Serangoon Garden Food Centre is the underrated and lesser known hawker centre next to Chomp Chomp Food Centre which usually outshines it.
While Chomp Chomp appeals to supper goers, early risers can come here to find hidden gems of Serangoon Garden.
Notable stalls of Serangoon Garden Food Centre include Poh Poh Roasted Chicken Rice, Hock Kee Fried Oyster, Lao Song Fa (Original Botanical Garden Famous Fishball Noodle), Bee Heng Prawn Noodles, Maimon Nasi Padang, Ah Eng Hor Fun, Siang Hee Seafood (Zi Char) and Botanic Garden Dessert Corner.
Here are 10 more:
Seng Kee Bak Chor Mee
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-36 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Tel: +65 8439 0434
Opening Hours: 7:30am – 1:30pm (Tue-Sat), Closed Sun, Mon
When you’re in Serangoon Gardens, make a detour and head to Seng Kee and try their Bak Chor Mee. A long-time hawker stall, it’s been running over 36 years and operated by owner Mr. Lee and daughter Melody.
What’s special about Seng Kee’s version of BCM are the sliced mushrooms that come with it – braised for at least 4 hours for full flavour.
The noodles, cooked to the right texture, are tossed in a thick mushroom sauce and some chillies.
The pork-based soup is cloudy with a good chance of rain of umami flavours. They boil pork bones for hours and add dried sole (ti poh) for extra flavour.
If it has been a while you last visited them, they’re now in Stall #36.
Order the $10 Fish Maw Mee bowl which includes slices of pork liver, minced pork and braised mushrooms. Mr. Lee himself assures you he uses premium quality fish maw in his BCM.
Mr Lee is quite famous for his antic of tossing his bowl up into the air whenever he prepares BCM. Look out for it.
Garden Street Kway Chap 呀侖街粿汁
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-21 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Opening Hours: 8am – 3pm (Tue – Sun), Closed Mon
Garden Street Kway Chap is known for its diners lining up to buy their highly rated rice noodle sheets and braised meats.
Founded in the 1940s by the late Mr. Koh, it has been run by grandson Jason since 2005. Jason prepares, cuts, and arranges his food meticulously, so do be prepared to wait.
Their Kway Chap has a noticeably lighter flavour compared to other stalls. The boiled flat rice sheets are delicately smooth, silky and not unpleasantly too thick.
The brown soup base, made with from a home recipe of 15 ingredients, is boiled for at least 2 hours to develop its robust, herbal taste.
To complete your Kway Chap, add a platter of their meticulously cut meats – pork belly, pig trotter, pig intestine, pig stomach, pork skin, and lean meat.
Though lean, they are not dry but still tender and well braised. Intestines are prepared well and cooked properly, leaving out the unappealing stench and retaining a springy texture.
Ah Seng Braised Duck Rice
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-44 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Tel: +65 9667 4860
Opening Hours: 11am – 8pm (Mon – Fri), 11am – 4pm (Sat), Closed Sun
Ah Seng is one of those stalls I did not have much ‘luck’ with – always closed when I visited (5 times at least), but I was 6th time lucky.
The fan favourite at Serangoon Garden is known for its tender and succulent Braised Duck Rice.
You can tell a stall is doing it right when the queues are snaking long throughout the day, and customers are willing to wait even in rush hours.
The regular portion of Duck Rice at $3.50 is quite quite its priced, while you can top up with other ingredients such as braised pork, pig head meat, pig tongue, pig ear, braised egg, tau pok and cabbage.
What people like would be the nostalgic Teochew flavours of tender duck pieces, paired well with the white rice drizzled with braising sauce.
The soup was tasty, light with herbal aroma.
Soup Huat Pig’s Organ Soup
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-42 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Opening Hours: 9:30am – 4pm (Tues – Sun), Closed Mon)
Soon Huat is the other long queued stall at Serangoon Garden, and there is good reason for it.
The signature is the Pig’s Organ Soup priced at $4, $5, $6 but you can top up with trotters, pork belly and braised egg.
What I enjoyed was that the soup didn’t have the usual overwhelming peppery taste, but instead filled with the tangy pickled vegetable flavours aka kiam chye which just whets the appetite.
When you have it hot, you just want to have spoonful after spoonful of the robust broth.
The pork slices and offal were generally clean-tasting and fresh, very shiok with a slight dip of the chilli.
Aliff Nasi Lemak
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-27, Singapore 555945
Opening Hours: 8am – 5pm (Tues – Sun), Closed Mon
Surround yourself in the aroma of fragrant Basmati rice and that tasty sambal chilli.
Nasi Lemak is a delicious traditional hawker treat, and it makes for a hearty and wholesome breakfast to start your day with.
There are a variety of serving sizes of Nasi Lemak (starting from $3.60 to $5.00) that are loaded with ingredients.
You can top up with chicken wing, fish, ikan bills, otah, fish cake, tahu, bagedel, egg, and tempeh, from $0.50 to $1.50.
While I wasn’t that sure of the ingredients as some were on the colder wing, the thing that stands out the most about their dish is the quality and taste of the basmati rice.
It was extremely fragrant, and soft consistency cooked with coconut milk.
The other stand-out part was the sweet-tasting chilli, though you may not be able to request for more.
Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-45 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Opening Hours: 6:30am – 3pm (Tues – Sun), Closed Mon
I love, love, love this stall, though the sounds of uncle opening and closing the plastic shelves (if you sit too near) may drive you nuts sometimes.
There’s no better way to start your morning than grabbing a piece of freshly baked bread or bun to go with your coffee. At this bakery, you get the best homemade goods at a fraction of the price, and there are a lot of great options to choose from.
There is something to satiate every palate, with airy and light savoury and sweet treats.
People go for their famous Banana Cake ($0.90) which is really old-school with perfect balance of sweetness with a moist and airy consistency
Also try out their savoury options, such as the best-selling Luncheon Meat Buns and Hae Bee Hiam Buns (spicy dried shrimps).
I find that you must have one there, where it is fresh out of the oven (smell the buttery aroma), and you can feel the softness and warm in your hands before taking that bite.
Bossi Ban Mian
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-18 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Tel: +65 8833 8118
Opening Hours: 9am – 3pm (Tues), 9am – 9pm (Thurs – Mon), Closed Wed
The owner and cook who is originally from Ipoh uses a recipe passed down by his mother. Taking the origin and heritage of the dish very seriously, this stall serves delicious variations of the dish with authentic and traditional flavours.
There are choices of prawn, sliced fish, clam, sliced abalone (priced at $4, $5 or $6), with choices of ban mian, U-mian, mian fen guo, or yee mian.
Their dry Ban Mian ($4) comes in a disposable container (strange) with minced pork, crispy ikan billis, tossed in a homemade green chili padi dip along with some vinegar and garlic to enhance the flavours.
The noodles, while ordered from a factory, was made to specification and had an al dente bite.
I also enjoyed the lightness of the soup served separately, included with egg with mani cai (sweet potato leaf) which added unique texture to the soup with a subtle and sweet flavour.
Serangoon Garden Carrot Cake & Wanton Noodle
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-13 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Opening Hours: 7am – 4pm (Mon – Sun)
I have previously gave this stall a miss because I wasn’t sure if it was good in Carrot Cake, Wanton Noodles or none.
But a friend who stayed Serangoon Garden his whole life recommended this as ”one of the two stalls I still go to”.
If you are wondering what there are a number of “Ang Sa Li” around, this is the other unofficial name of “Serangoon Garden”.
Although this stall serves a variety of dishes from Wanton Noodle ($3.50), Shredded Chicken Hor Fun ($3.50) and Spinach Noodles ($4), they are most famous for their Carrot Cake – both white and black variety. Though the black seems to be the more popular one.
The Black Carrot Cake ($3, $4, $5), and the black carrot cake stood out for its soft texture with strong taste of the sweet sauce and chai poh. Not too greasy or oily as well.
Pancake King
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-25 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Tel: +65 9137 9722
Opening Hours: 7am – 9pm (Mon – Sun)
Who doesn’t love a good old stack of pancakes for breakfast? They are so confident in their pancakes that they have a money back guarantee at the stall. Yah, supposedly they will give you a full refund if you do not like their food. Now that’s something you don’t see every day.
There is an assortment of local delights such as Carrot Cake, Curry Puff, Yam Cake, Pink Rice Kueh, Spring Rolls and Sesame Balls sold.
But people come here for the pancakes which are crispy on the outside, spongy on the inside. They use butter from New Zealand and Australia instead of magarine.
The middle was delectably chewy and thick, and the coconut sugar and peanuts went well with the soft texture.
Shui Guo
49A Serangoon Garden Way #01-22 Serangoon Garden Food Centre, Singapore 555945
Opening Hours: 6:30am – 8:30pm (Mon – Sun)
This appears to be the Serangoon Garden branch of the famous Bedok Chwee Kueh (I am still one who find that the outlet at Bedok Interchange somehow taste the best.)
The Chwee Kueh is sold at $0.50 per piece, which you can buy in 2, 3, or 4 pieces.
If you want to buy chwee kueh with the chai poh separate, a minimum of 4 pieces is required. For takeaway, add $0.30.
The chai poh is not mushy but has a light crunch, and the toasted sesame seeds add a nice aroma and flavour. Add a bit of the sambal chili with a pronounced dried shrimp taste for some gentle heat.
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