Has much charm and a nice feel. Service lacked in some areas. In 1855 which is billed as a fine dining restaurant their was little fine dining training. Not knowing the difference between sparkling and tap water a little alarming. Fine dining menus are normally accompanied by fine wine....alas not. 5 star hotels need to ensure their staff understand way they are there. We did not let this affect our stay which was good but it should have been special. The service in 1885 was friendly but so inexperienced.

My wife and I together with my son, daughter-in-law & 6 year old granddaughter visited this hotel for 4 nights from 25th February. Having read the reviews we were ready for the "Old World" feel of the hotel and we were made to feel very welcome on our arrival. The current hotel( they are adding a larges number of rooms in the next month or so) consists of all suites in the traditional colonial style (modern materials-a lot of plastic!!) Our suites were large and sea & pool facing with lovely outlooks - we could easily see the towels on the sunbeds before 8am - nothing changes does it?). The staff generally were very polite and friendly and ready to help and we were escorted to our suite by a charming young man who explained some of the history of the hotel.
Whilst the A/c in the room was fine and easily adjustable that in the public areas was definately arctic and remained so all the time we were there, a covering up was need each time we left the room.
As it was our first night and we arrived in the evening we decided to eat in the corner restaurant adjacent to the bar. One other couple were inside but the place looked like an empty fish restaurant on a wet Sunday. It was devoid of any character but without at that stage realising we could eat outside we sat down. There were three staff in the room - nobody approached us, welcomed us - we were ignored completely. Then we realised we could sit outside so we moved- past the waiters & manager type- again ignored- found our own table and althoughstaff came out to bring orders to othe couples completely ignored us for at least 10 minutes until we went and requested service We observed another couple who arrived after us and they received the same treatment. Service was then forthcoming but so slowly that it took an hour plus for our main course to arrive after a starter. No apologies or explanation given but we did determine that there was another function on elsewhwere. Unforunately this set the tone for our appreciation of the hotel and although we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Penang, if I went again I would not stay in the E&O. We did enjoy the breakfasts which were excellent with plenty of choice and a good standard. The hotel is too full of it's own importance and it seemd to us that they went out of there way to favour some guests above others. For a very expensive stay i am afraid we all came away a little disappointed.

I stayed at the E&O when they first opened and was blown away by their cozy colonial elegance and classy opulence. I was keen to go back again and after many years, we found time to go. It was my husband's first time staying there and was looking forward to it after hearing about my memorable stay. Boy, were we disappointed!

We booked into their Georgetown Suite (#335), which was huge in size with a separate living room and dining area, bedroom, walk-in closet (a room in itself!) and a big bathroom. But it being so large, there did not seem to be enough furniture or interior furnishings to fill up the space! What furniture there were were tacky and cheap, much like a 3-star hotel's furnishing. Lighting was not sufficient for such a size, so parts of our suite were shroud in creepy darkness. The bed was also big but hard, and the pillows were much too soft and thin. The airconditioning was also arctic no matter how you adjusted it.

What irked us most was the noise - we had our baby with us and were assured that our suite which faces the city/main road would not be noisy as their latest refurbishment included double-glazed windows. This is NOT true - we heard every music beat playing from opposite bars, every car driving/horning by and each motorcycle rattling pass. We were also unfortunate enough to have the noisiest water pump in the planet above our suite, which clanked, hissed and sighed throughout the day and night. Our baby kept waking up throughout the night, as did we.

We were informed that breakfast would be served till 11am, but by 10.30am the food were not replenished and they began to start clearing the buffet trays away. That said, we enjoyed their freshly fried noodles and roti canai; and the buffet spread was good.

Service on the whole was acceptable but not particularly notable. You would expect staying at such a beautiful hotel paying these prices that your stay would be the most memorable one... But we beg to differ.

We stayed here for 4 nights in beautiful suite rooms. Location is also fairly good. However, the whole time we were there we had shocking service. On the first night we had dinner in Sarkies restaurant which is more akin to a school canteen. There were 8 occupied tables and 4 wait staff. We were not shown to a table, totally ignored and ended up getting our own menu. We waited 45 mins for food despite constant reminders. For 3 days they had no chicken satays on the lunch menu- an Asian staple food! One day we wanted to get a taxi and I asked one of the door ladies to help and she told me to go on the street and wave it down myself. Not a big deal but at this standard of hotel you would expect more. The pool area in the day time felt more like a care home. We were the only people with a young child and even though she is fairly quiet I felt like we were being looked at. There are several long term British guests and it felt like there was a hierarchy of clientele. The manager only spoke to the 'regulars'. There is some work going on the shore so one morning we were having breakfast on the terrace accompanied by the sound and diesel smell of the digger. Breakfast is good and the wait staff were very attentive. Over rated over priced. Would definitely not recommend this for families and I wouldn't stay here again unless the rates were halved.