Tek Sen Restaurant: Chinese Food in Penang

One of the most famous Chinese restaurants in George Town, Penang, Malaysia is Tek Sen, a restaurant that specializes in Chinese and Peranakan (Chinese Malay) dishes. Though the restaurant is quite famous and very popular, I was happy to find the food was still quite excellent and I fully enjoyed my meal there when my wife and I were in Penang. The menu is written in both English and Chinese, so the hardest part of ordering is narrowing down the choices of what to eat.

One of the signatures dishes to eat at Tek Sen restaurant is their double fried pork belly, and they had a plain version as well as one fried with chili padi. I went with the double fried chili padi pork. The pieces of pork belly were crispy and gooey, and fried with a sweet chili sauce. It was extremely rich and greasy, but it was pretty tasty - it was almost like pork candy. If you love pork, this is definitely a dish you should order. It was a little too sweet for me, but nevertheless, it did taste pretty good. Along with the double fried pork we ordered their homemade tofu braised in a claypot. The cubes of tofu were first deep fried, so they had a golden skin on them, then mixed with vegetables and assembled in a flaming clay pot. the dish had a wonderful smoky and sesame oil fragrance to it. The cubes of tofu were beautiful, slightly chewy on the outside skin, and then silky soft and creamy on the inside - it was probably my favorite dish we ate at Tek Sen.

To contrast the greasy pork dishes we ate, we ordered sweet potato leaves stir fried with sambal chili sauce and shrimp. The leaves tasted similar to spinach, but less slimy and a little more crisp. Along with the Malay style chili sauce, and pieces of shrimp, it was quite a delicious vegetable dish to eat along with rice and the other dishes. Another winning dish we tried at Tek Sen in Penang was a version of assam tumis, a Malay Chinese (Peranakan or Nyonya) fish curry. The curry had an incredible smooth and complex flavor profile - slightly salty, sour, spicy, and a little sweet. The combination was delicious. We ordered our assam tumis curry with black pomfret, but you could have also ordered it with sting ray.

Our meal at Tek Sen was very satisfying. The pork was again too sweet for me, but all the other dishes were excellent. For a delicious Chinese and Malay meal in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, Tek Sen is remains a pretty good options - all the way from 1965.

Here are some details if you want to eat here when you’re in Penang:

Tek Sen Restaurant (德盛飯店) - Penang
Address: 18 & 20 Lebuh Carnarvon, 10100 George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Open hours: Monday and Wednesday - Sunday (closed on Tuesday and Saturday) for lunch from 12 Noon - 2:30 pm and for dinner from 5:30 pm - 9:00 pm. I went for dinner and arrived right at 5:30 pm, so I'm not sure how the crowd is at lunch.
Prices: Our total bill for everything we ordered above, plus rice, and Ying had a soda, came to 64.10 MYR ($17.16) - kind of a mid-range price. Not bad for the quality.
How to get there: Tek Sen restaurant is located right in George Town along Lebuh Carnarvon. If you’re in central George Town you can probably walk here quite easily.

Music in this video is from Audio Network

SNAPCHAT: migrationology

Thank you for watching!

[wontondestructxn]

We just ate dinner there, about an hour ago. What an incredible dinner we had. Service was quick and polite and extremely affordable. One of the best Chinese meals I've eaten period.

[SCATMAN]

I am a firm believer-what we call here the old People's dinning time 4:30 pm  Just before it gets crazy- Especially on Saturday- is when to hit the restraint. Love to see u2 and your experiences. Thank you from Louisville, KY.

[MisCCY]

Woohoo!! This is my childhood favourite! They started in a corner shed just down the road with a zinc roof and huge ventilation fans cos it was so hot and smoky. The owner used to be the expert calculator, making calculations in his head and always joking with patrons. So proud of tek seng! Best dai chow ever!

[mohlissaaa]

Hey Mark, I just want to let you know that you inspire my husband and I's meal each and every time that we go eat out! We want to experience the Mark Weins experience. Forget the haters on your comments, they're only adding to your views. You will always have our support!!!

[ccbugayong]

I stumbled upon your channel a few days ago and immediately subscribed after watching the first video. The way you express the enjoyment of consuming the dishes that you present in your videos seems so real and vivid that I end up feeling hungry. More power to you and your channel!

[omelettecrap]

Another high quality video Mark! Hope more people discover this channel.

[karyanlee]

Honestly I just came across your channel while searching for cha-yen recipe today, and immediately I thought you're awesome! I'm a Malaysian btw. Anyway, I LOVE tofu a lot. Glad to know you like them too :) Spent an evening checking out your videos. I rarely comment on videos and subscribing tho !! But I don't wanna miss anything from you. Great job! Keep it up!

[noodleshead]

Wow Mark, The look on your face while when you were eating all the dishes was killer! Lol
It's 11:15pm in the U.S. And you are making me so hungry. 😄😄😋

[InTheKitchenWithJohnny]

I love your vlogs. So interesting to watch, and the food is always magnificent

[cindyyan]

Mark, I'm studying all your videos for Penang, Langkawi and KL! Fro where to eat and where to go. We will vacation there soon! Thanks all the videos! I just hope I don't miss any places.

[BobbyParrish]

Well that just looks downright delish! Another great video Mark!

[TravelingRobert]

Another wonderful video. It is making me hungry.

[littlelake]

Really enjoyed our meal there! Just was in Penang so happy to see your videos in Georgetown.

[Hazel_]

Every time he makes the "yumm" face I can feel my mouth watering!!!

[midway]

Everything looks so good and fresh.  Love your videos Mark!

[lanafaye]

Looks great the food and Ying does a great job of filming

[domaemon]

I'm glad you tried food in this place. It's representative of typically great 'Dish' food in Penang. Hands down. This place is just - very Penang.

[farinaz]

WOW! That was some amazing dishes and food! Chinese food is the best food in the world and culinary! I LOVE chinese food!!!
That fish curry looked absolutely wonderful. (I am soooo jealous.) I feel so inspired. I am trying to learn more about cooking South East Asian nowadays, and I really feel inspired by the dishes you were filming! Yesterday for lunch I made a fusion between Italian and South East Asian foods. For carbs, i had pasta (mezze maniche). And for the protein on the plate, I stir fried pork and then made it into a tomato sauce with lentils. I used one whole bird's eye chili and half a big red chilli. The dish came out amazing!!The best part was the bird's eye chilli and the red chilli (big smile!). I still have a lot left over since yesterday! Happy days for my freezer.
Thank you, and one day I am gonna try to make a fish curry, I think!!!! The dish seemed AWE-SOME
Love and Peace from Sweden!!!!

[leeneeloo]

I love the look of that tofu too. 
You don't put out enough videos Mark. Got to wait patiently for that twice a week.

[byou]

fantastic looking food, wish I can taste them all...