Street food, Michelin stars and secret bars: discover Malaysia’s most delicious city
- Susan Low
Published: September 24, 2026 at 4:01 PM
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Street food is deeply woven into the fabric of multicultural George Town in Penang
The day starts early in George Town. It’s not just the relative cool that entices people from their beds at first light: it's the food. Eating out – frequently, inexpensively and well – is something the city’s 800,000 inhabitants take to heart. For many, morning starts with a hunger-sating trip to Chowrasta Market, one of many local pasaran (markets). It’s a microcosm of George Town life and there’s no better place to get a taste for the Malaysian, Indian, Chinese and Straits Malay dishes that define the food culture.
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Penang, like its sister Straits Settlements of Singapore and Malacca, was built on the lucrative spice trade. Long before it became an entrepôt of Britain’s East India Company in 1786 (Penang gained independence from British control in 1957), the island was part of the Maritime Silk Road linking Asia, East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Europe. The spices traded along those routes underpin the local cuisine.
To discover it, settle yourself on a plastic chair and pick from the scores of vendors steaming, frying and roasting all around you amid clouds of scented steam. English is widely spoken in Penang so there’s no problem ordering. A favourite breakfast dish is chee cheong fun, or ‘pig intestine noodles’ – so called because these steamed, rolled, sliced rice flour noodles resemble offal. They’re soft, slippery and chewy, and this Malay version is typically served with a trio of sauces: chilli, sweet soy and prawn paste.
George Town’s historic centre is a pleasure to walk around and just a few minutes south of Chowrasta is Roti Bakar Hutton Lane. It’s not fancy – an open-air spot with shared tables – but it serves some of the best roti bakar in town. To call roti bakar mere ‘toast’ doesn’t do justice to this much-loved Malaysian comfort food. Here it’s grilled over charcoal and served in no fewer than 10 ways. The classic roti butter kaya – fluffy white bread charred, then spread with sweet coconut jam – is a good place to start.
Like many Asian cities, George Town has a noodle fixation. Malaysian char kway teow – flat rice noodles, prawns, cockles, eggs and beansprouts cooked in a blazing-hot wok – is tinged with the defining smoky wok hei aroma. And, of course, there’s laksa. The stock for Penang asam (sour) laksa is made from oily fish such as mackerel with the sour tang of tamarind and pineapple, topped with fermented prawn paste. Every Penangite has their favourite vendor but Michelin-approved café Penang Road Famous Laksa draws the biggest crowds for its intensely flavoured stock with just the right smack of heat and tang.
A few blocks away at Tok Tok Mee Bamboo Noodle you can watch as the noodle maker ‘rides’ a gigantic bamboo pole like it’s a carousel pony, gently pressing the dough instead of rolling it out. The dough is fed through a cutting machine, emerging in perfect fine threads in a process that blends the ancient and the machine age. The noodles are exquisitely springy and light in their prawn and pork broth.
To cool off, head to Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul, a street stall selling chendul (or cendol), a multi-coloured iced concoction of red beans, green pandan noodles and cubes of grass jelly swimming in coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar. Spooning up a bowlful under the brightly painted street mural, having a bowl of cendol is the ultimate George Town way to chill on a hot afternoon.
As dusk falls, an ordinary thoroughfare becomes a divine chaos for hungry crowds. The air at Kimberley Street Food Night Market is scented with sweet smoke from satay grills and sizzling woks, and excited queues form for the most popular purveyors. Some vendors display their Michelin Bib Gourmand awards, as does Super Star Koay Teow Soup for its speciality, a broth of chicken, pork, fish balls and pork liver. This pasar malam (night market) goes on until almost midnight – the city is one of the safest in Asia for strolling. Then, like some food-themed Brigadoon, the whole thing disappears.
Street food is woven into the fabric of everyday George Town life but cocktails are done well here too – perhaps surprising as Malaysia is predominantly Muslim. Although alcohol is strictly regulated (and Muslims are forbidden from drinking), the attitude in culturally diverse Penang is relaxed. If you do drink alcohol, the bar skills here are second to none.
A three-minute walk from the night market is Cocktails & Shots, a secret bar hidden behind a bookshelf in an otherwise unremarkable shopfront. One good shove and you’ll find yourself, Narnia-style, in a low-lit speakeasy with a drinks list described as “an enticing introduction to Peranakan mixology”. A Baba old-fashioned flavoured with pandan is a nightcap you’ll find nowhere else.
In a cobbled courtyard in the heart of George Town stands a grand old mansion painted an appetising hue the colour of pistachio gelato. Push through the carved gilt doors and, like a kink in the trajectory of time, you’re in a different era. The Pinang Peranakan Mansion, built in the late 19th century, is a monument to a people who’ve shaped the region’s culture and cuisine.
The Peranakan (or Baba-Nyonya) are descendants of early settlers from China’s Fujian region who, over centuries, adopted and absorbed the ways of the local Malays and, later, the colonial British, developing a distinctive language and unique cooking style. This opulent family house shows the important role that food played. A table is set for an elaborate meal with polished glasses and cutlery – in the kitchen, alongside enamel teapots, woks and clay pots for daily use, is a collection of intricately carved wooden moulds. These would be used to make kueh (kuih or koay), bite-size snacks usually based on glutinous rice flour.
Making kueh is a craft that you can witness and taste just a short walk away. Part factory and part tea house, Moh Teng Pheow Nyonya Koay was established in 1933. Watch in awe as brightly coloured kueh are prepared with precision and skill, focused squarely on beauty and delight. The first sweet taste of kueh lapis, a colourful multi-layered steamed coconut and rice flour sweet, is revelatory.
A stroll around Lebuh Muntri will take you past rows of old shop houses. Some have peeling facades in stately decay, while others have been restored. George Town was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, kickstarting a wave of regeneration. Seven Terraces hotel is run by heritage-minded hotelier Christopher Ong, who transformed seven traditional houses into an elegant hotel and restaurant. At Kebaya Dining Room, ceiling fans whir in a glamorous velvet-draped room and, on the menu, Peranakan cooking gets a contemporary twist. Rich confit beef with chilli jam and refreshing crunchy green mango salad are as exquisite as the antique porcelain.
Only two decades ago, Penang’s Peranakan cuisine was hard to track down in restaurants, but a new generation of chefs have revived it and made it one of the island’s main draws. You’ll recognise Auntie Gaik Lean’s Old School Eatery by the selfie-taking queue outside. Chef Gaik Lean, then 69, caused a stir in 2022 when her restaurant was awarded a star in Michelin’s inaugural Malaysia guide. Her buzzy restaurant has ridden the wave of fame since then.
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Family-run Ceki serves heirloom recipes such as ayam buah keluak, chicken cooked with nuts from the pangium tree. The dark sauce has an earthy black olive taste. We used tiny spoons to scoop out every last bit of the flesh, slowly savouring this defining flavour of Peranakan cuisine.
Authors
Susan Low
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