Penang Pan Mee 檳城板面

Pan Mee, soup version (26 July 2008)


Penang Pan Mee (檳城板面) is a noodle made from flour that is popular in various parts of Malaysia, east and west, although the preparation and appearance may differ. In Penang, many of the hawker stalls brand theirs as "Sabah Pan Mee", as this dish is most popularly thought to originate from Sabah.

Pan mee is freshly made before being cooked. The flour is kneaded and then torn into flat pieces resembling the hor fun or tua pan. Alternatively the cook can also create flat noodle like koay teow or thin strips of noodle like wan tan mee. In any of the aforementioned forms, they are still pan mee.

Pan Mee, dry version, at Hou Mei Yuen, Taman Bukit Jambul (9 September 2011)


Pan Mee is available as both the dry and soup version. The soup version is more commonly found in most stalls. The dry version is reminiscent of dry wan tan mee, which has a soysauce base.

My personal preference is the dry version of the thin strip noodle version. In either case, pan mee is served with anchovies, black fungus In places such as Kuala Lumpur, you may find sui kow (prawn ravioli) served with Pan Mee, but not in Penang, where adding sui kow is regarded as going into the territory of wan tan mee.

The pan mee of Maga Restaurant, Perak Road (28 April 2013)


The most popular pan mee stall in Penang is undoubtedly Hou Mei Yuen at Taman Bukit Jambul, although whether it is the best pan mee in Penang is debateable, as some people like it and some don't. I personally do enjoy the pan mee at Hou Mei Yuen although I fret that the portion size has shrunk over the years while the price climbed steadily.

Ingredients of Pan Mee:

Have a craving for Pan Mee? Let me show you all the Pan Mee stalls on Penang Island that I have come across (and can recall). I put them in the food map, with each numbered pin corresponding with the list below the map. You can click the pin to continue to the page describing the stall.

Where to find Pan Mee Stalls in Penang

Pan Mee is available at the following locations 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.

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.