George Town has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 7 July 2008, with 5,285 buildings on its special area plan, and this road drinks through five of them, from a Sarkies bar to a licensing joke told with a straight face. One stop still owes us proof it pours, and the copy says which.
- 1 · The Cold Open
Farquhar's Bar, E&O
The Sarkies brothers opened the Eastern on Light Street in 1884 and took over the Oriental on this seafront the year after, two years before they built Raffles. What survives of that empire pours gin slings in the Heritage Wing, a long bar of oak and brass that closed with the hotel in 1996 and came back with it on 3 April 2001. Ask for the E&O Sling, the house gin sling built on Bombay gin with Grand Marnier and Drambuie, and take it slowly on the leather. The hotel keeps its writers in photographs along the lobby corridor and its claims are politer than most; Maugham is a story the house tells, not a record it shows. Comfortable clothes pass until six, smart casual after. The sea is just over the wall, which is where the money always sat.
the Eastern 1884, the Oriental 1885, one hotel by 1889; this bar reborn 3 April 2001 · daily 5pm till midnight, smart casual after 6 · verified Aug 2026 · 🏨 the night ends at Eastern & Oriental Hotel
- 2 · The Detour
Antarabangsa Enterprise
Antarabangsa means international, and the name is the whole manifesto. It is a liquor shop at 21 Lorong Stewart whose plastic chairs spill along the five foot way, seating aunties, sailors, backpackers and whoever the evening delivers. Order the cheapest cold beer in the heritage zone, still well under ten ringgit while the cocktail rooms two streets over ask forty. Nobody pours for you; you fetch the bottle from the fridge like family and settle up when you surrender. It is a shop first and a bar only by custom, the drinking done on the kerb rather than under a public house licence, a wrinkle George Town has tolerated for decades. It opens midafternoon and runs to about midnight, and Sunday is the night to check before walking over.
a liquor shop by trade, a bar by custom; its founding is not written down · midafternoon till about midnight; Sundays disputed, so check · verified Aug 2026
- 3 · The Anchor
Tek Sen
Choo Teik Seng crossed from Bukit Mertajam, cooked ten years at a Teochew porridge stall by the Sia Boey canal, and in 1965 took over a friend's hawker pitch on Carnarvon Street. The stall went dai pai dong in 1980 and moved into these two shophouses at 18 and 20 in 2010, where it now trades as Teksen under a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Queue like everyone else at noon or half past five, because the line outside is the town's most honest register. Order the double roasted pork with chili padi, crisp and caramelised at the edges, the heat arriving a beat late. The soy braises and curry tumis still remember the porridge trade they came from. Closed Tuesdays, and three generations answer to the same name.
a stall 1965, dai pai dong 1980, these shophouses 2010 · lunch noon till 2.30pm, dinner 5.30pm till 9pm, SHUT TUESDAYS · verified Aug 2026
- 4 · The Wildcard
Backdoor Bodega
Walk into The Swagger Salon, a streetwear shop at 37 Jalan Gurdwara beside the Hin Bus Depot, and keep walking; the bar hides at the back of the racks. Buy a pin at the counter, thirty five ringgit, and the first cocktail arrives free with it, which is how an overpriced pin shop stays the politest licensing joke in George Town. Koh Yung Shen opened the room with zero fanfare in November 2016 and rebuilt it through 2020 without ever raising his voice. Order the pin, then the Kelapa Hotak, coconut fat washed rum that has anchored the menu since the first night. Asia's 50 Best listed it in 2022, the first Penang bar on that list, and the World's 50 Best named its menu the world's best in 2025. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday; membership lasts exactly one evening.
opened November 2016 behind the owner's clothing brand, rebuilt through 2020 · roughly 8pm till 1am, SHUT TUE AND WED; the daily 5pm listing in circulation is stale · verified Aug 2026
- 5 · The Last Call
Canteen at China House
Narelle McMurtrie knocked three heritage shophouses into one long warren in 2011, twenty thousand square feet running from 153 and 155 Lebuh Pantai through an open courtyard to the Canteen door on Lebuh Victoria. Days belong to the cake table, thirty cakes long, where the tiramisu comes the size of a brick and shifts six hundred and fifty slices on a weekend day. Nights belong to the Canteen, the live room where a different local band plays each evening and the wine and cocktails outlast the galleries. Come late, order a last slice of that tiramisu with whatever the bar is pouring, and let the band close the road. The warren runs 9am to 1am daily, and four in five faces at the weekend are local. Covenant ratified.
19th century shophouses, joined into one warren in 2011 · daily 9am till 1am · verified Aug 2026