Places to eat in Penang

Check out the coffee shop at Macalister Road. It is a hawker food paradise. All the stalls cook very delicious food.

We had a great feast. Here is our menu.
BBQ fish (Ikan Bakar), BBQ Sotong (Curry Powder Squids), Satay, Fried Oysters Egg Omelette (O Chien), Fried Mee Sua, Chee Cheong Fun, Lor Bak, Cuttlefish with Kangkong (Jiu He Eng Chai) and not forgetting my personal bowl of Sharks Fin Soup with Crab Meat (RM10). Did I miss out anything?

We had Luo Han Guo (herbal drink) to quench our thirst and to rinse the spicy after taste. Will give the blended ice coffee for a try if my stomach could take in more liquid.

Favorite Dish: Everything dish is delicious, so other small portion of everything from each stall;p

This is not Guinness Stout.

The Longan Drink is freshly brewed and has been bottled up for easy consumption. You can even find a few pieces of Longan Meat in the bottled drink.

A great thirst quencher.

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Penang Road has plenty of restaurants that cater for tourists, but we loved having dinner with the taxi drivers, trishaw riders and family groups to get a sense of what it is like for the locals. One place where we found that we could do that was Sup Hameed. It was easy to see that food preparation surfaces were clean and cared for so we ate there a few times, sometimes in the restaurant and sometimes at the plastic tables set up on the side of the street. The food was always good, though we were not always sure what we had ordered. They serve Nasi Bryani, Nasi Kandor, Tandoori Chicken and vegetarian curry and dahl. I often simply pointed at what I wanted to try and the waiters were very helpful. They never wanted payment until the meal was completely finished which was sometimes a bit confusing, but the food was fresh and always delicious. Fish head curry was available but I was not keen to try it even though it is considered a delicacy. The usual canned and bottled drinks are available to have with your meal, but beer, iced milo and iced lime tea are very popular. Meals for two with a couple of drinks each usually cost us anywhere from 7 to 12 rn total. I would have no problems taking children there and we felt totally safe in the area. The mood was friendly, the ambience colourful and timeless and the place captures the atmosphere of Georgetown perfectly.

Favorite Dish: I don't like to eat a great deal of food, especially in hot muggy weather, so I enjoyed eating at Sup Hameed. Here I could order 3 or 4 freshly turned Roti and a couple of small bowls of different curry sauces. Top this with large beakers of iced lime tea and the experience is a lovely light meal for less than 5 rn. Just the thing to eat before wandering up Penang Road to do a little more night shopping and to soak up the atmosphere. For those with larger appetites, I'm sure you will not be disappointed.

Step into Hot Wok and you can tell that it's a special place. Converted from an old bungalow house, Hot Wok is beautifully decorated in charming Nyonya style which is a fusion of traditional Malay and Chinese accents. You'll find old photographs and antique furnishings, all lovingly restored. Take a look at Hot Wok Treasures for photos.

The food is absolutely delicious. It reminds me of my childhood days where my grandma would treat us to some Nyonya fare.

Favorite Dish: My all-time favourite dish is the Assam Prawns which is fresh prawns cooked in a thick tamarind sauce and spices. It's very appetising and yummy. I can't find something as good as this or my grandma's in Kuala Lumpur.

The Blue Diamond is a budget hotel but also has a restaurant with open-air "kitchen". It is situated in a courtyard and quite simple, but the food is delicious.
But in this case the food was not so important, important was that we spent the two most funny evenings in this restaurant. The man on the left was a waiter and very friendly, and after some time his elder brother (on the right) joined us and started telling stories (I look so white between them!!). He was in his middle-sixties but still was a stuntman, the next evening he showed us pictures. He even had a very small role in "Anna and the king" and was very proud of it. We agreed to meet again next day, and after having dinner he really came (it was raining heavily and he wore a raincoat which looked really scary!). We had so much fun talking and drinking and later on some more people joined our table. We were quite surprised when he told us that his younger brother was a singer and guitar player and had already been playing at the "Oktoberfest" in Munich, so when we asked him to play for us he got his guitar and sang a few Beatles and Elvis songs for us! This was a great experience and we were very happy (and drunk!!) when we finally left.
If he is still working there you have to ask him to play for you, and maybe you are lucky to meet his brother, too.

Favorite Dish: The sweet and sour pork was just delicous - and quite spicy! We also had some kind of stir-fried beef with chillies, also great but too hot for me!

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Freshly deep oil fried cryspy "Yau Char Kuai" is a twin elongated flour dessert that is great to eat while hot by itself, dipped in black coffee or cut into small pieces in a bowl of broth.

"Ham Chin Peng" usually have two flavors, plain with sesame seeds or stuffed with black bean paste. Again, popular with dipping into black coffee.

Origin of "Yau Char Kua" goes to China where the locals who hated their ruler fondly named this dessert which means "oil boil the devil" to express their dislike. So each act of dipping is an open act of dissent. So enjoy this dessert with a history.

Many food stalls selling this including popular stalls at Air Itam Market and Cintra Street (Downtown George Town).

Lock-Lock is not a door lock but is a delicious Penang food full of colorful choices as what you see in this photo. If you ask me why they call it Lock-Lock, it was a translation from Penangite's Hokkien to English. Lok or Lock means happy and Lock-Lock means double happiness. It means this food can bring not only happiness after eating but double happiness. Don't wait.

The Kashmir Indian Restaurant is down in the basement .
They serve North Indian dishes.
We ate there several times.
Service was good.
Food was great.
Decor was nice also.

Favorite Dish: I loved their Mango Lassi's. The best I have ever had.