Sri Weld Food Court in Penang

Sri Weld Food Court is considered by the locals as one of the best places to go in Penang’s George Town  for an inexpensive breakfast or lunch. The food court is located in the city’s commercial centre, Beach Street (Lebua Pantai), and every weekday office workers, and others, come in their hundreds to eat.

What makes the food court so popular is because it has lots of seating, the food is cheap, and some of the stalls in the food court serve very good food that even people who don’t work in the area are prepared to travel across the city, or even the island, to eat.

About Sri Weld Food Court

Sri Weld Food Court doesn’t look as attractive as other food courts in the city, such as Red Garden Food Paradise, it doesn’t serve beer or lay on any entertainment, and it only opens from 09:00 to 17:00 every day. This is, however, the place to come if you want to eat excellent ‘hawker’ food.

The way the food court works is that you first select a table, each of which have a number, and then order your food. The food is brought to you and you pay. Its that simple. At quieter times of the day you could go to the various stalls and collect your own and sit down. There is a lot of seating at the back of the food court as well as toilets.

To order drinks wait to be approached by the drinks waitresses who operate out of the large drinks stall in the centre of the food court. They serve fruit juice, shakes and other soft drinks although the speciality appears to be white coffee, both iced and hot.

Food at Sri Weld Food Court

By far the most popular dish at Sri Weld Food Court is the nasi lemak which is served wrapped in a banana leaf parcel. Nasi lemak is coconut rice served with sambal (a type if spicy sauce which is a key part of Malay food) and a variety of other ingredients. The stall at the front of the market sells several types of nasi lemak: with boiled egg, with chicken, with fried fish and with squid. Prices per portion start at 1.80 MYR for the nasi lemak. This stall makes hundreds every day, as you can see from the picture its a production line, and queues form at lunch times with their nasi lemak consumed just as fast as they make it.

Another popular stall sells laksa, at 4.5 to 5 MYR a portion. Laksa is a spicy noddle soup associated with the Chinese community living on the West Coast of the Malay Peninsula in Penang and Melaka particularly. This stall sells its own particular version of laksa and nothing else.

At the back of the food court is a stall selling chicken and rice cooked in a clay pot with stock. Its costs 5.50 MYR without egg and 6.00 MYR with egg. Its not the most popular stall in the market but it still does a brisk trade at lunch time. Its a bit different to the mostly Malay dishes served at the other stalls in market and clearly some diners enjoy a change once a while.

There is also a nasi kandar stall near the front of the food court. Nasi kandar is Indian style curries served on top of rice with lots of curry gravy. Sri Weld Food Court is some distance from Penang’s Little India district and not somewhere closely associated with eating nasi kandar, nonetheless, I liked the nasi kandar they serve here. Its a bit more expensive than other dishes sold here – my plate of rice, chicken curry, potato carry and aubergine curry cost 8 MYR – however, it stills represents good value for money and is cheaper than you might pay at some other places in Penang.

There are plenty of other stalls to try food from as well. Some people recommend the beef noodles at Kwang Beef Noodle and curry noodles at White Curry Mee. I didn’t think that the food at either was particularly good but other people do so it best to have a go and make your own mind up.

Closest Hotels to the Sri Weld Food Court

The three closest hotels to the Sri Weld Food Court are:

• The Prestige Hotel Penang
• Hotel Chennai
• Merlin Hotel Penang

Location of the Sri Weld Food Court

• Sri Weld Food Court is located at 21, Lebuh Pantai, George Town, 10200 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.