Penang Hawker Price Index 2026
We priced 20 iconic hawker dishes. 40% of the basket is still under RM5 — and 90% under RM10.
How much do Penang hawker dishes cost in 2026?
In our 2026 baseline of 20 iconic dishes, the typical dish costs about RM6. 18 of 20 dishes (90%) are under RM10 and 8 (40%) are under RM5. Cheapest: Roti Canai (plain) (~RM2). These are VisitPenang's own dated observations, sampled June 2026.
2026 baseline. This is the first edition of the index, so there is no “prices rose X%” figure yet — a year-over-year change needs a second dated sampling of the same basket. We have not invented a prior-year number to manufacture a headline. The affordability benchmarks below are the honest story for now; the year-over-year reading arrives with the next edition.
“Is Penang still cheap to eat?” is one of the most asked questions about the island. To answer it with something concrete, we fixed a basket of 20 iconic hawker dishes and recorded the typical price of each at named George Town and Air Itam hawker locations. This page is the 2026 baseline: the dish-level numbers, two affordability benchmarks, the method behind them, and a free download of the whole dataset.
All prices are in Malaysian Ringgit (RM) and reflect typical hawker (not restaurant) portions, sampled June 2026. They are VisitPenang's own observations — not official statistics. Prices vary by stall, portion, and add-ons.
Affordability Benchmarks
of the basket is still under RM5
8 of 20 dishes have a typical price below RM5 — the snacks, desserts, and drinks that keep a Penang food day genuinely cheap.
of the basket is under RM10
18 of 20 dishes come in under RM10 — meaning most of Penang's greatest hits remain a single-note meal.
The 2026 Basket
Download CSV| Dish | Where We Sampled | Typical Price | Midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noodles | |||
| Char Kway Teow | Kimberly St, Lorong Selamat, Siam Rd | RM 7–10 | RM8.5 |
| Assam Laksa | Air Itam Market, Joo Hooi Cafe | RM 6–8 | RM7 |
| Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodle) | Joo Hooi Cafe, Lebuh Presgrave | RM 7–10 | RM8.5 |
| Curry Mee | Chulia St, Lorong Selamat | RM 6–9 | RM7.5 |
| Wanton Mee | New Lane, hawker centres | RM 6–8 | RM7 |
| Char Koay Kak | New Lane Hawker Centre | RM 5–7 | RM6 |
| Rice | |||
| Nasi Kandar | Line Clear, Beratur, Hameediyah | RM 8–15 | RM11.5 |
| Nasi Lemak (basic) | Morning stalls, Gurney Drive | RM 3–6 | RM4.5 |
| Economy Rice (Chap Fan) | Any hawker centre or kopitiam | RM 6–12 | RM9 |
| Duck Rice | New Lane, Kimberly St | RM 8–12 | RM10 |
| Snacks | |||
| Roti Canai (plain) | Chulia St, mamak stalls | RM 1.50–2.50 | RM2 |
| Popiah (per roll) | New Lane, Kimberly St | RM 2.50–4 | RM3.3 |
| Rojak (fruit) | Gurney Drive, Padang Brown | RM 5–8 | RM6.5 |
| Pasembur | Gurney Drive, Esplanade | RM 6–10 | RM8 |
| Chee Cheong Fun | Morning market stalls | RM 3–5 | RM4 |
| Otak-Otak (per piece) | Gurney Drive, night markets | RM 1.50–3 | RM2.3 |
| Desserts | |||
| Cendol | Penang Road Teochew Chendul | RM 3.50–5 | RM4.3 |
| Ais Kacang (ABC) | Hawker centres | RM 4–7 | RM5.5 |
| Drinks | |||
| Teh Tarik | Any mamak stall or kopitiam | RM 1.80–3 | RM2.4 |
| Kopi Penang (with milk) | Traditional kopitiams | RM 2–3.50 | RM2.8 |
| Basket total (20 dishes) | RM120.6 | ||
Char Kway Teow
RM 7–10Kimberly St, Lorong Selamat, Siam Rd
Typical midpoint: RM8.5 · noodles
Assam Laksa
RM 6–8Air Itam Market, Joo Hooi Cafe
Typical midpoint: RM7 · noodles
Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodle)
RM 7–10Joo Hooi Cafe, Lebuh Presgrave
Typical midpoint: RM8.5 · noodles
Curry Mee
RM 6–9Chulia St, Lorong Selamat
Typical midpoint: RM7.5 · noodles
Wanton Mee
RM 6–8New Lane, hawker centres
Typical midpoint: RM7 · noodles
Char Koay Kak
RM 5–7New Lane Hawker Centre
Typical midpoint: RM6 · noodles
Nasi Kandar
RM 8–15Line Clear, Beratur, Hameediyah
Typical midpoint: RM11.5 · rice
Nasi Lemak (basic)
RM 3–6Morning stalls, Gurney Drive
Typical midpoint: RM4.5 · rice
Economy Rice (Chap Fan)
RM 6–12Any hawker centre or kopitiam
Typical midpoint: RM9 · rice
Duck Rice
RM 8–12New Lane, Kimberly St
Typical midpoint: RM10 · rice
Roti Canai (plain)
RM 1.50–2.50Chulia St, mamak stalls
Typical midpoint: RM2 · snacks
Popiah (per roll)
RM 2.50–4New Lane, Kimberly St
Typical midpoint: RM3.3 · snacks
Rojak (fruit)
RM 5–8Gurney Drive, Padang Brown
Typical midpoint: RM6.5 · snacks
Pasembur
RM 6–10Gurney Drive, Esplanade
Typical midpoint: RM8 · snacks
Chee Cheong Fun
RM 3–5Morning market stalls
Typical midpoint: RM4 · snacks
Cendol
RM 3.50–5Penang Road Teochew Chendul
Typical midpoint: RM4.3 · desserts
Ais Kacang (ABC)
RM 4–7Hawker centres
Typical midpoint: RM5.5 · desserts
Otak-Otak (per piece)
RM 1.50–3Gurney Drive, night markets
Typical midpoint: RM2.3 · snacks
Teh Tarik
RM 1.80–3Any mamak stall or kopitiam
Typical midpoint: RM2.4 · drinks
Kopi Penang (with milk)
RM 2–3.50Traditional kopitiams
Typical midpoint: RM2.8 · drinks
“Typical price” is the hawker price band we observed; “midpoint” is the middle of that band, used for the benchmark counts. Figures are VisitPenang's own observations, sampled June 2026.
How We Built the Index
A fixed basket
20 iconic Penang hawker dishes, chosen for their status as island classics and their presence across multiple hawker centres. The basket is frozen so it can be compared like-for-like in future years.
A typical price per dish
For each dish we record the typical hawker price band, then take its midpoint as the "typical price". Bands come from our own pricing data gathered at the named locations below (sampled June 2026).
Equal weighting
Every dish counts equally in the basket. Equal weighting is the most transparent and the easiest to explain — no dish is quietly given more influence than another.
Affordability benchmarks
We count how many dishes have a typical price under RM5 and under RM10, then express each as a share of the whole basket — the questions visitors actually ask.
Where the prices come from
The basket is anchored to these named George Town and Air Itam hawker locations — the same places we point visitors to across the rest of the site:
How This Sits Next to Official Inflation Data
Our basket is a dish-level companion to Malaysia's official figures, not a replacement for them. The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) publishes the Consumer Price Index, including a “food away from home” sub-index and a Penang-state CPI. Those are the authoritative measures of inflation; what we add is the concrete, plate-level number a visitor actually feels — what a bowl of laksa or a plate of char kway teow costs today.
Because 2026 is our baseline, we are not yet putting our basket's change side-by-side with the official year-over-year rate — that comparison becomes meaningful only once we have a second sampling to measure our own change against.
Official inflation data: OpenDOSM Consumer Prices dashboard and data.gov.my Monthly CPI by State. Attribution to official sources is shown here as a trust signal, not as the source of our basket prices.
Explore More Penang Food Guides
Food Price Guide 2026
Stall-by-stall prices for 30 dishes plus a daily budget breakdown
Hawker Centre Floor Plans
Stall maps for Gurney Drive, New Lane, Red Garden, and Cecil Street
Best Stall Showdowns
Five iconic dishes, ranked stall-by-stall — where to eat each one
Budget Food Crawl
What you can eat in Penang on RM20, RM50, or RM100
All Food Spots
Browse every restaurant, hawker centre, and kopitiam in Penang
Dish Guide
Every iconic Penang dish explained, with where to find it
Penang Hawker Price Index FAQs
Is Penang still cheap to eat in 2026?
Yes. In our 2026 basket of 20 iconic hawker dishes, 18 of them (90%) have a typical price under RM10, and 8 (40%) are under RM5. The cheapest is Roti Canai (plain) at about RM2; the priciest classic is Nasi Kandar at about RM11.5. A full hawker meal with a drink still typically lands under RM20.
How is the Penang Hawker Price Index calculated?
We fix a basket of 20 iconic dishes, record a typical hawker price band for each at named George Town and Air Itam locations, take the midpoint of each band as the dish's typical price, and weight every dish equally. We then count how many dishes fall under RM5 and under RM10. The full method and the underlying figures are published on this page and in the downloadable CSV.
Why is there no "prices rose X%" figure this year?
Because 2026 is the baseline. A year-over-year percentage needs at least two dated samplings of the same basket, and this is the first. We have chosen not to invent a prior-year number to manufacture a headline — the year-over-year change becomes available the next time we re-sample the basket. For now, the affordability benchmarks (share under RM5 and under RM10) are the honest headline.
Are these official statistics?
No. These are VisitPenang's own dated observations of typical hawker prices at named locations — not official figures. For official inflation, Malaysia's Department of Statistics (DOSM) publishes the Consumer Price Index, including a "food away from home" sub-index and a Penang-state CPI. Our basket is a dish-level companion to those official numbers, not a replacement for them.
Can I reuse this data?
Yes — download the CSV from this page. If you cite the figures, please attribute them to VisitPenang (visitpenang.com) and note the sampling window (sampled June 2026). The dataset is published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.
Which dishes are in the basket — and which were left out?
The basket holds 20 iconic dishes spanning noodles, rice, snacks, desserts, and drinks. We deliberately left out a few classics (such as apom and lor bak) where we did not yet have our own dated price on record — we would rather a smaller, fully-sourced basket than pad it with guesses. Those dishes can be added once we have priced them at the named stalls.