Penang Travel Forum

We want to find the best local authentic (ie non-westernised ) eating places in Georgetown of any ethnicity. Can anyone help? Thankyou, Chris and Judy

oh! my, i guess u would have a lot of replies on this as penang is a haven for great-tasting food!

my recommendation is to go for nasi kandar. one place to go is line clear nasi kandar restaurant at penang street.

for roti canai u can try the one at argyll road.

for laksa, try the one in front of Gama shopping complex.

u can also go for prawn noodle at pak din scot restaurant in teluk air tawar.

Depend on where you stay. If you are staying near Georgetown (Penang Road Area),

Places that you can find local cuisine are :

Red Garden hawker center: opposite Cititel hotel

Cendol & Laksa : Opposite Police HQ along Penang road

Campbel street (night market): local hawker food

Rojak : esplanade

Char Koay Teow : New Lane

If you wanna find ALL(most) of local food, you can head to Macalister Road (opposite Komtar and Gamma), at night whole stretch full of restaurant, food center etc..

Add on to the other replies.
Yes there are many restaurants with local authentic places around Georgetown. You can generally break this into Malay, Chinese and Indian Cuisines.

For Malay Restaurants, lunch is usually Rice and Many Dishes of Curry you can choose from. Among favourites would be Ikan Bakar (ala BBQ Fish) with it's 'sauce'. Try below (but not really in town, for in Town you can ask around)
http://makan2food.blogspot.com/2007/08/rumpun-mesra.html

For Dinner usually Malay Restaurants have Menu / Ordered items which are freshly cooked/fried. A must try is Satay (BBQ skewered beef or chicken with delicious peanut sauce)

For Chinese Restaurants, they mostly have food courts which you can get a huge mixture of dishes from each stall.

For Indian, broken into 2 main culinary experience, North Indian and South Indian.
North Indian is more of the ala Tandoori style.
South Indian would include the Roti Canai (Paratha)and Nasi Kandar (which is a beautiful Malaysian Indian Dish). Nasi Kandar is options of Rice with many choices of curry.

Among the many, a few suggested tries

Laddu (Indian Sweet)
http://makan2food.blogspot.com/2007/02/laddu-ladoo-sweet-tasty.html

Tandoori Kapitan & Nasi Kandar @ http://makan2food.blogspot.com/2007/03/tandoori-at-kapitan.html

Al Hambra Tandoori & North Indian @ http://makan2food.blogspot.com/2007/12/al-hambra-tandoori-restaurant.html

Great Samosa (Indian Triangular Veg or Chicken Puff)
http://makan2food.blogspot.com/2007/06/best-samosas.html

Indian Veg
http://makan2food.blogspot.com/2007/03/madras-new-woodlands-pani-puri.html

Ok all the best.

introduce a new western restaurant.
Rainbow - in Kelawai Road.
the foods quite delicios, n no msg.

To be really "authentic", walk along Penang Rd in Georgetown and simply sample the foods from the hawker stalls. The best food I had in Georgetown were from the stalls without a doubt. All you need to do, is eat where you see the local families eating and you'll know you've picked well. Some hawker stalls also have a mist fan cooled room off the footpaths where you can eat if you don't like eating on the footpath.

George Town is a food paradise with Chinese, Indian and Malay food everywhere 24 hours. I have 68 tips on food in Penang http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/b0c09/138ff4/2/

Feel free to view them and if you have any specific questions, email me :)

One good way is to follow the crowd. The best eating places in Penang are always crowded with people. The service is bad but the food is great.