> Quick view: Beast & Butterflies at M Social Resort Penang is serving a Taste of Malaysia buffet lunch on Wednesday 16 September 2026, noon to 3pm, at RM98 nett per adult and RM49 nett per senior or child aged 5 to 12, with under-5s free. Read against the hotel's own standing menu, most of the offer is not new: RM98 is the weekend brunch adult price, Pay 3 Dine 4 already runs on that brunch, and the 15/20/25% MyMillennium tiers apply to every buffet there. The genuinely Malaysia Day parts are the one-day menu, which puts seven states on the mains list, and the fact that it lands on a Wednesday, the one weekday when the restaurant otherwise serves a RM38 set lunch rather than a buffet.

Update, 9 September 2026: the booking engine settles it

Since publishing we went at this from the till rather than the marketing page. Beast & Butterflies takes bookings through TableCheck, and TableCheck only shows the courses that are actually sellable on the date you ask for. Query it one date at a time and the restaurant's real price list falls out.

The Malaysia Day buffet is live and bookable. On 16 September it appears as two separate lines, "Taste of Malaysia" Malaysia Day Buffet Lunch Adult at RM98 and Senior and Child at RM49, valid for that single date only, seatings from 12pm, tax and service charge included. As of 9 September both still show availability, so it has not sold out a week ahead.

The child price question is answered, and not in the offer's favour. Ask the same booking engine for Saturday 19 September, an ordinary weekend with no promotion attached, and it offers Saturday Buffet Brunch Adult RM98 and Saturday Buffet Brunch Senior and Child RM49. Ask it for Sunday 20 September and it offers Sunday Roast Buffet Lunch Adult RM98 and Senior and Child RM49. The hotel's own weekend brunch menu PDF prints the same pair, "RM98 NETT | ADULT, RM49 NETT | SENIOR / CHILD". Three sources agree on RM49. The RM58 on The Social Table web page is the odd one out, and it is still sitting there today.

So the guess we made in the section below was wrong. We reasoned that the PDF was old and the RM58 on the live page was current, which would have made the Malaysia Day child price a RM9 saving. It is the other way round: RM49 is what the restaurant charges for a senior or a child at any of its buffets, on Malaysia Day or on a normal Saturday. There is no child discount on 16 September. Our worked example below has been corrected.

The RM38 set lunch does run on Malaysia Day. This was the second thing the hotel had not said. The Social Set Lunch at RM38 is bookable on 16 September, Monday to Friday only, seatings from noon, sitting in the booking form directly alongside the buffet. A public holiday does not take it off the menu. That makes the real choice on the day RM98 buffet against RM38 set lunch, in the same room, at the same hour.

Two other things you can book that day. The Peranakan Heritage Claypot Dinner runs Sunday to Friday from 6.30pm, at RM88 per set for two or RM168 per set for four — a set price, not a per-person one — and 16 September is a Wednesday, so it is available. There is also an Afternoon Tea at RM88, bookable daily. Neither appears anywhere in the Malaysia Day marketing.

One correction to how we described the weekend. We called it a single Buffet Brunch running Saturday and Sunday. The booking engine treats it as two different buffets under two names: Saturday is the Buffet Brunch, Sunday is the Sunday Roast Buffet Lunch. Both are RM98 and RM49. The brunch menu PDF also notes the spread is served on a rotational menu basis, which sharpens the point below: the fixed, published, seven-state Malaysia Day menu really is the thing you cannot get on a normal weekend.

Bookings are not prepaid. TableCheck takes the reservation without taking payment; you settle at the restaurant. That is why the stacking question still matters and still has to be asked at the counter — no discount is applied online either way.

What is actually on offer

M Social Resort Penang is the beachfront property on Jalan Tanjung Bungah, between Gurney Drive and Batu Ferringhi, that used to trade as the Copthorne Orchid. Its all-day restaurant, Beast & Butterflies, leans Peranakan, and on Malaysia Day it is running a single lunch service under the name Taste of Malaysia.

The hotel's own offer page sets it out plainly:

  • Adults: RM98 nett
  • Senior citizens aged 60 and above: RM49 nett
  • Children aged 5 to 12: RM49 nett
  • Children below 5: free
  • Group discount: Buy 3, Dine 4, adults only
  • MyMillennium members: 15% Classic, 20% Silver, 25% Prestige

Nett means the price already carries service charge and SST, so RM98 is what lands on the bill.

The part nobody is telling you

We opened the restaurant's other offer page, The Social Table, which is the hotel's own listing of what Beast & Butterflies charges the rest of the year. Set the two side by side and most of the Malaysia Day headline disappears.

  • Adult buffet price: RM98 nett on Malaysia Day, and RM98 nett on the standing weekend brunch.
  • Group discount: Buy 3, Dine 4 on Malaysia Day, and Pay 3, Dine 4 already running on the brunch and the Saturday buffet dinner.
  • MyMillennium savings: 15%, 20% and 25% on Malaysia Day, and the same three tiers all year.
  • Senior and child price: RM49 nett on Malaysia Day, and RM49 nett at the standing weekend buffets. The Social Table page says RM58, but the restaurant's booking engine and its own menu PDF both charge RM49.
  • Children under 5: free on Malaysia Day, not stated at all for the standing brunch.

The standing weekend buffet runs every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3pm at RM98 nett per adult, and RM49 nett per senior or child. That is the same pair of numbers, at the same hour, in the same room. The booking engine splits it into two named services — the Buffet Brunch on Saturday and the Sunday Roast Buffet Lunch on Sunday — and the menu PDF notes the spread rotates rather than repeating week to week. The Pay 3, Dine 4 group discount is already attached to that brunch and to the Saturday Salmon Madness Buffet Dinner (RM138 nett per adult). The member tiers are identical across all of it.

So the RM98 is not a Malaysia Day price. It is the house buffet price, applied to a Malaysia Day menu.

What you are genuinely getting on 16 September

Two things, and they are real.

First, the menu. The two-page menu PDF the hotel links from the offer page is built around a state-by-state mains list you cannot order there on any other day: Salai Beef from Negeri Sembilan, Sting Ray Sambal Pedas from Melaka, Curry Fish Head from Penang, Jackfruit Curry (vegetarian) from Kedah, Lontong from Johor and Chicken Opor from Perlis, with briyani rice alongside. The action stations are Penang-weighted: Penang white curry mee, fried kueh kak, char kway teow seafood and ban chang kueh, cooked to order. There is seafood on ice (yabbies, green shell mussel, prawns, spanner crab), a carving station of beef and chicken loaf, pasembor, pizza sambal, fried chicken in Malay spice, and a chicken berempah soup served with Arabic bread.

The kids' corner is fish fingers, chicken nuggets and three kinds of fries. The snack table is a straight nostalgia run: Mimi, Mamee, Dodol, Tam Tam, Double Decker, Bika and rice stick crackers. Drinks include jagung with vanilla ice cream, soya cincau, teh tarik and kopi kampung. The PDF carries the usual line that the menu is subject to change without notice.

Second, the day itself. Malaysia Day 2026 falls on a Wednesday, and Beast & Butterflies does not normally serve a lunch buffet on a weekday. Monday to Friday from noon to 3pm the restaurant runs the Social Set Lunch at RM38 nett per set, a starter, soup, one main from a list of six (pad thai prawn, nasi lemak with chicken chop, Hainanese chicken chop, fish and chips, seafood bee hoon soup, fettuccine beef carbonara), a dessert and a coffee or tea. A buffet on a Wednesday is genuinely a one-off here.

That also sets up the honest comparison for the day. If you want lunch at this restaurant on 16 September, the question is not RM98 against some higher Malaysia Day price. It is RM98 buffet against RM38 set lunch — and the set lunch does run that day. The booking engine offers it on 16 September, seatings from noon, at RM38 per set. A public holiday does not suspend it.

Where the hotel's own numbers disagree

Here is the one thing worth checking at the counter. The Weekend Buffet Brunch menu PDF, linked from the same Dining page, prints its own price block on page one: "RM98 NETT | ADULT, RM49 NETT | SENIOR / CHILD". The Social Table web page, for the same brunch, says seniors and children pay RM58 nett.

Both are the hotel's own material, and when we first published we could not tell which was current. The booking engine has since settled it, and the PDF is right. Book a seat at the ordinary Saturday brunch or the Sunday roast and the restaurant charges RM49 for a senior or a child, exactly as the PDF prints and exactly what it charges on Malaysia Day. The RM58 on The Social Table page is stale, and it is still published.

That removes the last number in this offer that looked like a Malaysia Day price. There is no child or senior saving on 16 September. The one line that genuinely appears only on the Malaysia Day page is children under 5 eat free, which is not stated for the standing weekend buffets at all.

Worked examples

Take the published RM98 and RM49 and run the common table sizes.

Four adults. Buy 3, Dine 4 means you pay 3 x RM98 = RM294, or RM73.50 a head, against RM392 at the door. A Prestige member taking 25% off four full-price seats pays RM392 x 0.75 = RM294. The two are identical, to the ringgit, because three quarters of four is exactly 0.75. Classic at 15% would be RM333.20 and Silver at 20% would be RM313.60, so for a Classic or Silver member the group discount is the better of the two.

Five adults. The group offer gets you one free seat, so you pay four: RM392, or RM78.40 a head. Prestige at 25% on five seats is RM490 x 0.75 = RM367.50, or RM73.50 a head. Here the member discount wins.

Eight adults. Two rounds of Buy 3, Dine 4 means paying six: RM588, RM73.50 a head, and Prestige lands on the same RM588 again.

Two adults and two children aged 5 to 12. RM196 + RM98 = RM294. We originally read this as the clearest Malaysia Day gain in the offer, on the assumption that the standing child price was RM58. It is not. The booking engine charges RM49 per child at the ordinary Saturday brunch too, so the same family pays the same RM294 on a normal weekend. The gain is zero.

Two adults, one child aged 5 to 12, one toddler under 5. RM196 + RM49 = RM245, with the toddler free.

The number the hotel has not published is whether Buy 3, Dine 4 and the member discount stack. If they do, a Prestige member with four adults pays RM294 x 0.75 = RM220.50, or RM55.13 a head, which would be the best price available on the day. Most hotel buffets in Malaysia apply one or the other rather than both, so treat the stack as unconfirmed until the restaurant says otherwise on the phone.

The pool access question

A good deal of the coverage of this buffet says guests get complimentary swimming pool access and Wi-Fi. That line does appear on the hotel's own site, but it appears on The Social Table page, sitting directly under the "Group Discount for Buffet Brunch & Dinner" block. The Malaysia Day offer page does not mention the pool or Wi-Fi anywhere.

That does not mean you will be turned away from the rooftop pool. It means the perk belongs to the standing buffet terms and its application to a one-day Malaysia Day lunch has not been spelled out by the hotel. If the pool is part of why you are booking, and especially if you are bringing swimwear for children, confirm it when you reserve rather than at the towel counter.

Who this is good for

  • Families with young children. Two adults, a school-age child and a toddler comes to RM245 for a four-person Malaysia Day lunch on a public holiday, with a kids' corner and a snack table built for them. That is the strongest version of this offer.
  • Groups of exactly four, or eight, adults. The group discount lands you at RM73.50 a head without needing any membership at all.
  • Anyone who wants the menu. Seven states on one mains list, plus four Penang hawker action stations, is not something the restaurant does on a normal Saturday.

Who should skip it

  • Couples and pairs. Two adults pay RM196 with no group discount available, and the standing weekend buffet at the same RM98 gets you the same price on a Saturday you might prefer anyway. If it is the day you want rather than the buffet, the RM38 set lunch runs in the same room that afternoon.
  • Anyone chasing a discount rather than an occasion. There isn't one hiding here. The adult price is the house price.
  • Anyone who wants the salmon. The Saturday Salmon Madness Buffet Dinner at RM138 nett per adult, and RM69 nett per senior or child, carries salmon sashimi, gravlax, smoked salmon, salmon wellington from the carving station and a seafood-on-ice spread that adds slipper lobster and scallops. It is a different, larger proposition than the Malaysia Day lunch.

Booking and fine print

Reservations go through the hotel's TableCheck page, its WhatsApp line, +604-6058 888 or Social.MSRP@millenniumhotels.com. The restaurant is open daily 7am to 11pm, but this buffet is a single three-hour service, noon to 3pm on 16 September only, and a public holiday lunch at a beachfront hotel is a reasonable candidate for selling out.

The buffet is also bookable online, as two separate lines on the booking form: adult at RM98 and senior or child at RM49, both valid for 16 September only. As of 9 September, a week out, both still showed seats. Bookings are not prepaid — you settle at the restaurant.

That leaves two things to confirm on the call, down from the four we listed when we published:

  1. Whether Buy 3, Dine 4 stacks with your MyMillennium tier. Still unpublished, and because nothing is charged online, this is decided at the counter.
  2. Whether pool access applies to this specific lunch. Still stated only on the standing Social Table terms, not on the Malaysia Day page.

The other two are answered above: the RM38 set lunch does run on 16 September, and the child and senior price is RM49 at every buffet here, Malaysia Day or not.

For what else is in this part of Penang, our guide to Penang event spaces and function rooms covers the same property's ballrooms, and our family-friendly things to do in Penang list covers the Tanjung Bungah stretch more broadly.

*Image: M Social Resort Penang*