Fatty Loh Chicken Rice

The story

Fatty Loh Chicken Rice – Michelin-Recommended Hainanese Chicken Rice in Tanjung Tokong, Penang

Since 1969, Fatty Loh Chicken Rice has been a quiet pillar of Penang's Hainanese chicken rice tradition. What began as a wooden stall on Jalan Tanjong Tokong is now a beloved dining room in Tanjung Bungah, where antique cabinets, vintage signage, and time-softened wood set the scene. Three generations of the Loh family have carried the same recipe forward, earning a place among the Michelin Selected restaurants in Malaysia.

The kitchen is anchored by an Apollo oven – a relic of the 1960s that still produces the restaurant's signature honey-glazed barbeque pork. The char siu arrives blistered at the edges and juicy at the heart. But the star remains the Hainanese chicken: poached to silken tenderness, served with a ginger-scallion sauce that has not changed in decades. Alongside, you will find slow-braised vinegar pork trotters – a southern Chinese classic cooked with black vinegar, old ginger, and palm sugar – and a rotating selection of Nyonya-influenced sides that reflect the family's heritage.

The atmosphere is understated and personal. There are no frills, only the quiet confidence of a kitchen that has been doing the same thing well for over half a century. The curio cabinets and vintage signage tell the story; the chicken does the rest. This is Hainanese chicken rice as it should be: honest, deeply flavoured, and served in a room that feels like a living museum of George Town's culinary past.

Michelin's recognition of Fatty Loh Chicken Rice underscores what regulars have known for decades: that this is one of the finest examples of the dish in Penang. The restaurant remains open daily from 9:30am to 5:00pm, drawing both locals and travellers who come for the rice, the chicken, and the quiet charm of a family tradition that shows no sign of fading.