Auntie Big Prawn Champion 2023 Cha Koay Teow小旺角饮食中心 — Restaurant in Penang

PSA: The CKT opening time is 10.30am weekday (Wed close), 1.30pm weekends. Wait time is an hour. So you should WhatsApp or call them to book your plate to shorten your wait time Yee Mee stall is closed Wed Thu but open 10am Chai kuih is sold out within 30min. WhatsApp to book your order to avoid disappointment.

The CKT is famous for being the winner of the 2023 CKT competition. So is it worth the hype? I think what differentiates it is the egg. The egg is somehow a bit more sticky to the koay teow and unlike other CKT, where it's separate pieces. The koay teow is also fried at a delicious texture with the requisite wok hei. It's worth it if you WhatsApp in advance and not so much if you need to wait an hour. The lady is very professional and friendly though, so I give them 5 stars.

Of course, CKT is not everyone's cup of tea, if so, you must try the stall next to the CKT. The fried rice, yee mee and tai lok mee is incredible. Extremely well fried and superbly flavoured. It's worth a regular visit.

Didn't have chance to try the chai kuih but the same stall sells laksa. The laksa tastes quite good but somehow I think its a bit watery. I prefer my laksa to have more body in the soup and this just didn't have enough to entice me to try at nearby future.

The coffee shop however is quite standard and clean. The tables and chairs are different from what you expect of a coffee shop. More designey and modern than you would've thought.

In short, great place to have food as long as you remember to pre order in advance for the CKT and chai kuih. I couldn't put the phone numbers here as Google frowns on phone...

After reading reviews about the char koay teow here at this kopitiam, we drove at least 5 times unsuccessful to try it. Today, we were fortunate as it was finally opened.

The coffee shop is a corner lot, and similar to many other kopitiams, nothing out of the ordinary. It could certainly do with a facelift but I guess most kopitiams are such anyway.

The reason we were there is to try out the char koay teow which purportedly won the Penang Char Koay Teow competition in 2023. Mantis prawn was not available on that day, so we opted for prawn and crab char koay teow with duck eggs. It was a short wait before our food arrived and we are pleased that it did not disappoint. The char koay teow was fragrant without being too soggy or oily. It had plenty of wok hei and the duck egg added a creaminess to the koay teow. It came with some pork lard and also Chinese sausage. Both the crab and prawn portions were fair, and more importantly fresh. It has been a while since we enjoyed such good char koay teow. Very happy with the dish.

We also ordered the cendol and popiah basah. The cendol was average as there were better ones around. The popiah basah however was pretty good. It was packed with a good amount of fried yam bean and tasted sweet and delicious. The fried dried shrimps added some oomph to the dish.

Other stalls which we did not try sold Mongolian chicken rice, Hokkien mee and Shanghai eateries.

A note that the char koay teow stall only opens on weekdays 12noon to 5pm and 2pm to 5pm on weekends. It would be good if it opened earlier so that the early lunch crowd can also enjoy...

1. Easily accessible. Convenient road side pay-to-park on weekdays. Free parking on Sundays.
2. Bussiness hours on Saturdays & Sundays: 1330hrs to 1730hrs. However, Laksa & Chai-Kuih will only be available from 1530hrs onwards.
3. Seating capacity of up to 30 persons. Tables are decently spaced for dining. Floor, chairs and tables are clean enough for a comfy dining experience.
4. Friendly and attentive waitstaff to take orders of beverages. Hot Coffee and Iced Cendol that we ordered were served within 10 minutes.
5. A wide variety of local delights are available in this cafe, such as: *Hokchew Pancake (福州饼) that is quite authetic. *Penang Laksa and Chai Kuih (菜粿) from the same stall, which are quite popular to the locals. *Char Koay Teow that is delicious and flavorful, is the main attraction of this cafe. A standard plate of hot Char Koay Teow comes with 2 fresh and big prawns, that are prepared to perfect tenderness and savory. Eggs are optional. It can be served without egg, with chicken egg or with duck egg. My personal preferrence is to go with duck egg, which delivers an extra layer of aroma and flavors. The level of spiciness can be customized individually upon request. i always request for additional pork lard that is crispy but not hard, for the extra level of aroma on top of the perfectly...