Hotmas Restaurant

Location: Taman Lagenda Indah, Sg. Petani, Kedah. 

How to get there: If you're heading north on the PLUS highway, take the Sg. Petani (U) exit, at the first traffic light, take a left turn and from there keep straight (you'll pass a few traffic lights along the way) until you see Tesco and Village Mall ( a new shopping complex right in front of Tesco), take a right turn at the traffic light and from there, head straight until you see a sign with the words Taman Lagenda Indah. Hotmas is located at the end of a row of shop houses (it's the restaurant with the green neon signboard).

Specialties: This restaurant serves a huge selection of food including malay, fusion, western and thai cuisines. 

What we ordered?

My friends at the office have this wonderful thing called the monthly food escape: once a month a few days before "gaji", we'll come up with a dinner plan to heighten the excitement of "gaji" day and this month, we decided to pay a visit to Hotmas, all the way in Sg. Petani. As mentioned above, this restaurant serves a myriad of food to choose from, you can go for Malay, Thai, Fusion (which really means a small selection of Chinese-inspired dishes e.g. clay pot and sizzling noodles etc.) and Western dishes. This restaurant is famous for serving food in huge portions at a very affordable price. Our group was so huge that we occupied three long tables (we came in five separate cars) and as expected most of us chose to order Western dishes with only a few opting for Malay and fusion dishes.

The good:
Following a friend's recommendation, I ordered a dish called Bombay Hot & Spicy Chicken. This dish is made up of grilled chicken fillet served with spicy gravy garnished with chopped "cili api" (bird eye chillies). To get the most of the spicy experience, make sure you take a bite of the cili api together with the chicken and make sure to mop up enough gravy before putting everything in your mouth. Allow the heat to burn your tongue for a while before taking in another piece of chicken. This dish is perfect for chili lovers but I still feel that Nando's spicy sauce fair better than the one served here.  My personal favorite is the Chicken Maryland, I ordered this dish the first time I came here. Tender chicken fillet grilled to perfection (the surface slightly burned but with the flesh nicely cooked, tender and juicy to bite) served with a special sweet and sour pineapple flavored sauce. A slice of caramelized canned pineapple is placed on top of the chicken as garnish. The crowd favorite was Lamb Chop, huge pieces of grilled lamb served with a standard brown sauce with generous amount of  ground black pepper that burns down your throat. 

The bad:
The Chicken Chop was disappointing. The problem with breaded chicken is when deep fried in high temperature, the breaded surface may come out crispy and golden but the flesh quickly loose its moisture and turns dry. I can hardly taste any marinade on the chicken and the sauces served with the chicken comes in tiny containers that can hardly last throughout the meal. Another breaded dish, the Fish & Chips was equally disappointing, the fish crispy but dry, the fries too little and surprisingly this dish was not served with the usual cream of tartar and lemon but instead with chili sauce. All western dishes comes with a small scoop of mashed potatoes, coleslaw and fries. The fries are placed underneath the main dish which results in the fries becoming soggy as they soak up the gravy and the salad dressing. I personally favor crinkle cut than shoestring as they are usually bigger and has the ability to retain its crispy surface longer than shoestring fries. I also ordered an extra serving of fries (which surprisingly came later than the rest of the dishes) but was disappointed that instead of serving it with mayonnaise or thousand island it came with chili sauce.The choice of drinks are quite limited and despite the huge servings of food, the drinks come in small glasses with half the glasses filled with ice.

The in between: 
The Grilled Chicken was a safe choice, grilled chicken fillet served with the standard brown sauce with  just enough ground black pepper, not too overpowering but strong enough to tingle your throat. The Claypot Noodle (as its name implies) was served in a black claypot soaked in thick, dark sauce with generous amount of prawns swimming in between strands of egg noodles.

The snob's verdict: 7/10 (closer to 6 than 8)
This place should take credit as the largest HALAL restaurant serving local "western" dishes in the Northern regions (most restaurants serving western  dishes are owned by Chinese despite being certified HALAL). If you're looking for a place for a quiet romantic dinner, this is NOT the place for you. This place is constantly jam-packed with customers despite the rapid turnover. Try Damiral's Grill in Bandar Baru Perda if you're planning to have western dishes for your anniversary.