Eating Out

Penang is well known to be a gourmet's paradise. For those who want to eat out and sample the local cuisine, a delectable variety of exotic dishes comprising Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indian Muslim, Thai and Indonesian as well as western food is readily available at reasonable prices.

With an abundant supply of daily fresh supplies from the surrounding seas, Penang is naturally a leading centre for seafood. While there are many restuarants which offer good food, one can patronise modestly furnished stalls which sprout all over the island; there the atmosphere is casual and the food relatively inexpensive. For the more adventurous visitor, hawker food is available at roadside stalls along Kimberley Street, near the Burmah Road Supermarket, the Esplanade and Gurney Drive.

One thing to keep in mind if you follow a different schedule than most, is that it can be extremely difficult to find food outside of regular meal times during the day. Lunch hours typically run from 11:30 to 2:30 and restaurants are open but surprisingly little is available from this time until around 6 pm when the dinner shift starts. When things get dark (around 7pm) is when the food scene gets more lively and hawker stalls open.