Singapore is worth visiting purely for its food. Singapore’s Food Centres (a.k.a. Hawker Centres) are recognised by UNESCO and are the best places to find delicious, authentic, fresh, cheap meals.
In this guide, I’ll introduce you to Hawker Centre culture, recommend the best places and dishes to try, and review some of the places I visited for accessibility.
What is a Hawker centre?
A Hawker Centre (or food centre) is a mix between street food and a food court. Some also include wet market/fresh food markets.
In the 1970s, the Singapore government took Hawker stalls off the streets and put them into centralised neighbourhood centres.
Singapore now has over 123 nationally run food centres, each housing between 30-80 vendors. These food centres are usually outdoor or open-air dining complexes with ceiling fans, perfect for hot and humid Singapore climate.
Stalls within Hawker Centres usually specialise in a small number of dishes, using recipes that have been passed down through generations of families. Sadly, Hawker culture is dying out, with many younger generations not carrying on the family stores.
Why should you eat at a Hawker Centre?
Hawker centres are the best place to get authentic Singapore food.
Some popular dishes include barbecue seafood, satay, chili crab, noodles, and carrot cake (not made of carrots – see my review below).
You cannot visit a Hawker Centre without having a cane sugar or lime syrup drink to quench your thirst.
Unlike other Southeast Asian Street food, you don’t need to be worried about food poisoning.
Hawker Centres abide by strict health and safety regulations and have a rating system displayed on the shopfront (most places have the highest A/B ratings). The water, ice, and food are all safe.
Local Singaporeans will eat most of their main meals at the Hawker Centres. Why?
- The food is absolutely delicious and fresh
- The food is extremely cheap – expect to pay no more than $10 for a dish
- It supports local family businesses
- It is a great place to catch up with friends and family to share a meal
Singapore does also have food courts, with similar food to Hawker Centres. The main difference between food courts and Hawker centres are food courts are privately owned, usually located inside shopping centres, have fewer vendors, and are more expensive than Hawker centres. They are however a good place to go for air-conditioning or on a wet day.
Hawker centres are much more casual, so if you are wanting more of a fine dining experience, Singapore does have a lot of restaurants with a variety of cuisines. However, be wary of restaurants that serve similar foods to Hawker centres at quadruple the price.
In addition to visiting Hawker centres, you should check out a traditional Singaporean Café in a local neighbourhood, where you can sample Kaya toast, some sweet treats, or kopi (coffee).
Hawker Centre Etiquette
There are a few unspoken rules at food centres that you should follow when you visit.
Chope
This is the Singaporean word for “reserve”. At food centres, you will see tissues, water bottles, umbrellas or other personal belongings left unaccompanied at tables to reserve them. Everyone respects this rule.
Scope out options
Several stores will sell the same type of food, so you will want to suss out all of your options before ordering.
Long lines do not necessarily mean the best food. Some vendors are just slow, or the store might have received some Instagram attention recently.
Order at the vendor
Most stalls have images of the food, and sometimes English-language labels. If unsure, just ask. I have food intolerances and the staff were happy to list ingredients and cook my dishes without onion and garlic.
There is no table service for ordering, but sometimes food will be delivered to your table if you are given a number. Otherwise, you just need to wait with a beeper.
Bring cash
Some of the newer food centres will accept credit cards/electronic payments, but many of the old places do not.
Sharing is caring
Hawker culture is all about sharing. Grab a few dishes to try. Don’t over order, you can always go back for more.
If you have some empty seats at your table, don’t be surprised in busy times if some locals join you. That’s all part of the experience.
Divide and conquer
Since food is cooked fresh, you may need to wait 10-15 minutes. I recommend splitting up and each ordering a dish to bring back to the table to share.
Clean up after yourself
No one else will clean up after you, so you need to return your own tray to the tray station when finished. It is considered very rude leave your tray at the table.
Which Hawker Centre should you visit?
With over 100 food centres to choose from, how do you know which one to pick?
To be honest, there probably isn’t a bad one. Each Hawker Centre generally specialises in certain dishes and has its own distinctive vibe. It really comes down to what you are looking for.
The Maxwell food Centre in Chinatown was good option for our first visit. It was centrally located and has mostly Chinese-style foods. Check out my review below for more details.
Some of the more touristy options are the Chinatown Complex Food Centre (which is one of the largest food centres); La Pau Sat which is located in a beautiful historic building (but is popular with large tourist groups); and the Newton Centre (made famous by the Crazy Rich Asians film).
If you are looking for amazing Indian food, the Tekka Centre and wet market in Little India is the place to go. See my full review below.
The East Coast Lagoon Food Village is great place if you are looking for outdoor waterfront dining with the sunset – see review below. Chomp Chomp, not only has the best name, but apparently has a great evening atmosphere.
If you want to escape the touristy options, head out to some of the neighbourhood centres. Some good options include the Old Airport Road Food Centre and Tiong Bahru Food Centre.
How accessible are Hawker centres?
The newer centres are more accessible, but all those that I visited were okay for my wheelchair. They all had a ramp at least one entrance and were all flat inside for me to get around.
The tables and stools are all fixed into place in the ground and cannot be moved. I found there was enough room for me to just get between stools or at the end of the table to eat.
There was usually enough room for me to get between tables, with a few narrower spaces. I became quite adept at swerving between tables.
Sometimes there were long lines at vendors – people were very good at moving aside for me to pass through. I found people very friendly and willing to help if you did need assistance. If you are worried about crowds, avoid visiting during peak lunch and dinner times.
At the vendor stalls I was able to get close to the ordering window and to read menus. The windows were usually quite low and a good height for me to see over in my wheelchair.
Unfortunately, I did not see accessible toilets at any of the food centres I visited. We tended to go to a nearby MRT station instead.
If you are looking for a fully barrier free Hawker Centre, the Dignity Kitchen is the place to go. This place is operated by people with disabilities, making it probably the most inclusive food centre you can visit in Singapore.
Why you should do a food tour
On our first visit to Singapore, we did a food tour with Ludus Lab, and I’m so glad we did!
If we had visited on our own, we would have probably ordered the safe option of chicken and rice and have been too scared to try some of the unfamiliar options. I would have worried about being sick from inadvertently ordering something that messed with my food intolerances.
Our tour was the best introduction to Hawker culture. Our guide Yock Song helped us with food centre etiquette and selected a smorgasbord of food for us to try, making sure all of our food preferences and intolerances were catered for.
Everything we tried was delicious. It gave us confidence for us to try some different foods on our subsequent visits.
Hawker Centre reviews
Below are my reviews of some of the Hawker centres we have visited.
Maxwell Food Centre
We visited this food centre as a part of our tour in Chinatown. We arrived from the MRT station, right next door.
Arriving right on lunchtime, the food hall was bustling!
The first thing we noticed was the huge line up of people waiting for Tian Tian, known for its Hainese chicken and rice.
Hot tip: skip the lineup and go to the nearby Ah Tai stall, run by a former chef at Tian Tian. They sell an almost identical version which YS tells us tastes just as good. It’s also featured in Netflix’s “Somebody Feed Phil” so you know it’s good!
YS tasked us with “choping” a table while he went to order food for us. As it was busy, I found it easier to drive along the outskirts of the complex to find a table near the edge.
YS returned with a smorgasbord of food and drink. He did a great job of accommodating our vegetarian, and onion free, low wheat requests. Some of the food we ate included:
- chicken and rice,
- black and white carrot cake (more like a frittata made of radish and egg rather than the sweet carrot cake you get in Australia),
- popiah (spring rolls filled with vegetables),
- oyster omelette,
- roti prata (Indian flatbread filled with sugar, spice, and coconut),
- Kiuh Malayan pastries,
- and refreshing palm sugar drinks.
We ate so much food we nearly burst!
roti prata, cane sugar drinks, and our table “chope”.
East Coast Lagoon Food Village
The name of this Food Village is pretty self-explanatory. It is located in East Coast Park, right next to the lagoon. Apparently, it’s a popular place to watch the sunset, but unfortunately it was cloudy the day we visited. Still, it was a nice, relaxed atmosphere with a good view of the park.
Being an outdoor food centre, it felt quite spacious. While the tables and chairs were quite close together making a little tricky to wind through in my wheelchair, it was a lot roomier near the vendors.
This Food Centre is renowned for its satay and barbecue seafood, specifically barbecue stingray. I had all intentions of trying the stingray (thinking it would be just like calamari), but when I saw it was a brown chewy steak-like thing, I chickened out.
Instead, we tried some satay, barbecue prawns, and hokkien mee noodles. And, of course a cane sugar drink.
Tekka Centre
Right in the middle of Little India is the Tekka Centre. This multi-storey centre had a wet market with fresh fruit stalls, an indoor open-air food centre area, and some shops upstairs displaying some beautiful colourful Saris in the window fronts.
As we visited this centre 2 hours after visiting the Maxwell Centre, we were too full to eat here. This was quite disappointing, because the Indian food smelt incredible! I cannot begin to describe the aromatic spice smells that were coming from the stalls.
Satay by the Bay
Okay, not technically a nationally run Hawker Centre. However, Satay by the Bay, located within the Gardens by the Bay precinct is set up exactly like a Hawker Centre, just a bit smaller.
Satay by the Bay is hidden away in the outdoor gardens at Gardens by the Bay. You can visit without visiting the gardens, or you can access the free outdoor gardens nearby.
Surrounded by gardens and with an open-air complex, it is a nice cool place to eat. I did find this centre to be quite roomy, with a bit more space between tables.
We visited around 5PM before the busy dinnertime rush and hordes of tourists arriving for the garden Rhapsody light show. Leaving the show at around 8:30 PM, this area was overflowing with people.
As the name suggests, this centre is famous for Satay. Of course, we had to try it! We bought chicken and beef skewers, with the side satay sauce. My goodness, that sauce was to die for! We discovered that the skewers are quite small, so you will want to order at least 5 per person. But we also had some nice light, stir-fried vegetable dishes and some lime juice.
For more information about Gardens by the Bay, check out my full guide here.
The verdict
I have not had a bad dish at a Hawker Centre yet. The atmosphere is fun, friendly, and a food-lover’s paradise.
My favourite centre was probably Maxwell, because of the variety of food we tried, and getting to see a food centre in its prime at a busy lunch hour. I feel that you haven’t really experienced Singaporean culture if you haven’t visited a food centre yet. You won’t be disappointed.
Want more?
If you are interested in booking a food tour that is wheelchair accessible, make sure you reach out to Ludus Lab.
You can also find more information about accessible places to eat in Singapore on the Accessible Singapore webpage.
Also, check out my other accessible Singapore guides below:
Accessible Gardens by the Bay
How to See Singapore Highlights in a Wheelchair
Hidden Singapore: Unique accessible outdoor things to do
Singapore neighbourhood guide
Getting around Singapore in a wheelchair
Where to stay in Singapore: Accessible hotel guide and reviews
Changi airports Singapore guide
Disclaimer
All opinions expressed in this blog are my own and all reviews are non-solicited.
I understand that every disability is different, and what works for me may not work for everyone – it’s important to do your own research on any destination or accommodation to make sure that it meets your accessibility requirements.
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