Shop by craft
Best of George Town; search or filter for all 12
Jalan Macalister / George Town (retail on Beach Street & Penang Road)
Ghee Hiang has made pure sesame oil and traditional pastries in George Town since 1856, when a Fujian pastry chef settled in Penang. Its handmade tau sar pneah and beh teh saw, along with the Baby Brand sesame oil introduced in the early 1900s, remain the core of the counter.
Best for Sesame oil and tau sar pneah
Jalan Jelutong, George Town
Sin Boon Kee has roasted traditional coffee powder in Penang since 1944, running a factory and a concept store on Jalan Jelutong. The lineup runs from charcoal-style Kopi-O sachets to freshly roasted Arabica and a cold-brew Nanyang coffee the family introduced in 2023.
Best for Penang's oldest coffee factory (1944), fourth-generation family-run, over 800 kopitiam customers
Sin Boon Kee was founded in 1944 by Chan Kok Tong to supply local kopitiams in Penang, and is recognized as Northern Malaysia's oldest coffee factory, still operating from its original address at 348 Jalan Jelutong. The business remains family-run four generations later: Jonathan Chan Heng Liang, the current fourth-generation successor, joined the company and spent two years learning every stage of the roasting and grinding process before taking on a larger role. At full capacity the factory produces up to 1,000 kilograms of coffee powder a day and has supplied more than 800 kopitiams over the years, about 70% of them in Penang itself — a customer base of small, independent coffee shops rather than chains. Its product range spans traditional charcoal-style Kopi-O sachets to freshly roasted Arabica, and in 2023 the family introduced a cold-brew Nanyang coffee, extending a wartime-era traditional coffee-powder business into a modern ready-to-drink format. In 2020 the company opened the SBK Concept Store on Jalan Jelutong, pairing local fusion food with tastings of its own coffee. The company's official website is currently showing a maintenance notice, but its history and operations are independently documented through business press (thesun.my, Golden Bull Award) and its own social and product pages.
Transfer Road (Jalan Transfer), George Town
Lim Ah Hock has hand-made Malaysian batik since 1980, and his son James Lim now runs the Jalan Transfer workshop and shop under the Batek-Lah name he launched in 2012. Batik tulis (hand-drawn) and batik cap (hand-stamped) pieces cover menswear, womenswear, accessories, kitchen textiles and corporate commissions.
Best for Handmade Penang batik apparel
Batek-Lah Collection traces to Lim Ah Hock, who began making batik in George Town, Penang in 1980 and built Lim Trading into a local fixture of the island's batik trade over more than four decades. The shop at No. 158 Jalan Transfer, near Hotel Penaga in George Town's heritage core, still produces its cloth on site using the two classical Malaysian techniques: batik cap, stamped with carved copper or wooden blocks, and batik lukis (batik tulis), drawn freehand in molten wax before dyeing.
In 2012, Lim Ah Hock's son James Lim took on the business and rebranded it as Batek-Lah, aiming, in his own account, to breathe new life into his father's products while keeping the handmade process unchanged. The range grew from clothing into accessories, kitchen textiles, tailored corporate uniforms and gifts, sold from the same Jalan Transfer premises alongside a second outlet at Aman Central in Alor Setar.
The shop is a recurring stop on Penang heritage-trail listings (Tripadvisor, George Town World Heritage Incorporated) as one of the city's working batik ateliers where visitors can watch wax-resist patterns applied by hand rather than machine-printed.
George Town
China House links three heritage buildings on Beach Street around an open-air courtyard, gathering cafes, the Beach Street Bakery, a gallery and a book-lined reading room under one address. Evenings bring live jazz and indie sets, with comedy nights added monthly.
Best for Heritage cafe, bakery and arts under one roof
Lorong Stewart, George Town
Five restored 1927 shophouses on Lorong Stewart hold the Kopi Museum, where the former Kim Guan Coffee Factory's original wood-fired roaster still stands. The compound also houses a boutique hotel and the Gehrig Art Gallery.
Best for Kopi Museum and original 1927 wood-fired roasting equipment inside the former Kim
Coffee Atelier occupies a row of five interlinked shophouses built in 1927 on Lorong Stewart, in the UNESCO-listed core of George Town. One of the five, No. 53, was originally a coffee merchant's workshop — the Kim Guan Coffee Factory — and its wood-fired roasting equipment is still in place at the back of the building, kept as the anchor of what the site now calls the Kopi Museum. The rest of the compound has been restored into a small hotel (loft-style upper suites and ground-floor rooms, each roughly 50 square metres), the Gehrig Art Gallery showing Malaysian artists, and a restaurant, Christoph's, run by its Austrian namesake proprietor. It is an unusual combination for a coffee stop: a working museum piece rather than a themed display, set inside a building whose Straits eclectic architecture is itself part of Penang's heritage-tourism draw. Visitors who stop for a cup are, in effect, standing in the actual former processing room of a Penang coffee trade concern, with the equipment that once roasted for it still standing rather than reproduced. The address — 47-55 Lorong Stewart — puts it within walking distance of George Town's temple and church cluster, making it as much a heritage stop as a coffee one.
George Town
Founded by Farhana Shariff, this maker turns Malaysian-grown cocoa into dark bars and fusion flavours drawn from Penang's kitchen, alongside a small chocolate museum tracing cocoa's history. Visitors can join chocolate-making classes or put together a DIY truffle kit on site.
Best for Malaysian-cocoa craft chocolate
Jalan Burma (Burmah Road), George Town
Him Heang bakes Penang pastries fresh each day at its Jalan Burma shop, best known for tambun biscuits, a compact thin-crusted take on tau sar pneah sized for a single bite. The horseshoe-shaped beh teh saw, once baked over coconut-shell charcoal, is made without preservatives and meant to be eaten within a couple of weeks.
Best for Tambun biscuits and beh teh saw
Lebuh Hong Kong, George Town
Koon Kee Tea & Coffee Factory has roasted traditional Penang white coffee for 70 years, founded by Choot Ching Khoon, who once delivered it himself by bicycle. It still hand-roasts by 'maestros', selling white coffee, beans, milk tea and premix combos.
Best for It still hand-roasts by 'maestros', selling white coffee, beans
Koon Kee's white coffee traces back to founder Choot Ching Khoon, who fled Hainan at age eleven amid war and later built a coffee factory in Penang from scratch. In the early years he ran it alone, roasting each morning and then cycling around the island on a bicycle he'd bought for ten dollars to deliver to customers directly — a founding story the company still points to as the root of its values. Seventy years on, Koon Kee Tea & Coffee Factory Sdn. Bhd. still roasts and packs by hand, crediting the work to in-house "maestros and their protégés" rather than automated lines, and still centers the same Penang-style white coffee that built the original business.
The range extends from the original white coffee and whole beans to milk tea and premix combinations for a quicker cup, packaged in unbleached paper instead of plastic as part of the company's environmental stance. What began as a one-man operation delivered by bicycle has grown into an export business, with Koon Kee now reaching hand-picked distribution partners in Singapore, China and New York City, carrying Penang's white-coffee tradition well beyond the old town streets where it started.
37A&B, Beach Street, George Town / Online
It is best known for Diverse selection — books, clothing, crafts, furniture, fashion, personal care, aromatherapy; celebrates both local and international designers; brands like PARODY PARLOUR, Loka Made, Oh Sebenar, Freitag; Fuku Eatery inside; occasional events and exhibitions.
Best for Diverse selection — books, clothing, crafts, furniture, fashion, personal care, aromatherapy; celebrates both
66, Lebuh Campbell, George Town / Online
It is best known for Aesthetically pleasing stationery, notebooks, planners, art supplies, postcards, stickers, washi tape, handmade items; minimalist café at the back; workshops and unique Airbnb accommodations; bright white tones and natural lighting.
Best for Aesthetically pleasing stationery, notebooks, planners, art supplies, postcards, stickers, washi tape, handmad
145, Victoria Street, George Town / Online
The Warung sells named local-designer goods, from the Ben Journal leather journal to Lahym coasters, at its George Town, Penang shop. It also runs craft workshops like cyanotype and brush lettering sessions.
Best for Local-designer goods like the Ben Journal leather journal and NyoCup
The Warung operates from 145 Lebuh Victoria in George Town, Penang, open daily except Wednesday from 10:30am to 7pm. Its stock leans on named local-designer lines rather than generic gift-shop goods: the Ben Journal, an A6 leather journal book; the NyoCup; and the Lahym range of square coasters and name-card holders, each crediting a specific maker rather than an anonymous supplier. Beyond retail, the shop runs hands-on programming — past events include a Cyanotype Workshop and a Brush Lettering Workshop — and has used its platform for features like an International Women's Day tribute to the makers it stocks. That combination of a fixed George Town heritage-shophouse address, named local-designer product lines, and its own workshop programming is what distinguishes The Warung from a typical souvenir or lifestyle shop: the goods on its shelves are traceable to specific small makers, and the shop itself functions as a venue for craft learning, not just a point of sale. For a visitor to Penang's heritage district, it offers a stop where the coffee blends, journals, and skincare on the shelf connect back to named local designers and artists rather than wholesale stock.
Jalan Timah (Hin Bus Depot area), George Town
Wells roasts on two registers — a Japanese-style profile for sweetness and body, a Nordic-style light roast for floral, fruity notes — at its Jalan Timah roastery. Beans are graded Selected through Macro-Lot and sold as filter, espresso and wholesale.
Best for Japanese- and Nordic-style light roasts
Wells roasts on two deliberately different registers rather than one house style: a Japanese-style profile aimed at sweetness and body, and a Nordic-style light roast pulling out floral and fruity notes instead. Both come out of the same George Town roastery on Jalan Timah, near Hin Bus Depot, and both are sold as filter and espresso, with beans graded into named tiers — Selected, Distinctive, Splendid, and the top Macro-Lot designation — that signal quality level rather than roast style. The lineup rotates: named single-lot releases such as Lost Origin Don Benji Geisha and Chevas Honey Constellation Geisha sit alongside seasonal espresso blends like Peach Candy and Aka Berry. Beyond retail bags, Wells supplies wholesale accounts, effectively acting as a bean supplier to other Penang cafes as well as a roastery in its own right. The two-register approach — one roast style built for body, the other for aromatics — gives Wells a rare explicit framework for customers choosing between cups, rather than a single default roast applied across every origin. It is a specialty-coffee operation built around calibration as much as sourcing.
Neighbourhood walks
Area names come from each shop’s published address record; ORBIS does not invent neighbourhoods.
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗