Gay Penang: travel guide to the best gay bars, hotels & fun things to do

Seventy7 is only open on weekends, Friday through Sunday with themed nights like “TGIF”, “Hola Latino” and “Slowdown Sunday”. It's a very mixed crowd here of both locals and foreigners. If you come before 10:30 pm, you're in time for their Happy Hour.

We liked it here. It's a very personable crowd and very easy to make friends. We came around 10 pm but it didn't start to get busy until after 11 pm.

Seventy7 is located at 54 Jalan Chow Thye in George Town and is only open Friday to Sunday evenings from 7 pm to 2 am.

The newbie on the Penang gay scene officially opened its doors in December 2022. For a while, Seventy7 was the sole gay bar in Penang so Tujoh's opening was a blessing for the local LGBTQ+ community.

Tujoh is the perfect place to hang out and connect with the local gays, especially at the weekly parties every Friday/Saturday. Inside it feels new – futuristic even. Look out for the large parties they host for big occasions like Chinese New Year.

Tujoh is located at 222, Lebuh Kimberley, George Town, Malaysia, 10100, and is open only Thursday to Sunday evenings until around midnight (2 am on weekends).

You'll spot it by the giant pink tank outside! China House is an institution in Penang. It's spread across 3 heritage buildings, linked by an open-air courtyard. It has 14 separate spaces – one for live music, another is a shop, cafe, restaurant, galleries and even a bakery. This is not an official gay bar but is so hipster and Bohemian that it has become a queer-friendly safe space. We felt comfortable with PDAs here, which is something we are very cautious about when travelling in a country like Malaysia. China House is located at 153 & 155 Lebuh Pantai and 183B Lebuh Victoria Streets, right in the heart of George Town. It is open daily from 11am to 8pm.

Beach Blanket Babylon is a gorgeous seafront restobar, more a place to bring a date than to party. It's not a gay bar by any stretch, and we didn't see many gay guys here when we came for our romantic sunset cocktail. But we did notice a few tourist gay couples here who also came for a drink together. It's a chic, trendy safe space you can bring a date and we include Beach Blanket Babylon for this reason. BBB is located at 32 Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah in George Town and is open daily until around 11pm/midnight.

Another queer-friendly space in Penang. Like China House, 54JCT is not a gay bar, but a place that welcomes the LGBTQ community – a safe space where, for example, Seby and I felt comfortable dancing together without feeling threatened. This used to be That Little Wine Bar restaurant but recently rebranded. We recommend checking out some of their themed events, in particular their Comedy Open Mic nights on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. 54JCT is located at 54 Jalan Chow Thye tucked down a side street just outside George Town. For their latest information, check their Facebook page.

Red Garden Food Paradise at 20 Leigh Street is a busy hawker centre/night market selling everything from satay, laksa, dim sum, noodles of all sorts and many more delicious dishes. We loved coming here every evening for the buzzy atmosphere. It's a mix of locals and tourists who order food from the surrounding stalls and gather in the communal seating area to eat. It's open every evening from 5.30pm until around 1/2am. We think all visitors to Penang should come here at least once, to experience the ambience as well as the delectable dishes.

Tai Tong is located on 45 Lebuh Cintra. It's famous both for its delicious dim sum and the very cute old ladies (aka “aunties”) who wheel around a trolley of these little Cantonese prizes. You pick which dim sum you want from their trolleys and bon appetit! They have lots of yummy varieties of dim sum along with delicacies like chicken feet (just try them before judging!), soups, noodle dishes and plenty of vegetarian options. Tai Tong is open daily from 6am until 11pm although they close between 2pm and 6pm. Whatever time you come, there's always a crowd – it's THAT popular!

Hameediyah at 164a Campbell Street is a family-run institution, serving up mouthwatering traditional Penang style Indian food for over 100 years. They're most famous for their murtabak, which is literally an ‘Indian pizza', although there are so many other yummy things to try here like the nasi kandar and the kapitan chicken. Hameediyah gets so popular that there's nearly always a queue outside, but it's definitely worth the wait! The Hameediyah family running it are extremely charming. They love meeting foreigners and talking about the history of the restaurant – they even allowed Stefan to try playing head chef, with some mixed results…

Teochew Chendul (also known as Penang Road Famous TeoChew Chendul) is located at 27 & 29 Lebuh Keng Kwee street and was highly recommended to us for Malaysian “chendul”. Chendul is a popular Malaysian dessert of rice flour noodles made green from pandan leaves that are served with coconut milk, shaved ice and red beans. It reminded us a bit of the halo halo dessert we tried in the Philippines. This roadside stall also sells yummy curry, asam laksa and other dishes, but the chendul is definitely the most popular. Sebastien just couldn't help himself, terrorising the poor staff at Teochew until they gave him his 6 helpings of chendul…

Kapitan restaurant at 93 Lebuh Chulia street is a 24/7 Indian heaven selling Indian classics like tandoori and naan bread all hours of the day! This restaurant is legendary in Penang for amazing curries, claypot biryani, tandoori chicken and chicken masala. It gets very busy here because the food is so good, but we promise it's worth the wait. We loved the mango lassis we had with our meal as well as the Kapitan piece de resistance – badam milk. This drink is made from pure cow milk, which is boiled with ground almond, cashew nuts, raisins and sugar.

Il Bacaro restaurant at 106 Lebuh Campbell street is the in-house restaurant of the Campbell House boutique hotel (see above). It's the perfect little haven for you if you're craving a break from local food and fancy a pizza or pasta dish instead! In fact, this was some of the best Italian food we've ever had, rivalling some of the highly-rated restaurants back home in London. A bacaro is a simple restaurant or wine bar that's typically found in Venice, so you can expect lots of “cicchetti” (small plates of food like Spanish tapas) and simple Italian dishes. The homemade gnocchi is just incredible as well as their pizzas and tiramisu, all rounded off perfectly with excellent Italian wine.

We did a cooking course with the adorable Pearly Kee, who is world-famous for her Nonya (ie Chinese influenced) style of cooking. Pearly is funny, sharp, sassy and super cheeky. We absolutely fell in love with Chef Pearly and had one of our favourite ever cooking experiences with her. Pearly taught us to make beef rendang (a coconut milk-based curry, cooked until it’s dried) and Curry Kapitan (a coconut based curry soured with tamarind and lime juice). Our class with Pearly also included a fascinating tour of her local market.

The foodie aspect of Penang is just incredible, and we recommend getting a ‘taste' of it all by joining a food and heritage tour like we did. Our lovely guide drove us around to try some of Penang's classic dishes like assam laksa (rice noodles with fish broth, soured with tamarind), chendul dessert, ban chan kuih (Chinese crepes), hokkien mee (shrimp broth with yellow noodles, popiah (similar to fresh spring rolls), murtabak and many more. We loved our food tour and were particularly impressed by the way the 3 dominant cultures in Penang (Malay, Chinese and Indian) are so well integrated together, united by food.

Penang does, of course, have a great deal more to offer than its impressive mix of food. The central George Town area itself is UNESCO protected, with a variety of beautiful cathedrals, temples and mosques to visit. The Khoo Kongsi Clan House, in particular, is definitely worth a visit – it's a stunning building with a history of over 650 years, as well as a museum where you can learn more about it. For a deeper understanding of Penang's eclectic history, you can join a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites with an English-speaking guide to explain the stories behind the magnificent structures you will see.

The clan jetties of Penang are another not-to-miss highlight in Penang. They are a row of really unique waterfront houses on stilts. The remaining 6 jetties in Penang are over a century old, each named after a Chinese clan like Yeoh, Chew and Lim. The wooden houses on stilts were literally built on water (i.e. not on land) so that its residents could avoid paying any tax. To this day they still don't have to! The Chew Jetty is the most popular to walk along as it's long and quite picturesque – there's even a temple here, which we recommend checking out. Just remember that people do actually live here, so be mindful while trying to get that perfect sunset snap!

As part of the campaign to obtain the UNESCO status in 2008, the Penang State Government started a competition to install street art around George Town, with a full brochure explaining each one and where they can be found. All of the murals are quirky and cute, some even incorporate real objects like motorbikes or swings so that you can interact with them. Our favourite was “Kids on a Bicycle” – seen here being told off for their recklessness by Momma Seby! We recommend using the official website to see the map and try to hunt them all down.