Astaka Kota Selera is the hawker court on the Padang Kota Lama grass at 1 Lebuh Light, hard against Fort Cornwallis. myPenang lists Monday to Saturday, 11.00am to 8.00pm. Sunday is closed. That last line still catches people who walk over from the Esplanade with a Sunday appetite and find the shutters down.
The court came back on 2 June 2025 because the old Esplanade food court had to be taken apart. Fort Cornwallis needed its western moat put back on the historic line, so the stalls moved west. PAM named the new hall Building of the Year 2026 and gave it Gold in Commercial Low-Rise. EA Architects designed it for Chief Minister Incorporated. The build ran about RM3.35 million. All 26 stallholders returned. There is seating for 224, a surau, toilets, and a green roof from Think City's Penang Nature-Based Climate Adaptation work. From the air that roof is a flat lawn beside the padang. From a table it is still a hot lunch hall. Sit toward the open sides.
What to order before the lunch rush
Hameed Pata Mee Sotong is the stall people name first. Thick sweet-spicy gravy, yellow noodles, squid. Fried or mee rebus. SmartDory ate here in the first weeks back and said arrive around 11.30am if you want it before the office queue. Bring cash. Most stalls were not on card then.
The rest of a useful tray, from the same visit and from the names on the shutters:
- Pasembur. Prawn fritters, tofu, potato, sweet peanut sauce. Share it.
- Lim Western and Hainanese. Panko prawn fritters, Hailam noodles, chicken chop. The Lim family still works the lunch crush.
- Nasi ayam Hainan and Ethihad bawal goreng if you want rice and a fried pomfret set with fish curry.
- Cahaya Bulan for ikan keli and fried chicken. Fine in a hurry, heavy if you already ordered mee sotong.
- Jalil ais kacang and coconut shake. Then kopi O.
Jalil Shahul Hameed has sold ais kacang on this padang for 45 years. Buletin Mutiara found him in the first week of the new hall. He said he opens at 11am and stays until 9pm, with the crush at midday and late afternoon. He liked the open plan and asked for more fans. myPenang still stops the court at 8.00pm. Plan on 8.
Eat, then walk the water that was a car park
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim opened Fort Cornwallis on 25 July 2026. The public day was 26 July. Think City, the George Town Conservation and Development Corporation, MBPP, and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture spent a decade on the North Seafront. This court is one piece of that work, with the Esplanade seawall, Lebuh Light promenade, and the lawn. Malay signs on the fort still say Kota Cornwallis.
The southern and western moats hold water for the first time in more than a century. They were filled during a malaria outbreak in the early 1920s. AKDN says more than 4,000 square metres of water and green edge now sit where surface parking used to be. Ten interpretation galleries are in the restored vaulted storerooms. You can eat, cross the lawn, and look at the reason the old court had to move.
Free admission ended on 31 August 2026. Do not plan on a free walk in November. Visit Penang currently lists RM5 for a Malaysian adult and RM2 for a child, RM20 for a foreign adult and RM10 for a foreign child, daily 9am to 6pm. Older blogs still quote other figures. Pay at the counter.
Astaka opens at 11. The fort is listed until 6. An early lunch, then the walls, is the loop that actually fits. If you are in town for George Town Literary Festival from 27 to 29 November, both festival buildings sit on Lebuh Pantai, a short walk south. This is the civic-centre lunch, not the Chulia night circuit. We already covered the festival programme.
Sunday, and the other court on the lawn
Sunday the Astaka shutters stay down. The fort stays open. Medan Renong is a separate Esplanade food court on the same padang, not this building. If you want evening pasembur on a Sunday, that is the other queue. Do not mix the two on a map pin.
Walk from Pengkalan Weld north along the waterfront, or from Komtar down Lebuh Light. The Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower is the corner landmark. No air-con. Cash still wins.
Practical details
- Astaka Kota Selera. 1, Lebuh Light, 10200 George Town. Monday to Saturday 11.00am to 8.00pm. Sunday closed. 26 stalls.
- Fort Cornwallis. Jalan Tun Syed Barakbah. Visit Penang lists daily 9am to 6pm. Paid from 1 September 2026.
- Court listing: myPenang, Astaka Kota Selera
- Fort programme: Think City, North Seafront