Kebaya Dining Room

Kebaya Dining Room is where Penang’s Peranakan flavours put on their best clothes. Inside the elegant Seven Terraces heritage property on Stewart Lane, classic Nyonya flavours meet modern restaurant technique — think crisp pie tee, aromatic prawn curry, tender duck, ayam goreng and even a wonderfully mischievous rendang croque monsieur.

It isn’t the cheapest way to eat in George Town, and it isn’t trying to compete with the auntie-run Nyonya kitchens serving lunch for pocket change. Kebaya is doing something different: taking the flavours of the Straits and giving them a polished, theatrical setting without sanding away all their spice, funk and personality. Come hungry, book ahead, and leave room for dessert if your stomach hasn’t already surrendered.

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Tek Sen

Tek Sen isn’t famous because Penang needed another tourist restaurant. It’s famous because it has been cooking seriously good Chinese-Malaysian food since 1965. From its legendary double roasted pork and fiery sambal kangkung to homemade tofu and curry tumis fish, this is the kind of George Town chu char that makes waiting in the Penang heat considerably easier to forgive.

The queues can be long, the room can be busy and parking around Carnarvon Street can test your patience — but once the plates start arriving, the logic becomes obvious. Tek Sen isn’t about fancy dining. It’s about wok hei, sticky sauces, chilli, rice and ordering one more dish than you promised yourself you would.

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