Mediocre food that was outrageously priced with unpleasant lecturing by Baba Jerry.The 8 of us were in Penang for New Year's Eve and as most other restaurants were fully booked for a party of our size, we opted for private dining at Nyonya Su Pei. One of our family members read the positive reviews on TripAdvisor and immediately contacted Baba Jerry to secure our dinner reservation. We were given a description of their private dining mission and values. Though we initially thought 800 SGD for a Peranakan meal for 8 seemed somewhat pricey, we were told that it was fine-dining and of great quality. We proceeded to make the payment at the date of our booking and justified the exorbitant bill by assuming that they would serve us dishes consisting of equivalently lavish ingredients. Shortly, they sent us our Peranakan dinner menu featuring the names of foreign dishes we were unfamiliar with. In anticipation, we googled the dishes and were astounded to find that the menu items consisted of ordinary ingredients such as vegetables, fish and prawn. However, having already paid the full amount, with nowhere else to dine that evening, as per their address and directions we ventured into a quiet neighbourhood and arrived at Baba Jerry's garage.Upon entering, we noticed that his makeshift dining room was modestly decorated with one long table central to the dining area. Baba Jerry greeted us at the back door slightly flustered (on our way to his location he texted us to take our time), and let us take our seats. He went into the kitchen and emerged with his signature green pandan-infused water, introduced himself, and so began the diatribe of his life journey, hardships and accomplishments.One by one he served us the dishes, with ample duration apart from one another in which he had the luxury of time to explain each dish, its history, its difficulty level, and the amount of derogation and belittlement his wife Nyonya Su Pei endured from his family (Grandma to be specific) to be worthy of cooking these traditional and complex Peranakan dishes for the satisfaction of the men in his family (so that they wouldn't look elsewhere for another wife). Baba Jerry hovered over our table the entire meal and it felt uncomfortable and suffocating to say the least. He boasted on and on about the superiority of his family's Peranakan recipes and cooking, and lectured us on how critique was not welcome when not requested for (in regards to food). The quality of food preparation and taste of the dishes were acceptable, though they fell short of Baba Jerry's self-praises. We experienced dishes including eggplant, tofu, various other vegetables, as well as a grouper fish and prawn dish. Unfortunately, no dishes left a lasting impression. All we remembered was the hefty pricetag and Baba Jerry's relentless lectures with archaic viewpoints.
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