5 Best Restaurants in Penang, Malaysia

1885

$$$$

The Eastern & Oriental Hotel's colonial charm is displayed in top form in its much revered restaurant, 1885, named for the year in which the hotel was established. The classic afternoon tea is served with scones, cucumber sandwiches, and cakes presented on an elegant three-tier plate, along with clotted cream. The dinner menu is always changing but offers top cuts of meat and fresh seafood served in contemporary Western style. The real draw is the classic fine-dining setting, which includes glowing candles, white linen, and fresh flowers. Try and score a table by the windows for a view of the surrounding architecture and manicured lawns.

Georgetown Wines

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This wine bar built in a former horse stable is a oenophile's delight. Each day, there is one red, one white, and one rosé available by the glass, and then a full cellar through which you can stroll and choose a full bottle. During happy hour, house wines by the glass are buy one, get one free and select bottles are 20 percent off. While you enjoy your wine, you can munch on local clams in a fragrant broth; crostini with ricotta, anchovies, shaved fennel, and quail egg or refreshing grilled watermelon with feta and mint. Georgetown Wines also serves Penang's best churros, paired with dark chocolate sauce.
Wine Bar Dinner Quick Bite $$
19A Lebuh Leith, Georgetown, Penang, 10200, Malaysia
042-621--011
Restaurants Details
Rate Includes: Closed Tues.

Gurney Drive Hawker Center

$

Some will argue that Gurney Drive is not the best hawker center in Penang (having an opinion on the best place to eat is a Malaysian pastime), but it's hard to deny that this is a prime spot to catch the sunset along the coast and to tuck into hawker fare. Stalls are set up one after the other, each specializing in a unique dish. Try the char kway teo (stir-fry flat rice noodles with whole prawns), popiah (fresh spring rolls), and Penang rojak (a tart fruit-and-vegetable salad mixed with crushed peanut and shrimp-paste sauce). All stalls are self-service, and plastic tables and stools are set up in the center for diners to claim as they wish.

Malaysian Dinner Quick Bite $
Solok Gurney 1 Persiaran Gurney, Georgetown, Penang, 10250, Malaysia
Restaurants Details
Rate Includes: No credit cards

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My Own Café

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Inside a fully restored shophouse, My Own Café has a beautifully tiled floor and a mix of traditional dark wood carved furniture and retro coffeehouse seating. The restaurant serves just one dish: laksa in two sizes. It's Penang assam laksa, of course, so the stock is fish-based, with nice springy noodles and sweet and sour finishes. Before you head back into the heat, grab a coconut ice cream, served in a half shell with chunks of coconut. On the walls you'll see creative street art designs, much like what you'll find on neighboring Armenian Street.

Tek Sen Restaurant

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What opened in 1965 as a humble rice stall is today a wildly popular shophouse restaurant with bright street art on the back wall. Tek Sen serves an amalgam of four types of Chinese cuisine: Cantonese, Teochew (also known as Chaozhou), Hakka, and Peranakan. The resulting menu of small plates is a most toothsome introduction to the myriad groups of Chinese cultural groups who have so heavily influenced Penang and Malaysia at large. Two people with reasonable appetites could polish off three or four dishes. Balance heavier options like the tender and sweet double-roasted pork with chili padikang with the kong sambal and prawn. In the latter, Chinese water spinach gets a quick fry in the wok before being tossed with sambal (spicy chili sauce made from shrimp paste). Reservations are recommended.