Hainanese Food – Colonial Restaurant in Armenian Street, Penang

***The restaurant has since closed down.

On the famous Armenian Street, stands a two storey shoplot building known as the Colonial Restaurant. This restaurant cum art gallery was opened to the public recently. We went there for lunch with our good friend.

This tastefully decorated restaurant uses marble-topped tables and kopi tiam chairs. Many art pieces were nicely decorated on the wall and some of them are up for sale too. Beautiful wood panellings were installed near the counter.

One of the attraction of this place is the airwell – decorated with many potted plants. The airwell which is airy and bright makes the place very cooling to sit around even in a hot afternoon.


We had our mind set on ordering their Hainanese dishes. From clockwise – Chicken Curry Kapitan, Curry Lamb, Mixed Vegetables, Sweet and Sour Fish and Yam Duck (ark ore) in the center. And the rice came steaming hot in a coconut shell (yah kak).

The taste of the food was quite near to the original ones we had during the old days except the mixed vegetable was a bit watery. As for desserts, we had the bee kor moi ……speciality is that it comes with a scoop of ice-cream rather than the standard coconut milk. Quite a nice change!!!

Head down over to 35 Armenian Street for some good old Hainanese fare.. if you need to make a booking, just call 2614489.