Singaporeans take their food very seriously. If you don't believe me, walk down to a Singapore hawker center (there's one almost everywhere), and taste for yourself. You'll see tourists mingling with working stiffs, stuffing their faces with Chinese, Indian, Malay, "Western", and some exotic Southeast Asia food choices.
Don't be fooled by the variety and excellent flavors, the dishes served in Singapore hawker centers are as cheap as they are delicious. You can get a hearty, authentically Asian meal for less than $3. For the no-BS Singaporean hawker center experience, do not dare miss these places when you're in town: we've picked ten hawker centers worth trying when in Singapore.
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Old Airport Road Hawker Centre
This public hawker center in the Katong neighborhood has been ladling out local favorites since 1973. Housed in a two-story building with a large carpark ("all good hawker centers have got huge carparks," Singapore food critic and Makansutra founder K.F. Seetoh reassures us), the hawker complement consists of about 168 stalls serving legendarily delicious char kway teow, satay, rojak, and satay bee hoon, among others.
Most of the hawkers housed here used to do business elsewhere, until the government got hawkers off the streets in the 1970s. The move into hawker centers did them no harm, though, and some of them carried their stellar reputations into their Old Airport Road digs. As a government (public) hawker center, Old Airport Road's fare offers great value for money: a heavy meal of the island's most delicious heritage foods will only set you back about SGD 5-7 (about $4 to $5.50).
ADDRESS:51 Old Airport Rd, Singapore 390051