Considering taking one of the food tours in Penang? Great choice! Penang is renowned for its fabulous food and Penang food tours are the best way to discover it.
Did you know the best way to learn about the history and culture of Penang is also through its food?
When you have a knowledgeable Penang food tour guide, there’s no better way to learn so much about Penang during an enjoyable stroll around George Town while tasting amazing food and drinks.
I know because I love taking Penang food tours. I think the best way to help you understand how great the best food tour in Penang can be is to walk you through the George Town Penang food tour that I just did.
I’m going to share everything in this Penang food tour review with Simply Enak so you can make a decision about whether a food tour is what you want to do during your holiday in Penang. This includes a full video showing the highlights and ALL the food I tasted. Wow, it was great!
Warning: This article is going to make you very hungry!
If you already know you want to do a food tour, you can book one with Simply Enak right now at this link. Malaysia Uncovered readers save RM30 per booking using the discount code: MU30
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Penang Food Tours With Simply Enak
There are a few options for taking food tours Penang. We recommend Simply Enak for your food tour. Enak means delicious and simply delicious is what these food tours are!
We have taken their food tours ourselves in both Kuala Lumpur and Penang so we are sure of their quality. Their guides are great, and you can learn and discover so much on these tours.
It’s not just me who thinks this either. They have a 5 star rating on TripAdvisor!
Simply Enak offers two food tours in Penang:
- Penang Street Food Tour – 3.5 hour tour starting at 9am. Click here for all the details.
- Eat Drink George Town – 4 hour tour starting at 4pm. For adults 21+ only. Click here for all the details.
Both help you discover the history and culture of Penang while walking round George Town and tasting a crazy amount of food and drinks. The evening tour, Eat Drink George Town, also finishes the tour with a locally-inspired cocktail.
I have done both of these tours. They are similar but also different. There is some crossover so you’d probably just do one on the one trip. But they were also different enough that I very much enjoyed doing the other tour a year later.
I describe the evening tour in depth below. The morning tour started at Penang Bazaar and had more of a market and food focus compared to my evening tour that visited more of the main tourist area of George Town. I felt I learned more history of George Town on that tour. But they were both great, and I would do whichever one fits best into your itinerary.
You can see most of the food I tried – but not all!! – on the Street Food tour here on Instagram.
You can find all Simply Enak’s food tours here.
Heading to Kuala Lumpur? Read our full review to their food tour in KL here.
Best Food Tour In Penang Review
On my most recent trip, I did the Eat Drink George Town tour. All my experiences here are based on this tour.
My tour started at Masjid Kapitan Keling in George Town. This is the main mosque in this area, and it was built in 1801 by Indian Muslims.
The tour started with the fabulous guide, Lee, introducing herself and helping me and the other five participants (from four different continents!) get to know each other. Everyone was very friendly and it made for an enjoyable tour.
Masjid Kapitan Keling was a great starting point. We started by going inside for a quick tour. Even if you don’t do this Penang street food tour, I recommend you do the tours available here. I felt like I learned more about praying and the daily routine of Islam in 15 minutes than I ever have before. We were able to borrow gowns to wear, so it you don’t need to dress a special way to visit here.
Next up, we stopped by a Chinese clan house and temple and learned about how they work. We stopped by a few other Chinese clan houses throughout the tour. It was very interesting.
We walked down Armenian Street and learned more about the history of this area, stopping at Penang’s famous street art along the way.
In the first half hour, I learned more about George Town than I did in a year of living here. I was already wishing I had done a food tour then!
Soon enough, we were at our first food stop. I had only eaten half an ice kacang this day ready for all the great food so I was particularly excited to get started with the food.
It was a super strong start with the most delicious chicken satay I have ever had. The sauce was amazing… Just perfect!
We also had some Chinese tea to help with digestion and learned some more about tea in Chinese culture. It was all topped off with a gyoza (Japanese dumpling).
When we came out of this stop, I was happy to find there was a nice breeze, and it didn’t feel anywhere near as hot as it had at the start of the tour. It mostly was very pleasant walking around George Town at this time.
We walked around learning more about George Town’s UNESCO listing, why they have it and what it means as well as learning about the different areas of the city. We checked out more street art and enjoyed the city’s architecture.
We made our way to Little India where I particularly enjoyed our stops.
I LOVE Indian food. It’s my favourite cuisine in the world, so I am very biased. But this also means I have eaten a lot of Indian food in my life and these stops were right up there.
We started in the Hindu Indian area eating there and then tried the Muslim area. Little India is also a great place to wander which adds to food tours in Penang thanks to the smell of spices, the bright colours, the music – everything is a little different in Little India. It’s great.
There were three food stops here. All great.
The first was a quick stop at a stall for samosas. We then sat at a street side stall and had roti jala and tried a chicken and a mutton curry. The food was great as was the atmosphere. I loved watching them make the roti jala.
The final stop for food in this part of the tour was at a “Michelin selected” restaurant. It was my favourite food stop. Even better was that it was a vegetarian restaurant. We tried multiple breads, vegetable dishes, a chickpea dish and sauces.
All tasted fabulous, especially when mixed together. I couldn’t even decide which bread I liked best.
Another fun thing we tried on this stop was teh tarik (pulled tea) which is known as the Malaysian national drink.
We didn’t just drink it, but we learned to pull it ourselves. This is basically pouring the tea back and forth between metal containers which is quite hard as it’s hot! It’s also fun, and it was nicest tea I have had as it tasted a little like milo to me.
By now, I was already full, but there was more to come, and I’m definitely not a quitter!
We walked around learning some more including seeing fresh spices including tamarind. More street art was on the way to our stop at the Clan Jetties.
At this stop, we ate at some stalls by a car park. We got lucky when they had run out of space so they set up some new tables for us which were facing a small temple. It was a great view!
Here, we had two Chinese noodle dishes including Penang’s famous char kuey teow. So good!
We also had chicken feet. I wasn’t able to eat much of the food by this point as I was so full, but it tasted great. At least the noodles did. I was too scared to try the chicken feet 😀
We also had some fresh nutmeg juice. It had never occurred to me that this was something you could drink, but it was so good and refreshing, especially in Penang’s heat.
While my tummy was letting me down, it was ok as there was only one stop left. It was dark when we walked on to our final stop and I was glad that it was only for liquid refreshments!
We stopped at one of the longest houses in Penang for this. Earlier in the tour, we had learned how the British used to tax people based on the width of their house. So they would have narrow houses but they could go a loooong way back – like a whole block!
This bar was in one of these huge places! It was fun walking through seeing courtyard gardens, bars, cafes, books and so many bits and pieces.
We finished by learning about and trying the local coconut wine. I enjoyed it! We then had it mixed with another drink, local style, before finishing with some Australian wine.
It was the perfect way to finish a perfect tour in Penang.
I very much enjoyed everything about this tour. I learned so much. The guide, Lee, was friendly and informative and fantastic at making everything easy to understand. I ate so many great dishes and I truly enjoyed every moment.
When I lived in Penang, we rarely came to George Town as it never seemed that interesting to us. That perspective has completely changed now I’ve explored it with a local. It’s such a cool city and it’s really pretty and interesting. Plus, it has some of the best food in the world.
I highly recommend you book one of these tours. This was the Eat Drink George Town tour (find it here) or you can do a street food tour earlier in the day.
When you book, make sure you use the code MU30 for RM30 off your tour booking.
Something to note is that I am describing the best Penang food tour that I did. The stops, food and experiences can vary depending on the day, weather and other reasons.
For example, I did this tour on a Monday so one of the usual stops was not open so we stopped at an alternative place. I also did this tour during Ramadan which may have had an impact.
There was also so much more information from our guide than what I am relaying here. She was a total fountain of knowledge from describing the food we were eating to talking about the history of the places to describing what life is like in Penang. For example, I found it interesting to hear what her and her family would usually eat in an average day.
Water was also readily available on this tour. All you need to take is your appetite 🙂
Want Help Having An Awesome Food Experience In Penang?
Join a Simply Enak (aka delicious) Food Tour!
There are two different options depending on whether you want to concentrate on street food or nightlife.
No matter what you pick, you’ll taste a range of fabulous local food and drinks while learning the history and culture of Penang.
There’s no better way to discover this great island.
Make sure you use the coupon code MU30 for RM30 off your tour.
Simply Enak Penang Food Tour Video Walk-Through: Eat Drink George Town
You can watch my experience on this one of the food tours Penang by clicking below….
Final Words
I hope you have found this full guide to taking a Penang food trail tour interesting. Penang is an absolutely perfect place to take a food tour, and there is so much to enjoy on this food tour.
I thoroughly enjoyed it all from the first bite of the delicious satay to the best Indian food I’ve eaten to finishing off the evening with some coconut wine. It was perfect.
I also saw and learned more about George Town than I expected.
I highly recommend it as the best way to get to know Penang and its famous food.
Click here to read more about this food tour and to make a booking 🙂
Remember, you can get RM30 off this tour per booking using the code: MU30
Looking for other things to do in Penang? Find our full guide here. You can also find our full guide to where to stay in Penang here, our full guide to Simply Enak food tours here and our full travel guide to Penang here. Heading to Kuala Lumpur? Read our Kuala Lumpur food tour review here.
Planning a trip to Malaysia? Have any questions? Join our Malaysia Travel Planning Facebook group here now! It’s the perfect place to ask any questions and to be inspired!
