Cheapside Hawker Centre

Cheapside Hawker Centre (10 August 2013)




Cheapside Hawker Centre (GPS: 5.41815, 100.33654), also called Chulia Street Hawker Centre, is one of the major hawker centres in George Town, Penang. It is located in front of the Cheapside alley facing Chulia Street. There are also some hawker stalls on the opposite site of Chulia Street, among them the apom and char bee hoon stalls.

Among the hawker food available at the Cheapside Hawker Centre include wan than mee, curry mee, lor bak, curry mee, lok lok, char hor fun, Hokkien char and ee foo mee, among others. There is more than one char koay teow stall. One is near the junction with Carnarvon Street while the char bee hoon stall also sells char koay teow. There is also, of course, a drinks stall selling various fruit juices.

My visit to Cheapside Hawker Centre (2 March 2018)

Apom stall at Cheapside Hawker Centre (10 August 2013)


Char Bee Hoon stall at Cheapside Hawker Centre (10 August 2013)


Lor Bak stall at Cheapside Hawker Centre (10 August 2013)


Stalls selling Char Hor Fun, Hokkien Char, Ee Foo Mee, Dim Sum and Sotong Kangkong. (10 August 2013)


Curry mee stall at Cheapside Hawker Centre (10 August 2013)


Lok lok stall at Cheapside Hawker Centre (10 August 2013)

Cheapside Hawker Centre Taste Test: 7 Feb, 2014

I tried out the food at Cheapside Hawker Centre by asking members of my Penang Hawker Food Facebook Group to recommend what is good to eat here. You can follow the thread here.

It was the 8th day of Chinese New Year, the night of which the Hokkiens worship the Jade Emperor. This is one of the major events of the Chinese New Year, and as a result, many hawker stalls in Penang were not open. As I passed by Weld Quay, I saw the tables being laid outside Chew Jetty, a major venue for the night-time celebrations.

Cheapside wan than mee stall (7 February 2014)


Cheapside char koay teow stall (7 February 2014)


I had originally intended to eat at Northam Beach Cafe, but switched to Cheapside because it happened to be on my way, and I happened to find parking space! As it happened, I arrived quite early, when the stalls were just setting up. We ordered the wan than mee and settled down at the table next to it. I think we were the first customer, as the stall was only getting ready, and we even had to take our own stools from the stacks.

I was told that the Cheapside wan than mee is quite good, so I was quite eager to try it. Judging from the amount of noodles stocked up at the stall, I believe it sells quite a lot of wan than mee every night, so many people must like it.

I told my wife to order anything else she fancied, and she came back with an order of char koay teow. The char koay teow stall, I later saw, was an all-in-one thing that also sold other stir-fried dishes from lum pnui (drenched rice) to sar hor fun, yee foo mee and lots more.

Okay, the Cheapside wan than mee is not bad, but not like what I was expecting. The portion is quite small for RM3.30. The char koay teow was quite good though a bit salty. It was priced at RM4.00, which is a bit high for a char koay teow without prawns. Yes, without prawns. Instead, it is substituted with chicken meat, which makes it seem a bit like fried Hokkien char.

Cheapside wan than mee (7 February 2014)


Cheapside char koay teow (7 February 2014)


There was no drinks stall in the immediate vicinity of where we sat. There was a stall selling coconut water at the junction of Chulia and Carnarvon streets, but we were reluctant to walk all the way there to order. We did carry with us - as we usually do - some drinking water, so we ended up drinking the water we brought along.

Despite eating one plate of wan than mee, and the shared plate of char koay teow between us, my wife and I do not feel completely full, due to the plate portion of wan than mee. I think we may have arrived too early (or because it's the 8th day of CNY), otherwise there would be more stalls operating, and we could order more things in addition.

Timothy Tye at Cheapside Hawker Centre (7 February 2014)

Getting there

If you are getting there from Weld Quay Ferry & Bus Terminal, most buses pass by Chulia Street, among them Rapid Penang bus 10, 11, 101, 104, 201, 202, 203, 206, 301, 302 and 401.

My square video on Cheapside Hawker Centre on Facebook

Cheapside Hawker Centre is on the Map of Lebuh Chulia, Penang

List of Hawker Centres in Penang

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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.

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