steveo

Staying one week in Malaysia...Feb 3rd-10th.split between KL and Penang......Does one deserve more time than the other....Im a chef by trade and love to eat EVERYTHING....So any restaurants or stalls that deserve a visit(yes I have read the board,and street food is high on the list) I would love to hear about them....Just deciding what city will get the extra day...All the best,...happy holidays to all.......PS...Im traveling alone..thinking staying at e&o in Penang,any suggestions for KL hotels(traders?)...Thank you all

crellston

Diificualt choice! On balance, I would go for 4 nts KL and 3 in Penang. KL has some amazing street stalls. My favourites include Jalan Alor for grilled fish (esp Stingray) and chinese, Little India (try and find one of the banana leaf restaurants - messy but delicious), Chinatown and Petaling Jaya is great for chinese. Best Sashimi I found was at the Japanese restarant in the Manadarin Oriental. Many of the top hotels have amazing restaurants.

Penang is more compact and restaurnts tend to be grouped in distinct areas - Little India, Chinatown etc. and there is some amazing food to be had at these places. many head to Gurney Drive for teh hawker stalls but personally I found this area to be overhyped and much better food to be had in town. Hopefully Kathie will chip in with link to her reoprt on food in Penang with lots of specific recommendations

Kathie

I'd spend more time in Penang. Like crellston, I was not impressed with the hawker food on Guerney Drive, the better food was in town. There are many hawker centers all over town. We bought a couple of books and were able to find the "best " satay the "best" O Chien, etc. Since my report is a few years old, I'd suggest you look for new editions of the books about hawker food.

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...rip-report.cfm

KL does have some good food, but I have to say I find the city itself rather boring.

katrinab

I think I might spend the extra day in Penang so I could travel around the rest of the island a bit (which we didn't have time to do but would have liked to). For food, we loved Red Garden Food Paradise next to Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion--great variety of cheap, delicious food, and you can get small items from lots of different stalls for one meal. In KL, Restaurant Aji near the bus station is pretty good and always busy.

More info and pics in our blog at http://patrinadoestheglobe.blogspot.com/

rhkkmk

take a look at clove hall in georgetown....i am staying there rather than the E&O

lincasanova

We enjoyed both but would spend more time on Penang which is a fairly large island and has plenty to see and do. We LOVED the E+O, at least go for happy hour by the pool. It is lovely. The fruit tray we ordered was excellent.

We did a jungle hike outside KL also which was fun and another in Penang on the northern end of the island.

I have a trip report under my name about Singapore, KL, Melacca and Penang if you are interested.

The all day snorkling trip leaving from Georgetown port was well worth it, too.

We enjoyed a good rate at the Sheraton Imperial in KL but went to Trade's lovely top floor bar for drinks.