Review: Passion Casual Dining Restaurant Argyll Road Penang

October 27, 2020

Passion Dining is the newly opened French casual dining restaurant operated by the team from Club J Restaurant. The place was formerly occupied by Arte Fine Dining restaurant which now focuses on wine retailing and promoting art.

As you enter the premises, you will notice a familiar interior design and layout from the Arte restaurant with pin spotlights illumintaing the art pieces on the walls, providing a softer lighting to patrons.

Passion serves a 5-course set menu for dinner and ala carte options as well. The 5-course menu priced at RM145+ consists of a salad, soup, pre-main, main and dessert. The menu is not too dissimilar to that of Club J’s.

We opted for the ala carte: Avacado Bacon salad as starter, Norwegian salmon and Duck confit for the main, paired with a bottle of Lalande de Pomerol from Chateau Siaurac and ended with the house signature Tiramisu.

The Verdict

Having tasted the food at Club J, we felt that there are still some room for improvement. The salmon and duck confit was decent but not exceptional. We loved the Tiramisu though, it was excellent with rich cocoa powder, fine creamy texture and lightly sweetened. Definitely one of the best Tiramisu here in Penang. The team at Passion may still be new, so let’s give them so time for the learning curve.

The wine selections were by not any means huge but they were adequate. The wines were priced reasonably well and we’re happy with the wine we ordered which was exceptional value. Also we loved the Spiegelau glassware they used to serve the wine. Perhaps, this is an area which Club J could emulate.

Overall a satisfactory and enjoyable dining experience. Will come back for another try some time in the near future.

TP’s rating:

★★★★