Timothy Tye Where to find the best hawker food in Penang? Many people say that Penang is famous for good street food, or "hawker food". Although I live in Penang and I absolutely love food, there are many, many days when I just could not decide where to go for food. Nothing seems good. I know I am quite picky, and I just couldn't agree that every hawker stall in Penang sells good food (if fact, I would quickly agree that many stalls have no business operating - they totally spoil the good reputation of Penang hawker food!)

The search for the best hawker food in Penang has been a continuous quest for me ever since I started this website in 2008. You will be surprised to see such a short list below, compared to the much longer one on my Penang Hawker Food Directory, where I simply list all the hawker food available. As usual, the litmus test is the taste. As soon as I tried a stall, it either thrills me or, more likely than not, fills me with indifference. There has been so many instances where people's recommendation turns out to be hype. Let me tell you this: many visitors to Penang today head for hawker stalls that are over-rated and over-commercialized. They used to be good, and then something got to their head.

Today some of the best hawker food in Penang are often those that are known only to the people of Penang themselves. You often don't find them in the popular hawker centres and food courts. I am happy to recommend these stalls because they are good and I like them when I taste them. Don't consider being on this page as a permanent thing. But if the taste goes down (while the price goes up), I will remove them from here.

As you can see, the number of stalls on the "best hawker food" list is very short. For a longer list of coffee shops, go to my other pages, Penang Coffee Shop Directory and Penang Hawker Food Guide.

Penang Hawker Food Video Guide

Instead of reading, try listening! Penang Travel Tips provides an alternative to listen to this article, so that you can put on your headset and sit back to receive the information without reading.



For other video guides, go to Penang Travel Tips Video Guides or load the Video Guide Playlist.

Best Bak Chang in Penang

Details

Best Bak Kut Teh in Penang

Details

Best Char Koay Teow in Penang

Details

Best Curry Mee in Penang

Details

Best Har Mee (Hokkien Mee) in Penang

Details

Best Lor Mee in Penang

Details

Best Nasi Kandar in Penang

Details

Best Wantan Mee in Penang

Details

Where to eat Hokkien Mee in Penang & elsewhere

If you have a craving for Penang-style Hokkien Mee and are seeking places selling it, get the recommendations of members the Hawker Food Planet right here!

click here

Private Guided Tours of Penang

If you are seeking private guided tours of Penang, message Penang Tour Guides at penangtourguides@gmail.com and enquire with them.

 Buy, rent or sell properties in Penang

Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

About this website



Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.

To get to know me better, do follow me on Facebook!

Copyright © 2003-2025 Timothy Tye. All Rights Reserved.