Best Boutique Hotel in George Town, Penang!

Seven Terraces is a luxury boutique hotel located in the heart of George Town, Penang. It has been voted the best small hotel and best service hotel in Malaysia by Tripadvisor in 2015 and has the best restaurant in Malaysia as voted by TripAdvisor’s annual Traveller’s Choice awards located at the same property (restaurant review here).

So when Big Teddy insisted that he wants to go to Penang as he has never been there, I decided to spoil our stay in George Town by booking the best hotel, splurging almost RM700 a night on accommodation during our 2 nights stay in Penang. This small boutique hotel has only 18 suites designed by the award-winning hoteliers Karl Steinberg and Christopher Ong, (Winners of the 2007 UNESCO Award of Distinction for heritage conservation and regular Conde Naste Hot List nominees). They had converted a grand row of seven 19th Century Anglo-Chinese terraces, in one of Penang’s finest and most intact heritage streets, Lorong Stewart and Muntri Street, into a romantic, beautiful and timeless Peranakan-themed retreat.

Locating the hotel was a little tricky as Waze sent us to the back of the hotel/restaurant entrance and we were having the problem finding the hotel car park. I was on the phone with the front desk staff as we were driving in circles and finally, she managed to find us and hopped into our car to guide us to the front of the hotel. Apart from this initial hiccup, we were totally taken away by the charm of this hotel, from the decor and details in service. Soon after checked in and afternoon tea, I was down with severe diarrhoea (not due to the hotel’s fault) and mostly bed bound the 1st day we were there. I was glad that we have a fantastic room since I didn’t to go out much (I had to send Big Teddy away on his own for dinner on the 1st night as I just couldn’t bring myself out from the room). The room was spacious with 2 floors (a little annoying as I had to climb up the floors in between my diarrhoea episodes) but everything else was just perfect the way it was…

Four posters Chinese Bed upstairs

The balcony

The upstairs toilet

The charming living room downstairs

A huge bathroom downstairs with rain shower

I love the day bed in the living room

Afternoon tea was served by the pool and the Nyonya Kuih was delicious. I wished I had time to use the pool but probably next time when we return to Penang. The central courtyard space was the mist lovely space in the hotel as it was so tranquil and calm by just looking at it.

The afternoon tea area

The lap pool which I didn’t get to use

The poolside/ afternoon tea area

The lobby

I love the courtyard

Courtyard at night

Breakfast was served at the other end of the lobby hall and it was served from 730am – 10.30am with 9 different types of breakfast choices from local flavours (Roti Paratha, Nasi Lemak, Char Siew Bao etc) to typical western food (Eggs Benedict, pancakes, big breakfast etc). All breakfast came with chilled juice, fruit plate and coffee/tea. The char siew bao was good enough for my 1st day of breakfast after a whole night of diarrhoea but the nasi lemak was unfortunately below par as the sambal belacan was too bland and the rice was too soft and sticky. I like my nasi lemak spicy, so probably the hotel has to make it more palatable to their majority westerners patrons here.

The breakfast area

The breakfast area

The pork bun / Char Siew Bao as my 1st-day breakfast

The nasi lemak as my 2nd day breakfast

Overall, Seven Terraces was lovely to stay in George town and the hotel is quite central to all the quirky stuff right down town. The service was impeccable, and we had a good chat with the general manager, Ewan on how this hotel was conceived and some of his interesting life stories in and out of hospitality industry (he was a policeman too). Although this trip was marred by my unfortunate food poisoning, but at least we were staying at the best hotel in Penang and that was the best part of this trip.

The front of the hotel with car parks

Seven Terraces Penang Official Website: http://www.seventerraces.com/
Tripadvisor Review: https://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Hotel_Review-g298303-d3657903-Reviews-Seven_Terraces-George_Town_Penang_Island_Penang.html
Address: Lorong Stewart, 10200 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Tel:+60 4-264 2333

To check hotels’ prices in Penang, use Agoda’s link here.