In historic, multicultural George Town, a measure of the island city’s creative pulse reveals that good things do indeed come in small packages.

Photographs by Lauryn Ishak

The clan temple of Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi in George Town, Penang. — The clan temple of Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi.

It’s the eve of the Jade Emperor’s Birthday—Hokkien New Year—and fireworks are shooting into the skies over George Town. Together with Azman Bin Ismail, head concierge of the new boutique hotel Soori Penang, I watch the spectacle from the granite-paved courtyard at Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi. Malaysia’s most opulent clan temple draws a steady stream of tour groups and selfie-snappers during the day, but now, on an after-hours stroll, we have the place to ourselves. In silence, we take in the floodlit monument’s slender stone pillars, gilded timber brackets, and tiled roofs decorated with dragons and pai tou barge boards, each one a dazzling confection of porcelain and stucco sculptures. Carried on the cool night breeze, the fireworks’ percussive bursts mingle with solemn Ramadan prayers broadcast from a nearby mosque. “We also have a Hindu temple not far from here. Only in Penang will you get this mix of cultures and religions all in one place,” Azman muses. “It really is a melting pot.”

Think of George Town, Penang’s effervescent state capital, and the mind inevitably drifts to its legendary street food and the murals splashed across its UNESCO-protected historic center. But just as compelling is the flowering of artisans, entrepreneurs, and chefs setting up their own small businesses—passion-driven projects that draw inspiration from the island’s rich traditions and cultural diversity.

One such figure is Kang Pei Shern, whose fashion brand, Betterthanblouses, operates out of her family’s 200-year-old shophouse on Carnarvon Street. “I don’t think anywhere in Malaysia is like Penang. It’s a real privilege having all this exposure to different people,” she says. Her husband, British artist Thomas Powell, agrees. “This is a place with constant creative fuel.” Kang trained as a doctor and worked for pharma companies in Kuala Lumpur before dabbling in ceramics and soap-making. A top made by her mother-in-law then sparked the idea of turning her heirloom batik collection into blouses with edgy modern silhouettes. They sold out within days at pop-up markets. “That gave my parents the confidence that ‘yeah, she’s not going to be homeless,’” she chuckles. Eight years on, her pieces are still handmade in Penang by self-employed tailors. The couple now plan to make their own fabric with custom patterns.

*Left to right:* Local designer Kang Pei Shern and artist Thomas Powell; batik tops on display at Betterthanblouses.

A recent exhibition by Beijing-based artist He An at Blank Canvas, an experimental gallery in George Town, Penang. — A recent exhibition by Beijing-based artist He An at experimental art gallery Blank Canvas.

Other creatives have turned to food to reach a larger audience. Off the main tourist drag of Armenian Street, new bistro Gilda serves as an extension of Blank Canvas, the art gallery next door. I’ve come for lunch with its founder Kwong Yee Leong—a Malaysian management consultant who returned from Hong Kong to wait out the pandemic. He sketches out Blank Canvas’s origins as we graze on plates of red snapper ceviche, prawn linguine, and sourdough with a hopelessly addictive onion butter. “People didn’t think beyond paintings,” he says. “In Penang in particular, there was not what I would call a white cube art space.” So, in 2022, Leong began staging exhibitions in a shophouse behind his George Town home; Blank Canvas moved to its current, more central location last September. Conceived as a platform to connect Malaysia with the global art scene, the non-commercial space hosts four shows a year, giving artists-in-residence complete creative freedom.

Leong is also forging closer ties with independent art venues across George Town. In March 2025, Blank Canvas initiated the Penang Long Art Weekend with Hin Bus Depot, ChinaHouse, and Cultprint by Ernest Zacharevic—the locally based Lithuanian artist behind the iconic Armenian Street mural Little Children on a Bicycle. The event’s second edition, a citywide showcase of exhibitions, talks, and other programs, kicks off days after I’m due to leave. “Can you stay another week?” Leong suggests.

I can’t—but it’s a tempting proposition given two of George Town’s latest boutique hotel openings. December saw the debut of Cheong Fatt Tze – The Qing Suites (from US$223 a night) in the annex of the famed Blue Mansion, which sits across the street. The former servants’ quarters have been painstakingly restored and reimagined as 13 suites arranged around a semi-open courtyard where breakfast, afternoon tea, and cocktails made with Chinese liquors are served. (The food menu is by Su Kim Hock, chef-owner at Hin Bus Depot’s one-Michelin-starred Au Jardin.) Instead of numbers, rooms bear the names of Hakka tycoon Cheong Fatt Tze’s business subsidiaries, a detail reflected in the large-scale calligraphy above the king beds. My homey ground-floor suite pairs indulgences like standalone tubs and daybeds with terra-cotta floor tiles, painted brickwork, and exposed beams; a private walled garden layers tropical foliage against a striking backdrop of indigo limewash.

The two-story building also houses Virtue TCM, a spa focused on traditional Chinese medicine. After a consultation with a TCM practitioner (“You are very heaty,” she tells me), I’m prescribed a relaxing gua sha therapy, cupping, and acupuncture with needles so fine I barely feel the pinpricks on my skin. The Qing Suites’ amiable operations manager, Anna Yoon, later tells me the spa is key to the whole experience. “Compared to the Mansion, The Qing Suites feels Zen—we’re quieter and more about wellness.”

Medicinal herbs fill Virtue TCM’s apothecary cabinet; a Terrace suite at Cheong Fatt Tze - The Qing Suites. — *Left to right:* Medicinal herbs fill Virtue TCM’s apothecary cabinet; a Terrace suite at Cheong Fatt Tze – The Qing Suites.

*Left to right:* At the entrance to The Qing Suites; on an upstairs deck at the same property.

Outside The Qing Suites, seen from across the road at Cheong Fatt Tze - The Blue Mansion. — Outside The Qing Suites, seen from across the road at Cheong Fatt Tze – The Blue Mansion.

*Left to right:* Artwork in the bar at Soori Penang; the same hotel’s skylighted communal lounge.

Then there’s the Soori Penang (from US$785 a night), which has transformed a 40-room heritage hotel in the Khoo Kongsi compound into a subdued haven of just 13 suites, each occupying its own shophouse. Singapore-based architect-hotelier Soo K. Chan was born in another Khoo Kongsi shophouse and spent his earliest years playing hide-and-seek around the temple; his memories shaped the design in myriad ways. “What I remember most vividly is the light, entering only through windows and air wells, and the way it created this dramatic contrast between dark interiors and sudden brightness,” he recalls. “That became the foundation for the whole property.”

Inside the monastic suites, guardian lions and intricately carved air vents take their cues from the clan temple. A rice grinder, once commonplace in family kitchens across George Town, finds new purpose as a bubbling fountain in the air wells, where shallow pools catch the sun’s rays filtered through a trellised skylight. “The reflective pools came from a specific childhood memory of watching rainwater collect on granite floors during tropical downpours,” Chan explains.

One afternoon, I watch rippling reflections dance across a whitewashed beam. The tranquility belies the Soori’s location along the route to one of George Town’s most beloved heritage sites. Sliding the drop bars across the double doors of my suite becomes a nightly ritual, before nibbling on turndown treats like flaky pastry stuffed with homemade kaya jam.

For a more substantial meal, the hotel offers an abbreviated all-day menu in its lounge and bar, but the range of places run by talented local chefs is reason enough to venture out. Just steps from the Soori, Mémoire Molecular Gastronomy Dining launched in 2023 after Chong Chian Fung returned home from nearly two decades in Singapore. His multicourse menus are an ode to local produce and nostalgic Malaysian flavors: torch ginger granita tops a plump oyster from Balik Pulau on Penang’s rural west coast, while sapodilla compote sweetens thick slices of roasted Ipoh duck. At Mémoire’s 12-seat counter, guests don’t just eat. Homemade roti canai becomes an edible canvas on a miniature easel, with a small trowel and brush for painting it with toppings like a crimson sambal and purple cabbage chutney.

Inside the dining room of Curios-City, a restaurant in George Town, Penang; cod with ulam sauce and beurre blanc at Curios-City. — *Left to right:* Inside Curios-City’s dining room; cod with *ulam* sauce and *beurre blanc* at the same restaurant.

Inside the distressed-chic dining room at nearby Curios-City, 27-year-old head chef Adrian Tan walks me through the seasonal tasting menu just before service. Roughly 80 percent of the ingredients are Malaysian, and he leans on European techniques to bring out their character. Diced sea snail—a staple at beachside hawker centers—is tossed with crunchy rose apple and a mild green sambal for an amuse-bouche tart. Locally harvested coconut sap and sweet-sour Trigona honey are turned into a palate-cleansing sorbet that tastes like a day at the beach. Similarly, Tan reinterprets the street-food classic Hokkien mee as a risotto in rich prawn broth, topped with salted egg crumbs and a chargrilled tiger prawn. But my favorite is the seared cod on a bright green purée inspired by the Malay herb salad ulam. Complex and herbaceous, it’s a perfect match for the Cantonese XO sauce drizzled over fresh greens on the same plate.

I also make time for the 10-course omakase at the speakeasy-style Juju Restaurant Lounge. Here, Malacca-born musician and self-taught chef “CC” Lee Chong Chee showcases Penang’s best seafood in his Mediterranean-inspired cooking. “This island has everything from shrimp, cuttlefish, and octopus to 50 different fishes,” he enthuses. One by one, the plates arrive: hand-picked mud crab with roe and fresh thyme; a twist on Portuguese caldo verde using kailan; a medley of tomatoes from the Cameron Highlands. Sweet, succulent Ming prawn from Penang’s southern tip is served alongside seared squid in its own ink with sofrito and fresh oregano. When the juices from an Alentejo-style course of clams and marinated pork belly meet a fermented red-pepper sauce, I’m reminded of cincalok, the tangy Malaccan krill paste. Lee’s wine pairings are just as inspired. He pours me Portuguese vintages like a summery Gatão vinho verde, a sparkling Bairrada wine, and an Offley rosé port—a worthy match for the crema catalana dessert based on a 14th-century recipe.

*Left to right:* Chef CC Lee of Juju Restaurant Lounge; a starter of chilled mud crab with roe, also at Juju.

Lucky Hole’s orecchiette with grilled unagi and marmite; the same restaurant’s chef-owner Waymann Cheong. — *Left to right:* Lucky Hole’s orecchiette with *grilled* unagi and marmite; the same restaurant’s chef-owner Waymann Cheong.

Another relative newcomer is Lucky Hole, which opened in late 2023 inside a rehabbed warehouse near the cruise terminal. Chef-owner Waymann Cheong’s bleached hair, tunnel earring, and multiple tattoos hint at the restaurant’s bold personality. Now 32, the George Town native spent a year training at a fine-dining restaurant in Singapore and was determined to change the narrative that Penang excels only at street food. “I wanted to do something for where I was born, to give back a little bit. That’s when I started to really master my skills and absorb as much as I can,” he says.

Cheong was already shaking up George Town’s dining scene with a local hospitality group when Covid lockdowns forced him to rethink the concept for his future restaurant. “Everyone was so miserable back then. So I wanted to build a place where people can feel safe, like a bunker of good food,” he says. “And I always tell my guests: ‘If you enjoy eating with your feet, by all means, go ahead—I’m not judging.’”

Of course, no one does, but his irreverent approach to sharing plates may knock your socks off. One bite of the spongy flatbread with harissa butter conjures lazy nights ordering in from Pizza Hut; the brined free-range chicken breast has the texture and taste of real ham. By smothering breaded oyster in ranch and buffalo wing sauce, Cheong subverts expectations that the bivalves should always come with premium ingredients. Nor does he confine himself to a single cuisine. A cross between sashimi and hot pot, the red snapper carpaccio swims in a delicate broth with a hit of Sichuan spices. It’s all delicious and downright fun.

No less compelling is the city’s cocktail scene, dominated by bars that are small in size but big on character. Good Friends Club and Backdoor Bodega, side by side at Hin Bus Depot, both show off Malaysian ingredients in their imaginative concoctions. Signatures at the former include the Rojak Platter, a blend of tequila, mezcal, and tropical fruits garnished with shrimp paste and peanut powder.

*Left to right:* A bartender at Backdoor Bodega; raw industrial decor sets the scene for a meal at Lucky Hole.

Thanesh Joel, Backdoor Bodega’s operations manager; shaking things up at the same bar. — *Left to right:* Thanesh Joel, Backdoor Bodega’s operations manager; shaking things up at the same venue.

In recent years, the team behind Backdoor Bodega has added two more watering holes along the same street: No Bar Here, for disco-inspired cocktails and ’80s music, and Drafted, a tie-up with local craft beer brand PaperKite. But I’m most intrigued by the original venue and its cheeky drinks. One replicates the sensation of eating Malaysia’s old-school Ramly Burger through its meaty flavor, the scent of torched cheese, and even the food-grade wrapper swaddling the cold, wet glass. Another is an homage to rasam, a tangy South Indian soup that operations manager Thanesh Joel grew up drinking as a home remedy for colds and a detoxifier after heavy meals. “In India, you drink it from a small metal cup like a shot glass. That’s how it came to my mind,” Joel says. “Rasam is like the digestif.” Capped with a papadam, the cocktail is filtered from rasam cooked to his grandmother’s recipe. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, clarified milk, and lime juice are layered onto an already complex blend of tamarind, tomatoes, dried chilies, jaggery, and spices. I savor every last drop.

Hin Bus Depot was also a testing ground for Buttersage Pottery founder Belle Yeoh, who left her exhausting corporate job to become a ceramicist four years ago. Speaking with the quiet assurance of someone who has found their life’s purpose, Yeoh tells me she gained confidence through the weekly Hin Market before a breakthrough in 2023. “Friends recommended me to my first-ever corporate client, who was chef Kim Hock from Au Jardin. And it just snowballed from there.” Today, she creates the tableware for Au Jardin, cups for heritage hotel Noordin Mews, incense burners for local linen wear brand Sixth Sense, and much more besides. Yeoh’s latest wares can be found at Stride and Pott, which opened last April at the front of a guesthouse on Melayu Street.

Co-owned with her sports-shoe retailer husband Darren Teoh, the petite store reflects their shared interests, juxtaposing vintage lamps from Mumbai and a sweet-smelling camphor trunk with shelves of speckled-clay ceramics, hiking shoes, and casual all-day footwear. “It’s odd, right?” Yeoh muses. “Pottery and running. But there are so many crossovers between pottery-lovers who run and runners who love coffee and pottery.”

Stride and Pott hosts pop-up events with footwear brands: one recent shoe trial involved a heritage walk followed by pottery-making workshops. It also serves as the base for a local running club every other Sunday. No matter where you turn in George Town, there are always glimpses of a shared collaborative spirit bubbling just beneath the surface. Yeoh concurs. “I see it in every industry, not just with artists but also with chefs and in sports. Maybe because it’s a small place, there’s a very strong community energy. That’s the beauty of Penang.”

Ceramicist Belle Yeoh at her store Stride and Pott in George Town, Penang; small plates at Gilda include ceviche and grilled tiger prawns with XO béarnaise. — *Left to right:* Ceramicist Belle Yeoh at her store Stride and Pott; small plates at Gilda include ceviche and grilled tiger prawns with XO béarnaise.

This article originally appeared in the June/July 2026 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“A Passion for Penang”). Buy a single issue or subscribe here.

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