Penang Food " Passions of Karala "

Passion of Karala

Located in the center of  Gelugor (Taman Brown) lies probably one of the best banana leaf rice in Penang. One probably won't know about this restaurant unless told about it or recommended by someone they know. It seems to be the only restaurant (and probably business) that operates in this quiet neighbourhood.

This restaurant is open from  12.00-3.30pm for lunch and 6.00-10.30pm for dinner. During weekdays, most of the customers during lunch time seem to be employees from the Bayan Lepas FIZ.

The main dish is of course banana leaf rice. The day I went, they served tomato rice, besides the usual white rice. So, I decided to give it a try. The vegetable dishes that they gave were long beans, pickled vegetables and mixed vegetables (brinjal, raddish, pumpkin and carrot in what seem to be tikka sauce) and pudina. For the curry to go with the rice, the main choices are chicken, fish and mutton curry. I prefer mine with fish curry, which was pretty good. I have tried chicken curry which is pretty good as well. 

You can request for more potatoes with the chicken curry. I like mutton mutton curry as my side dish and fried fish. The good thing about this place is that they usually fry the meat just as you order it. So, the food comes hot and crunchy. They might have special dishes on certain days, so check out the menu in front of the shop.

The mango lassi drink is very popular here. I have to say, it is nice but a tad to sweet. You might want to ask them to put less sugar.

Mango lassi drink

Menu of Passion Karala

Overall, the food here is very good. The price is reasonable too. The shop is not very big (I counted about 12 tables on the ground floor). I think there might be more tables upstairs, but I didn't check it out. Unless you don't have a choice, I suggest that you should avoid the lunch crowd as it can get pretty packed.

Because it is quite hard to find the place, even when you have gone there before, I have drawn out the directions to the place.

Add of Passion Karala :

5 Lorong Endah 4, Gelugor, Penang 11700, Malaysia

Indian Restaurant

+60 4-657 8550