. 
That night he was preparing one of the local Taiwanese dishes that is losing its popularity and slowly forgotten by the local Taiwanese. It is sort of Yam Rice Cake in Taiwanese style.

During the past when people are too poor and they couldn't afford rice, they would plant their own yam and use it to replace rice as it is kinda filling. First thing to do to prepare this dish would be slicing the yam to thin slices, then add all of them into the steamed tray.
Below are all the ingredients that we need to prepare, which consists of shallot, dried shrimps, mushrooms, and spring onion. 
Chef Chiu also brought his own spring onions and shrimps that only can be bought from Taiwan, has to say that the quality are also different from the one that can be found here.

Chef Chiu fried all the ingredients separately and then only fried them together and add some seasoning to taste. In Taiwan people would cook it with rice wine, but in Malaysia, Chef Chiu only used water for the dish. After all is done, Chef Chiu poured all the ingredients on top of the Grated Yam.

Then Chef Chiu steamed the Yam Cake until it is soft and chewy.
You can steam it for about 15 minutes with heavy fire and 30minutes with slow fire.
Then you can serve it with any chili sauce of your choice.

The well done Taiwanese Yam Cake

Chef Chiu garnished the dish and made it looks much beautiful and nicer, he made this dish looks rather fine and tempting.




The signature Chili Fried Mixed Seafood to go with Man Tou.
Seriously it is really good and the sweetness from the seafood and the mild spiciness chili sauce made this dish rather appetizing and appealing. I really like it because it tasted exactly like how my mom cooked seafood. Definitely must try if you were to dine here!

Moving to the dessert corner, we have more than 20 types of cakes, puddings, desserts available on the spread.

Cakes, cronuts, macarons and many more available.

One of my favourite would be the chocolate fondue, they have already prepared all the fruits, candies and cookies to go with it. The best dessert ever!

Wide variety of desserts available at the dessert section, this is just part of it.

They also have local desserts like ice kacang and chendol. 

Assorted fruits

The best dessert award goes to this special fried ice cream!
59sixty also brought this Thai delicacy into their buffet menu to further enchance customers' experience at the restaurant. You can choose you favourite fruits and the chef will prepare the fried ice cream for you on the spot! Simply yummy!

A short interview with Chef Jason Hall and the person in charge of 59sixty after the dinner. It is good to have Chef Jason in 59sixty as he is here to bring back the confidence of customers and fixing what had been done by the previous chef. 
59sixty is now much more stronger with Chef Jason's lead and offering more promotions and better food quality and standards to Penangnites. Dining with 59sixty will now do better and offers better foods and services than before.

59sixty has the best buffet spread in Penang so far. With the invasion of OWG (Only World Group), for sure they will offer an all new dining and leisure experiences to Penangnites.
They still have a few more projects running on the top of KOMTAR which are still under renovations. We were told that in the future they will offer entertainment like sky walk, roft top dining and many more. 
Dining with an awesome view with 59sixty, the one and only tallest building in Penang. This place will definitely give you some extraordinary and unforgettable experience.

Buffets @ 59sixty
Weekday Lunch: RM88.00 nett per pax
Weekend Brunch: RM98.00 nett per pax
Buffet Dinner: RM168.00 nett per pax
5-course Set Dinner: RM368.00 per couple

59sixty @ KOMTAR Penang
Address: Level 59, 60, KOMTAR, Jalan Penang, 10000 George Town, Penang. 
Contact no: 04-262 5960
Business hours: Daily 12.00pm - 2.30pm, 3.00pm - 5.00pm, 11.30am - 3.30pm, 6.30pm - 10.00pm
GPS: 5.4145959,100.3275332
Map

Google Street View

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