A Guide to Singapore Street Food – What and Where?
Street food is at the heart of Singaporean culture. Singapore is a melting pot of Southeast Asian cultures, with Singaporean food taking heavy influence from Chinese, Indian, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisines.
Singapore is known as a country that actively keeps its street food and hawker culture alive. It is famous for being one of the only countries in the world to have its street food recognised and featured in the Michelin Guide multiple times. If you find yourself in Singapore, make sure you head to the hawker centres and immerse yourself in true local cuisine. To help you, we have compiled a list of the very best Singapore street food we tried during our short time in this amazing country.
Maxwell Road Hawker Centre – Chicken Laksa & Hainanese Chicken
Maxwell Hawker Centre is arguably one of the most famous Hawker Centre in Singapore which is held in high regard with both tourists and locals. This Hawker Centre is a food lover’s dream due to its wide range of street food stalls, some of which have been in situ for generations. The food has been perfectly crafted for optimum flavours, with recipes passed down through the families. Both locals and tourists can be seen queuing for various specialities – we did just that and visited on numerous occasions during our brief stay.
First on our list was the spicy noodle soup dish popular in Southeast Asia – Laksa. In Maxwell Hawker Centre there are a few different choices of stalls. The stall we opted for served a variety of different Laksa and we just couldn’t resist the ‘Shredded Chicken Laksa’ for S$5.00 (£2.94). The soup was rich and delicious, whilst the chicken was tender, moist and served with perfectly cooked egg noodles… Singapore street food at its best!
Hainanese chicken is another must try for any foodie (local or tourist!) visiting Singapore. This famous dish consists of poached chicken (we opted for breast) served with seasoned rice and chilli sauce. A quick Google search and you’ll be tempted to head to Michelin recommended Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken – we certainly did! However our hearts dropped when we saw the forty minute queue so we decided to try a different stall nearby. It didn’t disappoint! The succulent chicken paired with the seasoned rice, chilli sauce and ginger made every bite delightful and a great alternative option! We paid a modest S$5.00 (£2.94) for our dish which we thought represented great value.
Newton Food Centre – Chilli Crab
Newton Food Centre has become one of the most iconic Hawker Centres in Singapore due to its feature in blockbuster movie Crazy Rich Asians. Tourists flock to this Hawker Centre eager to experience what makes this food court so great. It may not be the cheapest Hawker Centre around, but in our opinion it is still well worth a visit.
If you are after a full dining experience then you can’t go wrong with ordering Chilli Crab from one of the many stalls at Newton Food Centre. You get it all over your fingers (gloves are provided!) as you crack open the delicious crab shells. The sauce is the star of the show with its slightly spicy yet sweet notes that are utterly delicious.
It is often served with steamed buns called mantou (make sure you barter to get these included!) which are used to soak up the amazing sauce. People often go for the Chilli Crab at Alliance Seafood due to being mentioned in the Singapore Michelin Guide. But after completing a full lap of the complex we settled on Takara Grilled Seafood and chose their set menu for two people at S$70.00 (£42.05). This included the chilli crab with steamed buns along with fried rice and cereal prawns… we certainly didn’t leave hungry!
Geylang Serai Market – Nasi Lemak & Chicken Satay
The Geylang area is home to one of the oldest Malay settlements in Singapore and is where the Geylang Serai Market & Food Corner is located. After undergoing its latest redevelopment in 2018 it has seen a surge in great Singapore street food. This clean and well maintained food centre is now the perfect place to get some authentic Malay cuisine during your trip to Singapore!
First on our list was an authentic Nasi Lemak, a Malaysian National dish. After a little debate we opted for Ali’s Corner, a family run food stall serving a variety of different dishes. Nasi Lemak consists of coconut & pandan flavoured rice served with sambal and usually fried chicken that has so much flavour. Although not the best version of this authentic dish we have tried, it was delicious nonetheless and for S$5.00 (£2.94) it was a good lunch time meal.
We also decided that we just had to get some chicken satay whilst we were in the heart of the Malay market. We agreed on Alhambra Satay and quickly ordered 10 pieces of chicken for S$0.80 (£0.48) per stick (minimum order) and waited 15 minutes for our chicken to be cooked perfectly over coals. Once ready, we wasted no time tucking in. The rich peanut sauce coated the moist chicken and it was absolutely delicious… a must try when in this market!
Lau Pa Sat – Chicken Kebab & Local Beer
Lau Pa Sat is a beautiful foodie paradise full of fantastic Singapore street food. The building is constructed of cast-iron and has a signature clock tower. It almost feels like you have stepped back into Victorian times with its incredible architecture dating back to 1894. Lau Pa Sat is home to several local and international stalls as well as the famed Satay Street: a row of 19 stalls all selling sticks of delicious barbecued meat.
Although not as authentic as some of our other choices on the list, sometimes when you are travelling you crave familiar home/western comforts. When we visited Lau Pa Sat and saw some of the international cuisine on offer, we couldn’t help but order some tombik kebabs from Turkish Cuisine. We personally really enjoyed the kebabs and at S$12.50 (£7.51) you can’t really argue. It was all washed down with some local larger from Tuas Brewing Co. S$20.00 (£12.00) for a jug represents great value in the heart of Singapore and a great way to cool down from the heat of the day!
Tiong Bahru Market – Chwee Kueh & Black Carrot Cake
Open from 6am to 10pm, Tiong Bahru Market is perfect for eating on a budget! This market has over 200 stalls that sell not only locally prepared dishes, but also fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, flowers, clothes and other goods. Upstairs, there are an abundance of Singapore street food stalls cooking local cuisines, so much so that you will struggle to make a decision on where to order from!
We opted to try a traditional Singaporean steamed rice cake from Teochew origin named Chwee Kuah. The actual rice cake is plain-tasting with a jiggly but not mushy texture. The flavour, however, comes from the generous portion of preserved radish that soaks into the rice cake. There was only one place we wanted to try… Jian Bo Shui Kueh has been featured in the Michelin Guide in 2021, 2022 and 2023, so we couldn’t have picked a better spot. Although not our favourite thing we tried during our stay, for S$3.30 (£1.98) you get 5 rice cakes and it is certainly worth tasting if you enjoy trying new things!
Next up was a carrot cake commonly referred to as Chao Gao Guo … not to be mistaken for the western dessert. This ‘cake’ doesn’t actually have any carrots in it (not the orange kind anyway!) The main ingredients are rice flour and white radish which some call ‘white carrot’, hence the name. The mixture is then steamed and cooked with garlic, eggs and preserved radish and sometimes dark soy sauce for the ‘black version’. We opted for the black carrot cake from Lao Chen Carrot Cake & Popiah. It was absolutely delicious and at S$4.50 (£2.70) we thought it was a bargain.
Finally…
We hope you enjoy all the Singapore street food as much as we did! Here you can discover more Hawker Centres in Singapore for your trip, or why not read up on some popular activities in Singapore to complete your visit!
