At the south end of Lebuh Victoria, this restaurant is a pretty strange one to describe. The plastic flowers, the hippie blow-art, the loud hip hop, the sarongs for tablecloths, the bookcase where about 20% of the books are fakes from old show homes… very hard to put it in a neat category, so I’ll go for hipster. The staff were nice enough, though, and helpfully pointed out a deal we might have missed otherwise.
Viva Victoria serves a funny mix of food too. There’s the list of tapas style dishes with Indian and Malaysian influences, whereas the main dishes are mostly European. We ordered mostly small plates, with one main for the little one to share.
The first one that arrived was the houmous with pita bread. Sadly the paste was missing any flavour – it could have done with more lemon, more garlic, more salt, more sesame, more anything.
Fortunately the baba ghanoush had the flavour the houmous was missing, with enough citrus bite and pungent garlic to make it rather good.
Quesadillas with beans, cheese and corn were excellent with lots of fresh tasting coriander – luckily I like that as it could have been overpowering for some.
Malaysian pizza was best dish, with a rich mushroom rendang atop a roti canai, covered in melted cheese and pickled onions and chillies. Lots of different flavours and textures combining to make something very tasty. I nearly ordered a second.
Masala prawns were delicious too, according to wife. Only a little spicy, but a well balanced curry sauce over three fresh prawns.
She also rated the chicken roulade highly, with spinach and red pepper filling, in a white sauce, and vegetables.
We were worried when the first dish was a little off that we might have come to the wrong place. However, the subsequent food was decent to good, and I’m still wondering how I can recreate the Malaysian pizza. I’d be happy to go back, even with the rich variety of dining options in Penang.
Address: 169 Lebuh Victoria, George Town, 10300 Penang
Telephone: 042610000
Website: https://viva-victoria.business.site/
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