As you can probably tell from the title, it's a new restaurant in Penang! Well, it WAS new.. but I procrastinated a little so it's not that new now, but you can still go there and try their food if you haven't cause there are some really yum foodddd. The café is called 星乃珈琲店 or Hoshino Coffee in English. It's a franchise that has already spread all over some countries in the Asia continent such as Singapore, China, South Korea and recently in Malaysia. Located in Queensbay mall near the clothing retail shop - VOIR or near the monkey bag shop - Kipling, you'll sure to notice it right away even though it's tucked at the far corner of the mall as the queue is always so crazily long.
As soon as we reached there, the queue was MAD. You can definitely tell that it's a new place to eat because it's face it, Penangites are food adventurers who constantly hunt for a new place to eat like scavengers. So if you see a place with such a crazy line, probably it's still relatively new or... the food might just be too good! The food display at the window (or course they're not real) looks really tempting and delicious (!!!) After about half an hour, there were finally empty seats so we got in!
The interior, the food choices and food presentation instantly radiates the "Miam Miam" vibes to my family and I (one of the French restaurants at Gurney Paragon, now already closed down) The café has a very majestic design, incorporating the deep brown wooden furniture and grand cascading chandeliers with really huge glass windows. They also have little knicks and knacks of little antique-esque items on display that makes the whole café looks so classy and retro.
The interior, the food choices and food presentation instantly radiates the "Miam Miam" vibes to my family and I (one of the French restaurants at Gurney Paragon, now already closed down) The café has a very majestic design, incorporating the deep brown wooden furniture and grand cascading chandeliers with really huge glass windows. They also have little knicks and knacks of little antique-esque items on display that makes the whole café looks so classy and retro.
Looking at their food choices in the menu, I would say they have such a wide array and good selection of desserts and main courses for you to choose from. This is the perfect place for you if you like Japanese food and Western cuisine because they offer a lot of Japanese-Western fusion. Some of their signature dishes/desserts are the hand drip coffee, French toast and Japanese soufflé. So we ordered that and a couple of other dishes. Let the pictures do the talking!
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| Hoshino Blend Coffee (RM12.10) |
Hand drip coffee is one of the ways to brew coffee, and is almost the same as pourover coffee. The process basically involves grounding the coffee beans -> fold a filter paper and put it above of the brewer at the filter funnel -> wet the filter paper with hot boiled water -> put the coffee grounds on the filter paper -> pour hot boiled water over the coffee grounds -> let the hot water run through the coffee grounds to extract the flavours -> voila! For visual, you can watch the YouTube video HERE.
I would describe the taste as a very diluted expresso? It's not very flavourful, has a light taste of the coffee grounds and it's bitter. It's almost like you're drinking water but you can taste and smell the aroma of the coffee grounds at the same time. I reckon you can add sugar or creamer into it, but I think this is the exact beauty of hand drip coffee, though I have to say I prefer stronger and chocolatier/milkier coffee like mocha, cappuccino or latte.
I would describe the taste as a very diluted expresso? It's not very flavourful, has a light taste of the coffee grounds and it's bitter. It's almost like you're drinking water but you can taste and smell the aroma of the coffee grounds at the same time. I reckon you can add sugar or creamer into it, but I think this is the exact beauty of hand drip coffee, though I have to say I prefer stronger and chocolatier/milkier coffee like mocha, cappuccino or latte.
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| Iced Fruit Tea (RM17.90) |
This jar of fruit juice looks soooo beautiful at the display so we decided to order it. Yup, that's one of the problems of 21st century people, we tend to judge a book by its cover. Not to say that look is everything, but if you're good looking, it's easier for people to kasi chance if you know what I mean. Turns out this iced fruit tea does not look as good as it did at the display :( Maybe it appears duller and darker because the fruits oxidised? Also, it tastes bitter and not really fruity. Just splashes of bitter, healthy-feeling liquid free of sugar. I think the sugar concentration is probably -1% In my opinion, not so great lah.
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| Matcha (contains Azuki) (RM17.90) |
Matcha! Our all-times favourite! It's written on the menu that it contains Azuki. After asking Mr Google, Azuki (or more commonly known as Adzuki) is a type of red bean that is grown in Himalaya and East Asia and is always used to cook and made into sweet red bean paste. After being made in the sweet red bean paste, it is deemed as a perfect combo with matcha. Luckily, it doesn't disappoint. It's not too sweet yet not too bitter, just the perfect taste of matcha that I love!
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| Chicken Teriyaki Spaghetti (RM21.70) |
This is the five star dish I'm going to recommend you guys. It's so innovative that they fused the Eastern and Western essence together in this dish - Chicken Teriyaki from the Japenese culture and the spaghetti from Western culture. At first it might seem weird, but omfg, this is one of the most delicious spaghetti I've ever tasted! The sweet Teriyaki sauce makes the pasta juicy and savoury. Best dish ever existed!
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| Seafood Paella (RM26.60) |
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| The original French Toast flavour was priced at RM17.70. We ordered the seasonal Strawberry French Toast and it's priced at RM19.70. |
Originally I wanted to order soufflé because it's so soft and fluffy! What to do, my bro really wanted to order the French Toast so I had to compromise. French toast is one of their signature dish. Again, the food presentation is soooo pretty! The texture of the bread is soft and fluffy, and the Strawberry syrup and the pop of whipped cream makes it all melt into your mouth immediately. For the price though, I think you can order the original French Toast instead of the strawberry one, cause the strawberry one is close to RM20, which is quite pricey. You might as well add another RM2 to get yourself a main course, like the Teriyaki Chicken for example.
Overall, I would give this restaurant a solid 5/5! I do have to warn you guys that the price of this restaurant is slightly higher but judging by the decor, food choices and the fact that it's a franchise, the price range is fairly reasonable. If you are on a budgetted food hunt but you still wanna give this café a try, I would suggest you to pass the drinks because they are not bad, but certainly doesn't make me feel that: owhhh, I need to order this the next time or I need to recommend so badly to everyone.
Besides, the portion of the food is pretty decent. All the desserts and main courses are very flavourful and well presented. If you're looking for a place with a quiet and comfortable ambience (did I also mention that their seating provides absolute privacy for you and whoever you're coming with?) that serves excellent Japanese-Western fusion, look no further because Hoshino Coffee could probably be the perfect place you're looking for. Happy food hunting! :)
Love, J.
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