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Work with us

Hot, loud, early, and worth it

We have been cooking on this road since 1984, and almost everyone in the kitchen came in knowing nothing and learned it here. If you are willing to start early, keep a clean station and take a correction without sulking, there is usually a place for you.

See the 6 roles
A young cook fanning the coals with a woven fan over a long charcoal grill packed with satay skewers, a colleague turning them at the far end of an open-air stall.

What the job is actually like

Before you apply, read this part. We would rather you know now than find out in week two.

  • Two meals a shift

    Eaten at the staff table at the back, out of the same pots the guests are served from. Nobody here eats worse than a customer.

  • Prayer breaks are built in

    There is a surau on site with wudhu facilities, and the kitchen closes between 12:45pm and 2:45pm on Fridays for Solat Jumaat. It is not a favour you have to ask for.

  • Paid properly

    EPF, SOCSO and EIS from day one. Overtime at the statutory rate, on the payslip, not settled in free food. Rest days and public holidays as the Employment Act 1955 sets them out.

  • You will be taught

    Chef Azmi runs the kitchen training himself. Every new starter also sits through a halal handling briefing in the first week, whichever section they are on.

  • Uniform on us

    Shirt, apron and cap provided and laundered here. Bring closed-toe shoes you can stand in for eight hours.

  • A bonus before Raya

    Paid in the week before Aidilfitri, sized by the year the warung has had and how long you have been with us.

The hard parts, said out loud

  • The kitchen is hot and the grill is hotter. In April it is genuinely uncomfortable.
  • Weekends and public holidays are our busiest trade, so those are the days we need you most. If you need every Saturday off, this is not the job.
  • The week before Hari Raya is the hardest of the year. The only days the warung fully closes are the first two of Aidilfitri and the first two of Aidiladha.
  • Pak Din still tastes the sambal before service and he will send it back. It is not personal, and it has not changed in forty years.

Roles we hire for

Pay is stated as a monthly range for full-time roles and an hourly rate for part-time, before overtime and before the tip share. Everyone is on EPF, SOCSO and EIS from the first day — we do not do cash-in-hand arrangements.

Kitchen Assistant

Pembantu Dapur · Full time

Pay
RM 1,700 – RM 2,000 a month
Shift
6:30am – 3:30pm or 2:00pm – 11:00pm, six days a week

The job the whole kitchen leans on. You prep, you wash, you keep the cold room in order, and you learn the rempah by grinding it every morning for a year.

The work

  • Peel, slice and portion for the day's gravies before service opens
  • Grind rempah on the batu giling for the small batches, on the machine for the rest
  • Keep the cold room labelled, rotated and swept
  • Portion sambal, kerisik and kuah kacang into service tubs
  • Close down the section, scrub it, and hand it over clean

Who we are looking for

No experience needed. We need someone who turns up on time, handles a knife carefully, and does not walk past a mess.

Cook — Rice & Gravies

Tukang Masak · Full time

Pay
RM 2,400 – RM 3,200 a month
Shift
6:00am – 3:00pm, six days a week, rotating rest day

You run the line that most of the menu comes off: nasi lemak, the gulai and kari pots, the wok dishes and the day's ikan.

The work

  • Cook the coconut rice, the gulai, the kari and the sayur to the recipes as written
  • Hold four gravies at the right heat through a lunch rush without letting one break
  • Taste, adjust and sign off every pot before it goes on the pass
  • Order your own section's mise en place and cut the waste
  • Show a new kitchen assistant how it is done, patiently, more than once

Who we are looking for

Two years or more in a Malay, Thai or Indian-Muslim kitchen. You should be able to tell when a rempah is done by the smell, not the clock.

Grill & Satay

Tukang Satay · Full time, evenings

Pay
RM 2,200 – RM 2,800 a month
Shift
3:00pm – 11:30pm, Wednesday to Sunday

Coconut-shell charcoal, six hours of turning, and a queue that can see you the whole time. Hafiz will teach you the grill; he learned it from his grandfather.

The work

  • Light and bank the charcoal so it is ready before the first order
  • Skewer, marinate and grill satay, ikan bakar, ayam percik and sotong
  • Keep the kuah kacang moving and at the right thickness all night
  • Work the grill through Friday and Saturday peaks without losing the order sequence
  • Break the grill down, clean it and set tomorrow's charcoal

Who we are looking for

Grill experience helps but is not essential. Heat tolerance, a steady hand and a good memory for order numbers matter more.

Service Crew

Krew Hidangan · Full time

Pay
RM 1,700 – RM 2,000 a month, plus an equal share of the tip box
Shift
Split across an opening or closing shift, six days a week

You are the warung to most guests. Taking orders, running food, clearing, working the counter and handing GrabFood and foodpanda riders the right bag.

The work

  • Take and enter orders accurately, including the kurang pedas and tanpa cili notes
  • Carry hot plates safely through a full room
  • Answer the counter phone and take reservations and takeaway orders
  • Match rider pickups to the correct sealed order and check the tamper tag
  • Reset and wipe down tables between covers, and set the room before service

Who we are looking for

Confident Malay and enough English for visitors. Hokkien or Mandarin is genuinely useful in this part of Seberang Perai. Patience on a Saturday night is the real requirement.

Weekend Service Crew

Krew Hujung Minggu · Part time

Pay
RM 10 an hour, plus a share of the tip box
Shift
Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday, minimum two shifts a week

Our busiest hours, covered by students and anyone holding down a weekday job. Several of our full-timers started here.

The work

  • Run food and clear tables through the weekend peaks
  • Restock cutlery, drinks and condiments between rushes
  • Help set up the covered deck for large group bookings

Who we are looking for

Sixteen and over. No experience needed. Tell us the shifts you can actually keep, not the ones you hope to.

Steward

Pencuci Pinggan · Part time, evenings

Pay
RM 9 an hour
Shift
5:00pm – 11:00pm, four or five evenings a week

Unglamorous and completely essential. Nothing leaves the pass if the plates are not back.

The work

  • Wash, rack and return crockery, pots and service ware through the evening
  • Keep the wash area, the drains and the bin store clean
  • Sort the colour-coded boards and cloths onto their separate racks

Who we are looking for

Reliability, full stop. This is the shift we protect hardest, and we pay above the hourly minimum for it.

Three ways to apply

There is no online form on this page, and there never will be. A form would only email someone who is standing at a wok. Do one of these three things instead and you will hear back within a week.

  1. 01 · Best way

    Walk in and ask

    Come between 3:00pm and 5:00pm any day except Friday — that is the quiet hour between lunch and dinner. Ask for Kak Nurul at the counter. Bring your IC. If she is free you will have a conversation there and then, and if she is not, she will take your number and call you.

    128 Jalan Warisan, Tasek, 14100 Simpang Ampat, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
  2. 02 · Fastest reply

    Send a WhatsApp

    Message us with four things: your name, the role you want, the days and hours you can actually work, and roughly where you live. That is enough for us to know whether to call you in. No CV needed for kitchen assistant, weekend crew or steward.

    +60 12-488 1984
  3. 03 · For cook roles

    Email a short note

    For the cook and grill positions, write us a few lines about the kitchens you have worked in and what you cooked there. A CV helps but a plain honest note is fine. Attach nothing larger than a photograph of it if that is easier.

    kerja@warungpakdin.com

The fine print

  • We reply to everyone within a week, including the answers that are no.
  • We never ask for a payment, a deposit or your bank details at any stage of hiring. If anyone claiming to be us does, it is not us — call the counter and tell us.
  • You need the right to work in Malaysia. We hire citizens, permanent residents and holders of a valid work pass; we do not arrange passes.
  • Application details are used only for hiring, kept for six months and then deleted, in line with the Personal Data Protection Act 2010. Write to pdpa@warungpakdin.com to see, correct or delete what we hold.

Curious what you would be cooking, or who you would be cooking it with? Read the family story, the menu, or how we keep the kitchen halal.