No. 5 Char Koay Teow — Restaurant in George Town

Lost and found! No.5 char kuay teow was originally co-located at Duck Blood Curry Noodles at Jalan Burma.

Its stall is now located at Jalan Macalister in a dinghy location by the main road and just beside a large carpark.

Don't let its appearance fool you though. They still serve a mean dish of char kuay teow full of wok hei.

Get the one with duck egg as adding gives extra umami to an already delicious dish. I am a big fan of cockles and the ones served here were huge and fresh! Mine came with added cockles as I wanted extra.

Ordered a side dish of boiled octopus which turned out smaller than expected. The octopus were sweet though.

Overall, highly recommended if you don't mind having a really good plate of char kuay teow in a dinghy location.

The good: CKT filled with plenty of wok hei

The bloody good: Bloody cockles and can even add more bloody cockles

The confusion: Organised chaos in their ordering system. They will ask you take a seat first and wait. They will only take your order when they have cleared their order backlog. It may be discomforting for some as they are not allowed to order when they arrive. But maybe it is because that helps with the owner's memory and focus?

The meh: The wait time. Was their first batch of customers of they day, and had to wait for about 45 minutes before our order was taken. The char kuay teow was served in about 30 minutes later. Guess that this could also be a function of how many orders they have taken before us.

Still, one of the best ckt in Penang. Highly...

Don't Bother Queuing

For a hawker stall that has garnered some attention, my two recent experiences have led me to one conclusion: save your time and appetite for one of Penang's many other excellent char kway teow stalls.

My first attempt to dine here was at their 12 noon opening time. Eager to be among the first served, we were instead handed a buzzer and told to wait to place our order. After a 15-minute wait, with no sign of the ordering process beginning, our patience wore thin, and we opted for a meal elsewhere.

We decided to try again before our departure around 5:30 PM. To my initial relief, there was no visible queue. However, the same buzzer system was in effect. This time, we waited a staggering 30 minutes, only to be informed upon inquiry that a significant wait was still ahead. The reason for the bottleneck became apparent: a single cook leisurely frying kway teow and some deep-fried items, seemingly unconcerned by the growing number of waiting customers. The staff's arrogant dismissal of our query only added insult to injury.

This establishment's ordering process is, frankly, ridiculous. Customers are left in the dark, with no indication of how long the wait to even order will be, let alone the subsequent wait for the food itself.

In a food paradise like Penang, where a fantastic plate of char kway teow is never far away, this level of service and disregard for customers' time is unacceptable. I, for one, will not be returning for a...

We didn’t need to wait for a table yet waited over an hour (to order and then wait further) for this mediocre CKT in a hot furnace when there wasn’t that many people to begin with. Got there at 5:08pm and only received the first plate of CKT at 6:17pm. The CKT was oily as heck and I ended up vomiting most of it due to my fat intolerance. Blood cockles are barely cooked and quite raw.

We ordered two plates - duck egg ($11) and chicken egg ($10).

The one with chicken egg was SO salty and inedible - left it unfinished. Duck egg's much better with good wokhei but it was overall too oily for my taste preference.

We wanted to order the mantis prawn CKT ($16) but they only told us that it's sold out after we had waited for more than an hour. The way it works is they will take down your table number and only come take orders when it's nearly your table's turn (after we waited for more than one hour). I've never experienced this sort of ordering system anywhere else - they need better time management as the way the workers asked you to wait was quite rude and they had major attitude - the vibe was “if you can’t wait, you are welcome to leave anytime”.

Visited once and won't be back for me as my aunt cooks much better CKT and there are other less oily CKT options that's better imo. A lot of oil does not equate to it being good. It all ended up in the toilet sink for me anyway. Not worthy of the wait - save your time and...