7 Outstanding Stalls at Bukit Merah View Food Centre

Bukit Merah View Food Centre is labeled as one of the best food centres in Singapore by taxi drivers. This food centre also caters to the working crowd around Henderson Industrial Park. It’s quite a big-scale food centre even though it’s not that accessible from MRT stations. You’ll be able to find our favourite local hawker fare, as well as, some many delicious food options from different countries. We bring you 7 delicious food stalls that made us shout, “MORE!”

Sisaket Thai Food

Owner-chef Viparat Saibua, affectionately known by her loyal customers as Cat opened this stall in 2014 and has since gained a huge following. Her Thai Mango Salad ($4) consisted of good textural crunch, with a distinct sweetness from the mangoes that balanced out the usual spiciness of Thai salads. Thai Seafood Tom Yam Soup ($5) consisting of fresh, tender fish slices and prawns came with a bowl of white rice which came in handy as the soup lit our mouths on fire. Pineapple Fried Rice ($4) was fragrant and had a good consistency. The pork floss topping enhanced its flavours. Lastly, Phad Thai ($4) were slightly moist, with a strong eggy flavour. The squids were cooked just right and isn’t hard unlike most stalls that tend to overcook their squids.

Na Na Homemade Curry

We’re pretty sure this stall needs no introduction as everyone went crazy over the extremely spicy fish head curry ever since it was included in the Michelin Bib Gourmand list. Ang Go Li (Goldbanded Jobfish) and Ang Sai (Red Snapper) are usually used as they can grow to quite a large size so their heads fit nicely into the large claypot. Due to its large size, their heads also contain a lot more gelatinous bits, which Chinese really enjoy savouring. Moreover, the meat from these fishes are able to hold its shape yet absorb the curry very well when lifted from the bones and not flake apart. Each bite was filled with fine, tender and juicy meat, with an excellent texture.

Not a fan of fish as you’re too lazy to pick the bones, go for the Curry Chicken ($3) or Curry Chicken Drum Stick ($3.50). You can pair your meat with a bowl of Curry Vegetable ($3), as well as, bread and rice at an additional 50 cents. The chicken meat falls off easily from its bones and it’s so tender. Basically, all the curry dishes are extremely spicy but so well executed that it’s really savoury and delicious.

Bukit Merah View Carrot Cake

Having been in the business for over 60 years, the hawker is still painstakingly making carrot cake the traditional way. If you’re wondering why carrot cake here is served in bigger chunks, it dates back to around 50 years ago. The original carrot cake came in big chunks and fried simply in sweet black sauce. This hawker believes in sticking to tradition. There was no chye poh or eggs in the past but it evolved to suit the young crowd’s tastebuds. This is also how the white version came about. Bukit Merah View’s Carrot Cake is served in chunks that feature a crispy exterior. It has a good texture inside, soft but not mushy. It was very flavoursome, with its savoury taste coming from fish sauce, eggs and chai poh. The small portion only costs $2.50.

71 Lor Mee

There wasn’t any queue around 11.30am when we ordered a bowl of Lor Mee but we only realized later on that they cater mostly to the early morning marketing crowd as they were sold out around 1pm when we were about to leave Bukit Merah View food centre. Affordably priced between $2.50-$3, the portion is very reasonable. You can request for a mixture of beehoon and yellow noodles or either one. There were fishcake, wu xiang and little pork bits which gave the lor mee a unique crunch. The lor (gravy) was savoury and did not turn starchy even after it had been left out for awhile (due to photo-taking).

Hong Xing Handmade Fishball and Meatball

This couple makes their fishballs and meatballs every morning before boiling them in a mouthwatering fish and meat stock. Yellowtail is used to make the fishballs which turned out super bouncy, springy and tender. You can taste the freshness and natural sweetness of the yellowtail fish. It’s perfectly executed such that you can’t detect any fishy-ness. The meatballs, on the other hand, are firmer in texture and contain lots of teepo (dried sole fish) which gave it a savoury finish. Our kway teow soup costs $5 as we requested for a mix of both fishballs and meatballs. If you’re observant, you’ll notice that the size of each fishball and meatball differs as they are truly made by hand, unlike those purchased from suppliers that are mass-produced with a uniformed shape at factories.

Charcoal Grilled

This hawker only opens for business in the evenings for approximately 4 hours only. They sell cuttlefish kang kong, rojak and their highly sought-after satay. You can opt for pork, chicken or mutton satay. Pork and chicken satay costs 50 cents per stick while mutton satay costs 60 cents per stick. We shared 15 sticks of chicken satay and 2 ketupat for $8.60. Each stick was glistening but only lean meat is used. One bite of satay was full of flavours, with a slightly charred exterior. The meat was tender and goes very well with the soft ketupat that has a melt-in-your-mouth texture. It was so addictive that we devoured stick after stick and before we know it, the plate was completely empty.

Chai Chuan Tou Yang Rou Tang

It’s hard to miss this hawker stall when there’s always snaking queues. The queue might be very long but the hawker aunties were super efficient and managed to clear the crowd quickly. We paid a total of $7.50 for mutton ribs, mutton stomach and mutton meatball soup, with a bowl of big rice. The soup contained a peppery punch and was full of coriander leaves, with a distinct gamey mutton aroma. The meat falls off the ribs easily and was fork-tender, with pleasant layers of fats and skin. The mutton was not overpowering and had a touch of its natural flavours so for people who don’t really know how to appreciate mutton soup, this is considered acceptable. The good news is that the soup is refillable! Our only disappointment was the chilli as it had no kick and we found it a tad too saltish.

Bukit Merah View Food Centre seemed like a rest-point for taxi drivers so if you’re driving, do go earlier to avoid long waiting time for a parking lot. Besides the above mentioned 7 food stalls, we’re certain that residents staying in the vicinity have their personal favourite stall that we might have missed out. We would return to this food centre due to the wide variety of delectable hawker fare!

Let’s build a food community that helps to update the food news in Singapore! Simply comment below if there’s any changes or additional info to the stalls above. We will verify and update from our side. Thanks in advance!

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stalls featured here.