The Millen, where Penang’s heritage evolves

I’m 35 floors above Northam Road — Penang’s old Millionaires’ Row — and the cars below look like toys, rushing in neat lines towards the cape of George Town as if they were speeding on a model racetrack.

Up here, on its sea-facing business spine, the Malaysian island of Penang looks slick, vertical and modern.

I see the Straits Sea’s channel, the not-so-distant cranes of Butterworth’s port, and the sharp neoclassical facade of Wawasan Open University looming like a spectre of the past lost in a jarring modernity.

It’s the perfect vantage point to understand what The Millen is trying to do.

Officially opened at the end of September, The Millen is the first Marriott Autograph Collection hotel on Penang, and only the third in Malaysia. The Autograph brief is straightforward: each property must leave a lasting, sharp impression from arrival to departure.

The Millen has decided that impression should be as fluid as water. A fountain with steel elements inspired by local Peranakan architecture stands outside — your first and last encounter — as an elegant homage to the showy fountains that the tycoons of a century past installed in front of their mansions on Northam Road.

The Millen’s location reinforces that idea: Northam Road is the original millionaire mile, where the Anglo-Chinese magnates and Malay aristocrats of British Malaya built princely seaside homes — one, empty and abandoned but sorely beautiful and regal, faces the hotel directly across the road.

Today, the island rushes to a future of development with a mushroom-like barrage of taller-than-thou condos. Still, The Millen uses that form to both look backwards and plot forwards — heritage here is the root, not a costume.

The hotel occupies floors 24-38 of the Northam Tower. That verticality is its first real advantage, as from that height, every room has stunning views, suspended between sea and the verdant backdrop of Penang Hill. My King Seaview room is generous but understated.

There are colonial cues — bedside lantern-style lamps, a tea-and-coffee station with a swanky Nespresso Vertuo machine that riffs on a Peranakan dresser — but the materials and lines are unmistakably contemporary Penang.

Think dark wood, stark white marble, and black steel-framed mirrors.

In a way, it speaks the same street lingo as modern George Town, using visual accents found in its newest galleries and bars. One doesn’t feel nostalgia, but nurtured, thoughtful heritage recreation. In the bathroom, a small detail nails this hybrid concept: a woodpecker painting by artist Frankie Lim — abstracted, almost tribal.

Even the elevator landings are scenic: as I step out to face another artwork lying above a table by a yellow-and-black old-fashioned chair, a complete panorama of Penang Hill beckons behind floor-to-ceiling glass, melting the city upwards into the jungle.

The ground-floor lobby similarly blends old-world cues with new-world focus. The easy comparison in Penang’s cluttered neo-heritage hotel scene is always to its grandest dame, the Eastern and Oriental Hotel. However, here, the colonial reference serves as an opening gesture, not the conclusion of the conversation. On the right side of the large lobby is Good Society Cafe — and I particularly love the tea nook modelled after the alcoves of wealthy Penang homes.

Black-and-white rhomboid tiles, rope-woven seats, and wooden blinds filtering the outside humidity. Coffee is sourced from one of George Town’s favourite cafe connoisseurs’ hotspots, Constant Gardener. My cappuccino is acceptable by Italian standards, but the mushroom-and-spinach quiche surprises me — the crust thick, the interior soft and melting in my mouth. They do high tea, but buffet-style, not tiered trays. Again: the inherited outline, yet kind of redrawn.

On the left side, near the lobby’s check-in desks that hint at colonial Malaya, there’s another nook where art is not garnish. Forged In Motion, an iron horse by Syrian-born and Penang-based sculptor Aboud Fares, sits in dialogue with a series of Penang watercolours by local painter Lee Eng Beng.

Up on the ninth floor, the saltwater pool and gym sit on a tight urban deck — the transparent outer pool wall will do well on social feeds. The surrounding towers of the congested Gurney Drive area loom a little too close on the left side of the deck, but at sunset, when the light shifts above the concrete, the series of colonial buildings on the right-hand side and views of the Straits Sea make the area much more chilled.

That’s when the colonial mansion beside Northam Cafe really brings the old Northam Road literally shoulder-to-shoulder with 2025.

I have dinner at Lili, the signature modern Malaysian-style restaurant on the second floor, which is also where breakfast is served. The RM188 ($69) set for two has very generous portions, and we struggle to finish.

The starter features tapioca chips with a rich and balanced sambal sauce, without being too piquant; scallops with a hint of curry, served inside traditional Chinese pie tee cups; and a marinated, roasted chilli duck breast, brightened by vegetables and the sour-sweet pomelo.

The mains are very substantial: Peranakan-inspired oxtail asam pedas, a fiery home-style hit braised for 48 hours and garnished with fresh ladies’ fingers and thick sauce. I skip the set’s standard tiger prawn because of an allergy, and instead order the crispy free-range chicken: it’s perfectly juicy, with skin that crackles, served on a bed of caramelised black sauce that makes it even more irresistible.

For those who want to try, Lili also has lunch specials at RM35 ($13) that feel designed for locals as much as for travellers.

Breakfast the next morning is a combination of half buffet and half a la carte. The signature Millionaires’ Row river prawn & crab omelette, with lobster bisque gravy, pea tendrils and sauteed mushrooms, sounds stuffy but lands very delicate. My wife has a sourdough slice with fetta, poached eggs, smashed avocado and house-made dhukka and lemon — zesty and fresh.

Before checking out, I take a look at the Nut and Meg Spa, set next to the pool on the ninth floor — it has four private rooms with bathtubs, and rattan-bamboo walls that instantly calm the pulse. Therapists use Malaysian BioEssentials and Australia’s iKOU products for their signature Penang Indulgence massage, which blends elbow, palm, and knuckle strokes — a uniquely Malaysian technique, distinct from the Balinese and Swedish massages also on offer. Treatments end with a cup of nutmeg infusion — the spice that built Penang’s fortunes two centuries ago — and it feels like the island’s history is being served as an aftertaste.

So what is The Millen?

Definitely not a cosplay heritage hotel or a boutique rebel. The colonial reference, like the staff’s uniforms, is a jumping point. The rest flows like the gloss, speed and confidence of today’s Penang.

Choose the Millen if you want a moderately central, upper-end and well-appointed designer hotel that nods at Penang’s cookie-cutter heritage formula but injects its own distinctive personality — and has a menu that won’t make you rush to George Town’s favourites.

+ Marco Ferrarese was a guest of The Millen. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.