Best Hawker Center food in Singapore: what to eat in Old Airport Road Food Center

As I mention in my main post about Singapore, the unity of the city revolts around food. And this is nowhere clearer than in hawker centers. Hawker centers are food courts where hundreds of street food vendors cook and sell their signature dishes in rows of stalls around public tables. People line up to buy their favourite food (at very low prices) and eat together at the tables. Chinese, Malay, Indian and Indonesian cuisine (among others) – hundreds of different delicious dishes waiting for you IN THE SAME PLACE? In this post I will focus on what to eat in Old Airport Road Food Center, located in the Geylang area.

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Old Airport Road Food Center

Old Airport Road Food Center was one of the first hawker centers I visited in Singapore, but also one of my favourites. This is because it has retained its authenticity, probably because it is further away from tourist areas. It has less of a theme than other hawker centers, but it seems to have a bit of a noodle competition going on.  Threfore, it’s the perfect place to try some mee, kway teow or hor fun.

What to eat in Old Airport Road Food Center

Roasted pork & Char siu

Start your day with a mixed portion of crunchy and melty sio bak (roasted pork) and sweet and smokey char siu (bbq pork) at Roast Paradise (#01-121). You can order it alone, with noodles or with rice. The name of the stall is quite the premonition!

Mee

Try every different version of the egg noodles: lor mee at Xin Mei Xiang Zheng Zong Lor Mee (#01-116), prawn mee at Whitley Road Big Prawn Noodles (#01-98), wanton mee at Hua Kee Hougang Famous Wanton Mee (#01-02) and Hokkien mee at Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee (#01-32).

Char Kway Teow

Char kway teow is a Malaysian rice wide noodle stir fry. It is typically served with sprouts, cockles, fish cakes and shrimps. Try the drier smokier Penang version of char kway teow at Dong Ji Fried Kway Teow (#01-138).

Char kway teow @Dong Ji Fried Kway Teow

Beef Hor Fun

The fourth version of noodles Old Airport Road offers is hor fun. These are flat rice noodles/cakes. Try them dry or with their tasy gooey sauce at Hin Fried Hor Fun (#01-163).

Dry Beef Hor Fun @Hin Fried Hor Fun

Others

Kaya toast and coffee at Toast Hut (#01-52), curry puffs at Wang Wang Crispy Curry Puff (01-126) and rojak at Toa Payoh Rojak (#01-108).

Where to stay in Singapore

Singapore is an expensive city for the standards of Southeast Asia. Therefore, you may need a little extra planning when choosing your accommodation if you’re on a budget. However, you can find all kinds of accommodations in the city, so choose depending on your main interests based on the area. Check out this post where I give you recommendations based on the type of trip you’re looking for and the areas in Singapore:

Where to stay in Singapore

Or you can use the map below to find where to stay:

Booking.com

Closing statement

Trying new food while traveling is probably one of the things that brings me the most joy in my life and Singapore and its hawker centers make it all the easier for me! The fact that you can taste not only many different dishes of a culture but of many cultures that are intertwined in the making of this city state in a single place is the most convenient thing. Now that you know what to eat in Old Airport Road Food Center, make sure you include it in your Singapore itinerary!

And remember, this is only what one man could manage to taste in a couple visits to the city, but by no means it is an exhaustive guide in terms of dishes or even hawker centers, so explore and go with your gut (quite literally!).

If you are still hungry, have a look at my recommendations for the best food at other hawker centers, and since you’re in Singapore, you’ll probably need some things to do in between meals, so you can read a bit on that too!

Best Hawker Center food in Singapore: our experience with Singapore’s street food

What to do in Singapore: Top 11 things to do in Singapore

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