You Yuen Fen Food Court 有缘份, Relau

You Yuen Fen Food Court (13 June 2015)


You Yuen Fen Food Court 有缘份, known today as Lucky Eatery Food Court, is a big food court in Relau, Penang. It is located right across the road Medan Bayan from Pisa Corner Cafe. Together, the two food court has turned that area into a huge street food precinct.

I visited You Yuen Fen Food Court for dinner on Saturday, 13 June, 2015. We decided to go there because we have never visited it before, but have noticed it when we go along the road to the airport. By the time we arrived, it was around 7:15 pm, and the place was crowded. We had to go round and round a few times before we can get a parking spot (annoyingly, after we parked, we found empty spots nearer to the hawker centre, but was occupied when we passed).

You Yuen Fen Food Court is mammoth. It has so many hawker stalls that I give up counting. On the ceiling of the food court are the biggest ceiling fans I have ever seen in my life. They look almost like upside-down helicopters!

One of the giant ceiling fans at You Yuen Fen Food Court (13 June 2015)


We looked around, not knowing what to order. There was so many things, we knew it was impossible to try them all. So we looked at other people's table to get "eyeball recommendation". We saw many people eating the tai33lok1 mee33 (fat noodles). We weren't that fond of it, but decided instead to order the sar hor fun and the dried yee mee. In addition, we also ordered two rolls of the Hong Kong chee cheong fun.

These are the food we ordered:

You Yuen Fen dried yee mee (13 June 2015)


You Yuen Fen sar hor fun (13 June 2015)


You Yuen Fen Hong Kong chee cheong fun (13 June 2015)


The dried yee mee and the sar hor fun cost RM11.00 together. When I saw the dried yee mee, I lost hope. It didn't look appealing to me. Maybe I had such a low expectation of it that it was slightly better than I had expected. No, I am not saying that it is good. But it is not as bad as I had expected it to be. My wife had the sar hor fun. She dismissed it as way below her expectation. I sampled a bit of it. No, I do not like it either.

The Hong Kong chee cheong fun was expensive and not that nice either. We had better ones at dim sum places. The two rolls cost RM4.50.

Despite our opinion of the food we have tried, we saw that You Yuen Fen Food Court was doing very good business. Afterwards, we walked across to Pisa Corner, and saw that it was even more crowded (though we also regard the food there as lousy). I believe the business they receive have nothing to do with the taste of the food they offer. The two food courts are strategically located at the entrance to Relau, a densely populated neighbourhood with a largely captive group of diners.

You Yuen Fen Food Court at night fall. (13 June 2015)


More tables at the side canopy of You Yuen Fen Food Court, and just as crowded too. (13 June 2015)


After we had our dinner, leaving the Relau area was a nightmare. The entire stretch of road from Golden Triangle to BJ Complex was so jammed. I have already known that Relau is not a good residential location, due to the traffic situation, and yet I see so many people buying properties there. Oh well. I also realised how brilliant the owners of You Yuen Fen Food Court and Pisa Corner have been. The lesson here is the same as anywhere else: location, location, location! If you plant yourself in the right location, you can sell the lousiest food and still make good business. I attribute the business received by these two food courts to a catchment of hungry diners who surrender to not-the-tastiest food rather than brave the grinding traffic congestion.

I don't think I would eagerly return to You Yuen Fen Food Court any time soon. And if I do, I shall try something else.

You Yuen Fen Food Court on Google Street View

Location of You Yuen Fen Food Court on map

List of Hawker Centres in Penang