Grapes & Malts Chow Thye Road Penang

Spring onions to keep the boys far far away!
Or if you know Pokemon, I looked like Farfetch'd.

Located along Chow Thye Road, Grapes & Malts is a fairly new establishment
among a few eateries along the often congested road.
Here you don't have to worry about parking as their compound could fit
up to 10 cars and there's also a FOC open space car park behind the wine bar.

Looking at the name of the establishment, one could simply guess that they serve wine and whisky.

Not only offering a wide variety of wines and whiskies,
Grapes & Malts aims to educate people how to enjoy wine and whisky.

"People can read all about wine and whisky on the internet but what we want people to know

that you don't learn from the knowledge, you learn from your own taste bud," said the owner.

Apart from wine and whiskies, they also emphasize on sparkling mineral water, 

namely Acqua Panna and San Pellegrino. I have always thought, 

why would people spend more money to drink those instead of normal filtered water,

little did I know that the sparkling water could cleanse your palette, perfect for wine tasting.

Cheese Board [RM26(small)]

Me and Kim were over the moon when we saw this as
we were missing the cheese platter we had in Amsterdam few weeks back.

Serving on the board included 4 types of cheeses - Cheddar, Brie, Camembert and Edam

with crackers and spring onion. I know, our jaw dropped when we saw the spring onion.

We learnt that the French started eating like this, and it was our first time eating cheese with that.

To our surprise, the spring onion actually made the flavor sweeter!

 HH who was sitting across me was addicted and we caught her munching
 non-stop on the spring onion lol. We were taught to eat cheese platter properly too.

Cut a small piece of cheese and put it on a cracker, put them into your mouth,

munch on a bite size of spring onion, and while all of them are still in your mouth,

sip some wine. It was an eye-opening experience as the spring onion and the wine 

absolutely elevated the flavor, who knew a simple cheeseboard could give you so much satisfaction!

Reillys Dry Land Shiraz [RM163] | Reillys Cabernet Sauvignon [RM99]

The first two wines we were served that night were these two from Clare Valley, Australia.

Both easy to drink, I like the shiraz for its fruity full bodied flavour, I think I tasted berries in it.

Grapes & Malts is the only place in Penang that serves Reillys!

Homemade Pate [RM12]

Haven't had pate since 3 years ago, there's not many places offering pates anyway but now we have one!

One thing that made them different was there's a layer of butter and olive oil on top of the pate.

Thought it would be cloying but surprisingly, the layer actually made the pate less heavy and more fragrant!

This is just simply genius and it's only RM12, totally a steal! By the way, it's chicken liver pate.

Quesadilla [RM12]

Empasizing on simplicity and freshness, this quesadilla was filled with 

tender chicken and fragrant melted cheese, sided with the very like-able guacamole.

Sauteed Chicken [RM8] | Sauteed Mushroom [RM10] | Sauteed Beef [RM14]

Once again, emphasizing on freshness and simplicity, all their dishes are cooked with very minimum seasoning.

The mushroom was seasoned with herbs only while the chicken and beef were 

lightly seasoned with Himalayan salt and all of the them were really good.

I don't know how they did it, the sauteed chicken was very well executed, the tenderness was mind-blowing. 

For the beef, they used imported Australian beef and served medium rare. All highly recommended!

Meatball with Concasse [RM17]

The bomb of the night goes to this crunchy meatball with tomato paste.

It was flavorful with the fragrance of assorted herbs, a little sourness from the
tomato paste and finally, the explosive juicy meat!

Chicken Jumbo [RM12]

The chicken sausages were delectable but what's worth mentioning is the homemade sauerkraut.

Appetizing and goes really well with the chicken sausages, dip in the mustard for some creamy goodness.

Aglio e Olio with Chicken [RM9]

If those small treats are not enough to fill your tummy, they serve pasta too!

My favorite wine of the night goes to this Willy Gisselbrecht Pinot Noir, it was really smooth.

We were lucky to be able to drink from the Burgundy glass, trust me, with this glass,

you would never want to drink your wine from any other glasses anymore.

The night ended with something I'm least familiar with - Whisky.

We sampled Auchentoshan 12, the triple distilled scotch that apparently is
the bomb to whisky lovers but the whisky-idiot me was not having it :B

This marks the end of the food review. You should totally come here for its fresh and really affordable food.

I mean, where else can you find RM14 Australian beef and RM9 aglio olio you tell me?

And of course, you should totally visit them for their wine.

Their house wine is only RM12 per glass and the cheapest bottled wine is only RM60.

So, stop making excuses and come now!

Huge thanks to Grapes & Malts for hosting and Kimtography for the photos!

Grapes & Malt 

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Opens Monday to Saturday 

4pm - 12am

46, Chow Thye Road, 10500 Penang

04-228 1628