Cecil Street Market, Penang

[Non-halal] Cecil Street Market in Georgetown is one of the more popular markets in Penang for street food.

Apart from getting the freshest produce at the wet market section, locals would also flock to the Cecil Street Market Hawker Centre for some of the best street food on the island.

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We checked out Cecil Street Market on a Sunday morning.

Cecil Street Market 七条路巴刹 in Penang

Located in Lebuh Cecil, the Cecil Street Market is one of the oldest wet markets in Georgetown.

The market is also called the 7th Street Market 七条路巴刹, as it is located seven streets away from the Komtar tower.

The market is divided into two sections: – the wet market section where fresh produce (meat, vegetables, fruits) is sold, in addition to household items such as clothing and plastic ware.

The other section – i.e. the food court – is undoubtedly the more popular section as it is home to rows of hawker stalls selling food.

Cecil Street Market offers a variety of local food

There are plenty of hawker stalls here – and it’s quite fun to navigate the market to find some of the best local food Penang has to offer.

A few of the more popular stalls here include the Lum Lai Duck Meat Koay Teow Th’ng (the main reason we visited this market), Mee Jawa, Hokkien Mee, Curry Mee, Lobak, and Nyonya Kueh.

We arrived at 9 am on a Sunday morning before the crowd really started pouring in (it was the weekend of the Penang Bridge Run) closer to 10 am.

Hence, we advise coming early to easily secure a table.

Here’s what we ate:

1. Lum Lai Duck Meat Koay Teow Th’ng 南来鸭肉粿条汤

Lum Lai Duck Meat Koay Teow Th’ng was the main reason we visited the market.

Penang-style duck meat koay teow is one of our favourite Penang dishes – so we knew we had to visit this stall as it is touted to be one the best on the island. In fact, a few of our friends consider this to be their favourite!

The first thing to note: the stall here works on a self-service basis. Despite arriving early at 9 am, there was already a queue in front of the Lum Lai stall. However, it only took 15 minutes for us to make our order and bring the bowls back to our table.

The verdict? This bowl of Koay Teow Th’ng (KTT) is good!

While the broth looks unassumingly light, it was actually very flavourful as it boiled with plenty of pork and duck stock. The flat rice noodles were really smooth too.

For RM6, we found the toppings to be generous with lots of shredded duck meat, fish cakes, and fish balls. While the fish balls are not as unique as the ones at Pitt Street (see our post here) – there were tasty enough for a satisfying meal.

To be sure, the broth and smooth noodles were the best aspects of this KTT.

2. Tau Kua Chien Lobak

There are a few stalls in the market selling Lobak (five-spice meat rolls), but we decided to check this particular stall out despite it not being as busy as the others.

It turned out to be really delicious! We really enjoyed the lobak as it was juicy with sufficient five-spice fragrance, but the tofu was definitely the highlight as it was super soft and fresh!

The sweet chilli dip was interesting too as it had some peanut bits on top.

3. Penang Nyonya Kueh

There were two popular Nyonya Kueh stalls located just next to each other in the market. Both are equally popular and busy – so we decided to try the kuehs from both stalls.

The kuehs that we enjoyed were the Kueh Talam, Pulut Tai Tai, Rempah Udang, and Chai Kueh. The only kueh we didn’t like was the onde-onde as it did not have that “bursting” Gula Melaka feeling in the mouth.

Honestly, we enjoyed the kuehs from both stalls – as they were delicious and tasted better than the Michelin-recommended one here.

Other popular stalls to check out

Unfortunately, we were not able to try all the food stalls here as we had limited stomach space, and we didn’t want to waste any food. But we’ll definitely return to try some of the stalls that caught our eye. These include the Pasembur, Curry Mee, and Mee Jawa.

Have you been to the Cecil Street Market? If yes, which is your favourite stall? Comment below or on our Instragram post here.

As for us – we’ll definitely recommend all three stalls mentioned above!

Cecil Street Market 七條路巴剎 Pasar Lebuh Cecil
Address: 24, Lebuh Cecil, George Town, 10300 George Town, Pulau Pinang
Hours: 7 am-5.30 pm Daily (Operating hours for each stall vary)