Ong Cheng Huat Seafood is a seafood restaurant in Bagan Lalang, Butterworth. It is located in a compound at the end of a winding village road, as a result, this restaurant is a difficult search for tourists. An interesting thing to note about this little shack-turn-restaurant is that it’s only open till 5:30pm, while most Chinese seafood restaurants are open until dinner time. Besides this, unlike other seafood restaurants, Ong Cheng Huat is nowhere near the sea. Nonetheless that has not stopped a constant stream of customers converging on it during lunch time.
Ong Cheng Huat Seafood has a few signature dishes, namely the steamed red snapper, clams, prawn fritters, spring chicken and fried meehoon, with no rice available. This is made even more evident by the fact that practically every table will have these exact same dishes when you dine there. The fact that this is the majority of the spread served here means that service is incredibly quick, allowing diners to dig in quickly upon ordering.
As mentioned earlier, the restaurant closes much earlier than most other restaurants of this kind, and there’s a very likely reason for this. After hours, the restaurant is known to harvest toddy, a coconut based alcoholic beverage. This restaurant has been the most prominent destination for toddy in the state.
So if you’re looking for a quick, hearty meal in the mainland Penang, whether you’re on your way to the island or heading to another state, Ong Cheng Huat Seafood is the place to be. With the added bonus of trying out a serving of toddy at one of the most well known toddy vendors in the country, this restaurant is definitely worth the trip.
