The George Town breakfast spot we kept going back to

A friend first brought us to Restoran Jaya before we climbed Penang Hill and within about ten minutes we were already discussing when we were coming back.

It sits on Jalan Gottlieb, really close to Youth Park and the Moon Gate entrance to the Penang Hill hike, so it works perfectly if you’re doing the climb and need feeding first. Which, honestly, you do. The hill is not the gentle morning stroll some blogs make it sound like.

The place is chaos in the best possible way. Constant movement. Staff flying around carrying trays of tea and stacks of roti while somehow remembering exactly who ordered what. Always busy. Mostly locals. We never saw another tourist influencer filming their breakfast with a tiny microphone, which usually feels like a good sign these days.

Malaysia is mainly made up of Malay, Chinese and Indian communities, and one thing we genuinely loved here was seeing groups from all three sat eating together at massive shared tables. Families, old men reading the paper, construction workers, students. Everyone just digging in.

One thing we noticed straight away was the staff eating out front with everyone else instead of disappearing out the back somewhere. Two of the waiters sat near us halfway through service having breakfast together before jumping straight back into carrying orders again. Small thing, but we liked it.

Breakfast here is brilliant. Properly brilliant.

When we returned this morning we ordered:

• 1 thosai ayam masala - 8RM
• 2 roti telur - 7.10RM
• 4 roti cheese - 19.20RM
• 3 hot masala teas - 10.05RM

44.35RM total, which worked out at about £8 for the three of us.

And we left absolutely stuffed.

The thosai ayam masala was probably our favourite thing on the table. Crispy edges, soft middle, spicy chicken curry stuffed inside. The roti cheese disappeared almost instantly because Jax decided those were “non-negotiable” after the first bite.

It’s technically open 24 hours, although we found out the hard way that breakfast has an unofficial cut-off. We arrived around 11am once thinking we’d grab the same order again and got told breakfast was finished. Slightly devastating at the time.

The lunch though, turned out to be excellent. More canteen style. Big trays of curries and rice where you point at what you want.