Green House Prawn Mee & Loh Mee (223 Jalan Burma)

Where Jalan Burma's Morning Queue Tells You Everything

On Jalan Burma, one of George Town's longer arterial roads, the pavement outside certain coffee shops communicates volume and loyalty before a single dish arrives. The crowd at Green House — at number 133A, not to be confused with other addresses on the same stretch — forms early, and it forms with regularity. This is the kind of street food operation that does not need a sign beyond its own reputation: over thirty years of service on the same road, in the same format, with the same two foundational bowls that have defined its identity across generations of Penang residents and, more recently, two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards in 2024 and 2025.

George Town's street food record within the Michelin framework is instructive context here. The Bib Gourmand designation marks quality cooking at a price point below the star tiers, and in Penang it has landed repeatedly on hawker operations where technique and consistency, not theatrics, drive the verdict. Green House sits in that cluster alongside other Jalan Burma and heritage-district regulars who have absorbed the recognition without materially changing their format. The 3.8 Google rating across nearly 2,000 reviews reflects the honest trade-off at high-volume hawker stalls: the food is the draw, the setting is functional, and not every visit at peak hour will feel frictionless.

The Architecture of the Broth

Penang Hokkien prawn mee, or hae mee, belongs to a category of noodle soups defined almost entirely by their stock. Unlike broth-forward styles that rely on a single protein base, the Hokkien prawn mee tradition layers pork bones and prawn shells through extended cooking, producing a bisque-adjacent liquid that carries both marine sweetness and deeper, rounder body from the pork. The colour runs orange-red, the intensity varies by kitchen, and the difference between a technically sound bowl and a memorable one comes down to how long and how carefully the base was built.

At Green House, the red prawn soup is described in the venue's own record as carrying deep umami , a claim that, given the Bib Gourmand confirmation, sits on firmer ground than press release language would suggest. The broth is the meal's first movement, and it sets the terms for what follows. Where comparable operations in Singapore , such as 545 Whampoa Prawn Noodles or Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle , have also attracted Michelin attention for pork-and-prawn noodle formats, the Penang version carries its own regional signature: more prawn-forward, often richer in colour, and frequently served with yellow noodles and rice vermicelli rather than the flat kway teow that dominates further south.

Two Bowls, Twelve Extensions

The ordering logic at Green House is not complicated, but it rewards a considered approach. The two anchors are the Hokkien prawn mee and the loh mee, or you can request a combination of both. Loh mee is a thicker, starch-thickened broth , darker, more viscous, with vinegar sometimes added at the table , and it occupies a different register entirely from the clear prawn-pork stock. Ordering both in a single bowl gives you a study in contrast: the clean, high-note prawn character against the dense, slightly sour base of the loh mee component.

Beyond the base, twelve additional toppings are available. In hawker terms, that is a meaningful number. It implies the kitchen has enough throughput to keep protein and garnish components consistently fresh across a service, and it gives a returning regular enough variation to approach the bowl differently on each visit. The specific toppings are not listed in available data, but at operations of this type in Penang, the range typically includes prawns, pork slices, pork intestine, fish cake, hard-boiled egg, and kangkung. Choose according to preference and proceed accordingly.

The meal's progression here is less a tasting menu arc and more a single-bowl study in calibration. The broth temperature, the noodle texture at different points through the eating, the way additional toppings shift the flavour balance: these are the variables a regular learns over time, and they explain why this kind of operation accumulates thirty-year loyalty rather than seasonal interest. For comparable hawker depth in George Town, 888 Hokkien Mee on Lebuh Presgrave and Ah Boy Koay Teow Th'ng represent different noodle traditions within the same price tier.

Placing Green House in George Town's Hawker Map

Jalan Burma runs north from the heritage core of George Town toward the Pulau Tikus neighbourhood, passing a concentration of older coffee shops and food stalls that have survived the wave of café openings and tourist-facing redevelopment in the inner city. Green House's address at 133A puts it within this stretch, away from the highest foot-traffic tourist zones but accessible enough that it appears regularly on Penang food itineraries.

The broader George Town street food field in the Michelin framework includes operations across multiple disciplines: curry mee at Air Itam Sister Curry Mee, duck rice at Air Itam Duck Rice, nasi lemak at Ali Nasi Lemak Daun Pisang. What connects these operations is consistency over years, not months, and a product that is defined by technique rather than concept. Green House fits the same pattern. For a different register entirely , the sit-down Peranakan end of George Town's dining spectrum , Auntie Gaik Lean's holds a Michelin star and operates in an adjacent culinary tradition. And for those mapping Malaysian dining more broadly, Dewakan in Kuala Lumpur represents what the contemporary fine dining end of the same national food culture looks like when it scales upward. Explore the full picture through our full George Town restaurants guide, or branch into hotels, bars, and experiences across the city.

Planning Your Visit

Green House is a cash-and-counter hawker operation in the single-dollar price tier, which means the calculus around timing matters more than booking. No reservations are taken at stalls of this type. Arriving early in the morning service gives you the broth at its freshest and avoids the queue that builds through the mid-morning peak. Hours are not confirmed in available data, but Hokkien prawn mee operations in Penang typically run from early morning through late morning or early afternoon, closing once the day's stock is exhausted. The address is 133A Jalan Burma, George Town, 10050 Penang. For context on comparable street food recognition across the region, A Noodle Story in Singapore and 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee both sit in the Michelin-recognised hawker tier and offer useful reference points for what the award means at this price level across Southeast Asia.