Bar: Overtime - Gurney Drive, Penang

I strolled past this place on Sunday night at about 11pm after having had another fix of chicken wings at Song River. As you come out of Song River you just turn left and walk towards G Hotel and you will come to 'Over - Time' on your left.

It is a semi open-air bar with some seating outside completely uncovered, some partially covered by a shower roof and the rest inside, fully covered but with the whole place open to the front. The palm trees and which grow up through the premises create a very pleasant feel to the place, almost Caribbean in influence. An ample scattering of plants and such like, combined with the almost 'marine timber' feel of the place and the very subdued lighting go to create a very pleasant ambience. There was some good music playing and, although it was 11pm on Sunday, there were more people in here than in all of the bars in UPR put together on the Friday evening before (I can only assume it was a one-off abysmal night in UPR).

As yet I can't comment on the place fully and have no idea of the prices etc but I will certainly check it out as it was much more busy and had a better ambience than the bar called Martini which is not far away, is often mentioned as a good place to go but, on every occasion I have been past it has fell into the 'moon-base' category - empty and no atmosphere. There was good contemporary music being played at Over-Time too, loud enough to give it a semi-club like atmosphere but not too loud that you can't talk to people, the further you move away from the sound system (e.g. towards the front and the more open-air seating) the more subtle the sound got. Looks like a nice place and well worth a visit.

NB: Overtime in Gurney Drive is now closed.