Food Bayana in Penang
Lunch breaks feel like a luxury to blue-collar workers after a busy morning pegging away at the office. But having it at a huge food court with a vast variety of cuisines and robots that’ll serve you your meal? A godsend.
It’s no surprise that the opening of this new futuristic-esque food court in Penang on 2nd May 2024 has been quite the talk of the town: Food Bayana.
It’s a two-storey semi-automated food court in the Bayan Lepas FIZ Phase 4 area, with an extensive array of meal choices, phone charging stations, utensil sanitising machines, and actual robot servers that’ll deliver your orders to you.
Lunch time has never been more pleasant.
Penang’s first semi-automated food court
Fittingly located within Penang’s Free Industrial Zone – also known as the Silicon Valley of Penang – with multitudinous factories and offices surrounding the food court, the freshly opened Food Bayana has become the spot for office workers to fill their tummies up during breaktime.
The food court boasts a simple industrial interior design with exposed black railings, brick-and-concrete stairs, white benches and tables, and neutral-coloured food stalls lined sprucely throughout its broad space.
While it is an open-air food court, you won’t be sweating through your meals as the entire building has gigantic overhead fans to provide you with all the breeze you need.
There’s no dilemma of securing a seating spot during peak hours either, as the two-leveled building houses more than enough tables for patrons.
You won’t have to worry about playing teeter-totter with your meal trays by climrebing up the stairs to the second-floor seating area either, as there are escalators to help you with that.
Or better yet, leave the whole process of waiting for your orders by the stalls and carrying them back to your seats to the robots. Yes, robot servers deck the place, all ready at your service.
Once you’ve decided on your picks of food and beverage, all you’ll have to do is to scan the QR codes displayed at the specific stall you’re ordering from and send in your orders through your phone.
Your orders will be sent to the pick-up station on the 2nd floor by the robots themselves, and you’ll just have to scan the QR code at the station and collect your meals.
Over 30 food stalls with a variety of cuisines
The food selection at Food Bayana is far from meagre too. From our favourite local hawker fare to international cuisines including Western and Japanese, there’s nothing that will not satisfy your cravings here.
Trust when we say we had to make several rounds to have a good look at their offerings – that’s over 30 stalls of different cuisines – before we finally made up our minds and settled for some authentic Malaysian dishes.
Our orders were ready in no time at all. After sanitising our utensils with the sanitising machine by the food pick-up station, we were ready to dig in.
It isn’t a complete Asian meal without hearty carbs in the form of rice or noodles. So we had to get a plate of Nasi Kandar doused in a blend of various flavourful curry that amounted to RM14.50 when accompanied with succulent chicken tandoori, crunchy turmeric cabbages, and a hard-boiled egg.
There’s no better dish that screams Penang more than Asam Laksa (RM8.50), which was a smorgasbord of thick slurpy noodles, mackerel bits, sliced cucumbers, onions and mint leaves, all swimming in a thick tamarind broth.
Every spoon and slurp was a hit of sweet, sour, and savoury all at once.
If you’re not one to have a heavy lunch, opt for the simple but comforting Roti Bakar Kaya & Butter (RM4), which will fill you up enough but not have you fighting that post-lunch slumber at your office desk.
Get a cup of warm Kopi (RM2.80) alongside your toast for a match-made-in-heaven combo.
The food court also houses the third outlet of 65c Ondo Bakery Cafe in Penang, a famous bakery in Penang known for their Japanese-style pastries and cakes that make for perfect tea time snacks.
Food Bayana in Penang
Forget picking at sad cold lunches at your desk. Head over to Food Bayana for an experience of an eating break that you very much deserve.
Do note that Food Bayana is a cashless-payment food centre, and only accepts e-Wallet payments.
Address: No.23B, Medan Bayan Lepas, Taman Perindustrian Bayan Lepas Fasa 4 Bayan Lepas, 11900 Penang
Opening hours: Mon – Sat 10am-9pm (Closed on Sundays)
Contact: Food Bayana’s Instagram
For more food features, here’s Dream Burger, muslim-friendly burger joint with made-to-order burgers and ice cream cafes in Penang that’ll quell your cold cravings.
Photography by Jia-Ju.
Cover image adapted from: The Smart Local Malaysia