When it comes to cheap and good food in West of Singapore, the first place that comes to mind is definitely Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre. It is one of my usual hang-out places for local food as it’s only ten minutes away from my home.

It can be quite a daunting task when you are ordering food in hawker centres. Which stalls do we order from? Shall we flip a coin, judge by the number of newspaper cuttings, or simply look at the queue of each stall? If you are planning to make a trip to Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, I’ll like to share with you some of my favorite food there.

For those of you who have been reading my food blog for a while, I’m sure you know that Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite hawker food. I usually order it from Xin Heng Char Kway Teow (Stall 181) when I’m having dinner at Bukit Timah Food Centre. He Zhong Carrot Cake (Stall 185) is extremely famous for their white carrot cake. I very much prefer the sweet and eggy black carrot cake so I seldom order this unless my friends want to try it.

For Oyster omelette, avoid the one from Fried Carrot Cake Fried Oyster (Stall 145), the omelette was soggy and there was hardly any oyster. I can’t remember the name of the stall that I always order from — it’s in the same row as Xin Heng Char Kway Teow.

It’s always a good idea to eat at hawker centre with a group of friends (at least 4-5 people) so that you can order more food. Stall 156 BBQ Seafood offers a good variety of BBQ seafood like stir fried Lala clams, BBQ Stingray and sambal kangkong – great for sharing, but I can probably finish the excellent stingray on my own.

I have tried two of out three of the hokkien mee stalls in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre. On one occasion, we decided to try Fried Hokkien Mee (Stall 145) because of the long queue. Unfortunately, the hokkien mee was a total letdown, the sambal chili wasn’t spicy enough, and the taste of the noodles was subtle – bordering on bland. The second Hokkien Mee Stall is located in the middle row of the food centre and they use the distinctive flat yellow noodle. I’m going to try out the third stall (facing the main road) the next time round.

Peter Pan Western Food (Stall 133) has been around for some time, and they have value-for-money Western Food. Otherwise, there’s Tom Kitchen Western Food which is located near the stairs. Long House Popiah used to have a branch in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, but on my recent visit, I realized that it’s not there anymore. Try the popiah and kueh pie tee from Stall 127 instead. There’s also the famous Satay bee hoon, Japanese food, and Thai Food stalls worth trying if you want something different.

If you are having breakfast at Bukit Timah Food Centre, be sure to order the Kway Chap from stall 138. There’s always a long queue when I go there during weekends. My mother is a big fan of the huge fishballs from Teochew Fishball noodle, (Stall 179) as well as the dark sauce wanton mee from Stall 197 Happy Wanton Noodle. To end the hawker feast on a sweet note, have the smooth beancurd and Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls) from Soyako (Stall 166).

// Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre is within walking distance from Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, and Bukit Timah Plaza. For other options, there’s a stretch of eateries and restaurants at Cheong Chin Nam road, Chun Tin road and Lorong Kilat opposite Beauty World.

Singapore Hawker Food Review
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road

The Singapore Food Scene is getting very exciting with the opening of Celebrity chef restaurants, and many new dining concepts. But when my overseas friends ask me for recommendation on what to eat in Singapore, or what is the true Singaporean cuisine, I’d definitely reply: Hawker Food.

With the exception of places like Newton Circus, Lau Pa Sat & Chomp Chomp Hawker Centre, the prices of food in the other food centre usually are around $2-3. You are going to be shocked by this, but my last visit to Old Airport Road Food Centre was actually a few years ago, before the renovation. I need someone to scold me for taking so long to revisit this wonderful place, which undoubtedly is one of the best Hawker Centres in Singapore.

As much as I do not fancy oysters, it is a joy to dip the oyster omelette into the chili sauce which is slightly sour, yet sweet and spicy. I’m not sure if Katong Ah Soon Fried Oyster is one of the better stalls in Old Airport Road Hawker Centre, but the oyster omelette was the first empty plate on the table.

It was one o’clock in the afternoon, and everyone was hungry. It’s a damn Sunday morning, and we should all be sleeping in bed. Instead, I was queuing up for the Blanco Court Kway Chap at Old Airport Hawker Centre with ten (equally crazy) people in front of me. After a long wait of 27 minutes, it was finally my turn to make the order. The intestines were cooking in the stove, yet the chef/cook/hawker grabbed them with his bare hands, put it on the chopping board and cut them into appropriate portions with breathtaking speed.

Everyone crowded around the table, waiting impatiently for the food blogger to take the photos. Eating commenced after that, and luckily, it was worth the wait.

Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite Singapore’s Hawker Food, and Lao Fu Zhi fried kway teow is one of the most famous char kway teow stalls in Singapore. Unfortunately, I thought that Lao Fu Zhi’s rendition was a little too dry, and it lacked a certain wok-hei. The million dollar question: is there another better char kway teow stall in Old Airport Hawker Centre?

This is the Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee, otherwise known as the lor-mee-that-we-queued-for-half-an-hour. There are many hawker stalls in Old Airport Food Center, but Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee is one of the few that has an incredibly long queue. It’s good to eat out with a group of friends who are willing to brave the snake-like human traffic and wait for a seemingly-ordinary bowl of noodle.

Lor Mee is a bowl of noodle served in a thick starchy gravy and comes with ingredients like prawn roll (ngo hiang), half boiled egg, fish cake, and fish. My friends were won over by the generous toppings, and the flavor of the sticky gravy. Me? I will only eat it if someone else is queuing up.

If you like the kick from having the spicy-hot sambal chili, you will be very disappointed with the famous Nam Sing Hokkien Mee. In place of the familiar sambal chili, they have sliced red chili instead. The Hokkien Mee has a much higher proportion of the rice noodles to the yellow egg noodles. Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee definitely has their loyal supporters, mind you — we waited slightly more than twenty minutes for this plate of Hokkien Mee. Thankfully there is no need to queue as they will deliver the Hokkien Mee when it’s ready.

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I’m definitely going back to Old Airport Road Food Centre soon, do share with us which are some of the other hawker stalls that are worth a try.

Singapore Hawker Food
Blanco Court Kway Chap
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-135
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Katong Ah Soon Fried Oyster
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-07
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Lao Fu Zhi Fried Kway Teow
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-12
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Nam Sing Hokkien Mee
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-32
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-116
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

When my good friend came back from a holiday in Europe, I was determined to get her appetite for our favorite Singapore food back. The food blogger was the one who chose the place, but for once, I couldn’t decide where to go for dinner. To be safe, I asked which is her favorite hawker center.

Her reply was very straight forward: “Chomp Chomp is the best hawker centre in Singapore.”

It was such an overwhelming experience to step inside Chomp Chomp market at Serangoon Gardens. There were stalls on the left, and on the right. Rows and rows of them stretching right to the end. I know all the hawker centres in Singapore look the same, but somehow there is this sense of hope in Chomp Chomp — it feels like everything will taste good no matter which stall we order from.

I felt as though I was a kid in Disneyland as I walked around to check out the different food stalls in Chomp Chomp. There was so much food! And everything seemed to look so good! I was tempted to order something from every stall, but it was impossible since there was only two of us.

Whenever I asked for recommendations for the best BBQ stingray in Singapore, people will always point me to the ones in Chomp Chomp. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the name of the stall when I was there.

In the end, I randomly ordered from some stalls since I have never been to Chomp Chomp Food Market before. “OH MAN! I miss BBQ Stingray!” I almost shouted that out when it was brought to our table. Even though I sweated profusely after eating the BBQ Stingray ($8), I just couldn’t stop having more of it.

The oyster omelette from Ang Sa Lee Fried Oyster was delicious. I actually prefer fried carrot cake to oyster omelette since I only like the egg and not the oyster. But still, you can never say no to oyster omelette, and the slightly spicy-sourish chili sauce made it even better!

I’m not sure if Chomp Chomp is the only hawker centre that has the big glasses of sugarcane juices, but I absolutely love it! Sugarcane is the perfect choice of drink to go along with our local Singapore hawker food.

A dollar for a chicken wing? Just give me all the wings on the rack!

The hokkien mee from Ah Hock Fried Hokkien Noodle wasn’t really my type. They used very fine yellow and rice noodle, and it was a drier version (I preferred wet hokkien mee).

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I know there are some of you who will say that Chomp Chomp is over hyped, with most of the hawker food there being priced slightly higher than the other hawker centres in Singapore. Furthermore, there are limited seats which make it really crowded during weekends. The worst part? The air ventilation is pretty bad, and you leave the place smelling like Chomp Chomp.

But I have to say that it’s quite an experience to eat at Chomp Chomp even though they are similar to most of the hawker centres in Singapore. Which stalls in Chomp Chomp food centre do you usually order from?

Lucy BBQ Seafood
20 Kensington Park road
Stall 5/6 Chomp Chomp Food Centre

Chong Pang Huat
20 Kensington Park road
Stall 26 Chomp Chomp Food Centre

Ang Sa Lee Fried Oyster
20 Kensington Park road
Stall 26 Chomp Chomp Food Centre

Ah Hock Fried Hokkien Noodle
20 Kensington Park road
Stall 27 Chomp Chomp Food Centre

When I was planning for a one-day hawker food trail with my friend, she said that we have to try the famous Toa Payoh Hokkien Mee at Lorong 1 food center (near Braddell Mrt station). To be frank, I wasn’t very convinced initially. But it has been quite some time since I last had a good plate of hokkien mee, and I guessed there wasn’t any harm in trying. Our first stop of the hawker food trail – Tian Tian Lai (Come Daily) Hokkiee Mee.

It is no secret that I am a super big fan of the Singapore Hokkien Mee. If you ask me, I’d think that it’s a shame that our Hokkien prawn noodle isn’t as well represented as the other Singapore dishes like our signature chili crabs or chicken rice.

There was a period of time when I actually had Hokkien Mee during lunch consecutively for a week (or maybe longer). But yeah, that’s how obsessed I am when it comes to the fried prawn noodles.

The Hokkien mee ($4) was wet and slippery, and acquired a distinct taste from the pork lard. It was done just the way I like it. With a squeeze of the lime and the mix of the spicy-yet-not-choking sambal chili, this is a plate of hokkien mee that I can have for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you like your hokkien mee wet and moist, I’m sure you will agree with me that Tian Tian Lai is one of the best Hokkien Mee in Singapore.

Am I crazy to go all the way to Toa Payoh for the hokkien mee? Yes. Will I do it again? Definitely! Having gone all the way to Toa Payoh for Long House Popiah previously, and now Tian Tian Lai Prawn Mee, can someone please recommend me the other good hawker food that’s worth a try in Toa Payoh so that I can try all of them the next time round?

Hawker Food Review
Tian Tian Lai Hokkien Mee
Blk 127 Toa Payoh Lorong 1
#02-27 Toa Payoh Lorong 1 Food Centre
Open Tues-Sun from 9.30am to 9pm
(Closed on Mondays)
Tel: +65 6251 8542

My fellow Bukit Batok-ians, this is THE place to go to for char kuay teow and hokkien mee. I often like to ask what local food will you miss the most if you go overseas, and my answer will always be ckt. By and large it’s not a easy choice, not when there are so many nice and delicious local food around; chicken rice, rojak, laksa just to name a few, but yes, I will miss my ckt the most.

From afar, I could smell the aroma, and I’m drawn in, immediately. What is that smell? Sniff, sniff: this, is the smell of my love. Every mouthful was so good, and I wolfed down one plate in a blink of the eye. One plate was definitely not enough, I always order two plates of char kuay teow ($2). And I don’t want to share with you, shoo! go away.

I love the char kuay teow here, for a period of time initially, I was having ckt for almost four-five times a week (two plates each time). But when you have too much good food, you will become sick of it, and so was I, which brought my attention to…

Hokkien mee!

I have the black carrot cake for breakfast, char kuay teow for lunch, and hokkien mee for dinner. Sounds good right? Nah, I usually rotates between the char kuay teow or hokkien mee ($3) for lunch since the stall closes during the afternoon. I know judging from the photo, the ckt looks a lot better than the HM, but believe me, I’ll go to the extent of saying this is the best Hokkien mee, at least in Bukit Batok. He cooks every order by plate, which meant a longer waiting time; but hey, every plate is fricking good! And I like the wetness and moist version of HM, with a lot chilli and two limes squeeze in; I’m a happy man!

And oh, it’s almost lunch time. Uncle, one packet of char kuay teow, and one packet of hokkien mee with extra chilli and lime please!

Char Kuay teow
Block 289H Bukit Batok Street 25
(Coffee shop is in the carpark complex)

Its rather uncommon when you see the word “Singapore” in the name of a company, not least in the name of a food store. How many company actually has the word “Singapore”, not many, think Singapore Airlines, Singapore Telecommunications, Singapore Post, and almost all of them are actually Government-related entity.

Opposition party please don’t get it wrong, Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee is definitely not related to the Government, how it got its name remains a mystery, but thats not really the focus here. Leaving the name-issue aside, their Hokkien Mee is really good! Ever since finding out about them a couple of years back, one of the few stalls that comes into my mind when i think of Whampoa Market will be the Hoover Rojak, and this, Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee!

Hokkien Mee ($3)

While some places do their Hokkien mee either too dry or too wet, Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee is done exactly the way i like my Hokkien Mee, the perfect balance of the wetness of the noodles.

The sambal chili is also there to “die” for, literally. For someone like me who can’t really “hold” their chili well, i can’t help myself getting more of the chili. Mixed together with the Hokkien Mee, and with a few drops of the lime, awesome!

Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee
Whampoa Food Market
Block 90 Whampoa Drive

Thye Hong is well-known for their Hokkien fried noodles, and is a mainstay in Bread Talk’s Food Republic, with the honor of having the longest queue in the upscale food court. The joke around is if you want to find Thye Hong, just see which stall has the longest queue and there you go, Thye Hong.

The main thing that amaze me about Thye Hong is actually the cook’s ability to churn out so many plates of hokkien mee at one go. The cook will perform for the long queue visible through the transparent glass, dishing out the hokkien mee with the big wok.

It is not easy to get the right taste for a plate of dish, let alone such a big quantity of hokkien mee, which i mean is quite a feat. As always, if you happen to be there when they served finish one round, be prepared to wait up till 15 minutes. While the cook is preparing the noodles, the lines behind is gradually forming up ready for the next round of “assault”.

Thye Hong Hokkien Mee ($4)

The renown Thye Hong hokkien mee, comes with different prices of $4, 6, 8. I quite like the hokkien mee here, and being not a fan of food court, the only time i’ll patronise Food Republic is for, well Thye Hong hokkien mee. My companion find the hokkien mee to be on the salty side while i thought it is all right.

There’s different opinion about the chili too, for me i find it quite hot, but as my companion is a chill-eater, the ones here aren’t any kick for her. I tried Thye Hong hokkien mee at other outlets, but sad to say the standards differ. The one at Wisma Food Republic is still the best for Thye Hong.

Thye Hong
Wisma Atrium
Food Republic level 4