If you have watched Hong Kong TVB drama Outbound Love 单恋双城, you will know this hotel then. I watched this drama but I didn't know it was 23 Love Lane and I thought it was part of the Lone Pine Hotel.

I browsed through tripadvisor and found this hotel with good reputation. The more I read about this hotel, the more I find it familiar and I realized this is the boutique hotel featured in Outbound Love.


The garden in between hotel main building and in house restaurant


Lobby


Sitting area outside of Straits Eclectic Building room.


Location

It's centrally located in George Town, close to many major attractions, eateries and night market.

Red Garden hawker: 5 - 10 mins walk
Chulia Street (Lebuh Chulia) hawker food: 5 mins walk
Penang Road (Jalan Penang) street food: 15 mins walk
Teksen Restaurant @ Carnarvon street (Lebuh Carnavon): 10 mins walk
Kimberley street food: 15 mins walk
Penang street art: 5 - 20 mins walk

Bathroom. It is nice to have a dressing corner for ladies in bathroom. L'Occitane shower foam, shampoo and conditioner were provided and replaced daily.


Sitting area outside of our room entrance.


We had breakfast at the restaurant beside hotel. It's like those old style coffee house.


Breakfast selection is limited but it's good enough for me. They serve various fruits such as kiwi, strawberry, plum, pineapple. They offer us 2 kind of breakfast - western or local style (roti canai).



It's delicious but kinda oily.


Overall

It was a good experience staying in 23 Love Lane hotel. If you do not have budget constrains, this will be a great choice. Highly recommended!

Tips

Don't take the Grand Anglo Indian room facing Love Lane. Remember to get a copy of map with street art location. If not, this Penang street art map might be helpful to you.

Penang street food is one of the reasons which attracts millions of tourists visiting this beautiful island every year. It is certainly a food paradise. The more well known dishes are char kway teow, chendol, white curry, lor mee, asam laksa, popiah, lok lok and many many more!

If you are heading to Penang soon and your purpose is food, my advice to you - hire a driver or rent a car. Many places outside of George Town are worth to visit, it would be difficult for you to move around if you do not have transportation. You can hire taxi but taxi fare is not cheap in Penang. Most taxis do not use meter. You need to inquire charge before boarding.  A 18 km journey can cost more than RM40 and 4 km ride range between RM15 - RM20 within George Town.

Here is the list of food which I tried during my 3D2N trip.

1. Penang Road, Lebuh Keng Kwee

Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul




This is probably the most famous chendol in Penang. Even Mediacorp actor Gurmit Singh also visited this stall. You can find 2 stalls there, this is the one you will always see long queue there. Seriously I don't find their chendol different from other stalls, their chendol taste bland and lacking the flavor of gula melaka, not sweet enough to call it dessert. In fact, opposite stall chendol is better and stronger gula melaka taste.



You can stand there and enjoy your chendol beside this famous stall. You can also order your chendol from this famous stall and have it in the "green house" (a small green colour shop with many tables inside) beside this stall with additional 50 cents.

Price: RM 2.30
Address: Lebuh Keng Kwee, beside Joo Hooi cafe
Opening hours: 10am - 7pm


With RM 4.00, you can get a bowl of nice asam laksa from the stall in front of "green house".


If your stomach still have space for another famous Penang food, char kway teow, you can order it from the char kway teow stall at Joo Hooi cafe at RM5.50, just beside the famous chendol stall. I waited 30 mins at "green house" for my char kway teow, and self service, they won't deliver to you. Many other patrons are also waiting for their kway teow at Joo Hooi cafe. If you can't wait, you can skip this stall. It's not worth your 30 mins.


2. Armenian Street Heritage Hotel

I didn't get to enjoy good weather in Penang. It rained cats and dogs consecutive 3 days. We wanted to go Kimberley Road for dinner but the rain really pulled us off. We were hungry and we could only made our way to the cafe beside Armenian Street Heritage Hotel under heavy rain.

We ordered spicy prawn noodle (aka Hokkien mee) and curry prawn noodle. Both soup were superb! You can tell that the soup base must have been cooked for long hours. We were lucky to find this little gem. There were 2 prawns in each bowl, however the prawns were not fresh.



We also ordered one of their tofu pudding with brown sugar. They said this is traditional way of eating tofu pudding.




3. Gurney Drive

Bali Hai dim sum @ Gurney Drive

Dim sum is always my favorite breakfast. This place was recommended by my friend who visit Penang frequently. Bali Hai is not just famous among tourists but also among local crowd. Dim sum is served until 1pm every day and seafood will be served in the late afternoon. We took taxi from George Town and took us 15 mins to here, taxi fare RM 20 one way.



Just find a table when you get there, someone will take your drinks order and pass you a white card. Bring the white card along with you when you pick up your choice of dim sum from front counter.

We spent total RM60+ in Bali Hai.




4. Prangin Mall 

After sumptuous breakfast at Bali Hai, we went shopping at Prangin Mall. We need to walk a bit to burn some calorie so we can eat more later.

Green tea ice floss in one of the dessert shop, Little Oasis, in Prangin Mall.


Price: Rm 8.60
Address: Little Oasis, 33-03-35 Prangin Mall Jalan Dr. Lm Chwee Leong


5. Gerai Gerai Padang Brown hawker centre