Hawkers' Street @ ION — Restaurant in Singapore

Review of Hawkers’ Street @ ION Orchard

Hawkers’ Street was added about five years after ION Orchard first opened, and its inclusion fits perfectly with the mall’s premium yet accessible image. I really appreciate that they’ve brought in several Michelin-recognized hawker brands, offering well-loved local flavours in a clean, central, and comfortable setting.

Here are my thoughts on the food we tried:

King of Fried Rice 4.5 out of 5 Their fried rice is truly impressive — I’d say it’s comparable to Din Tai Fung’s standard. The use of Japanese pearl rice gives it a premium texture and fragrance, and the option to pair it with either a chicken chop or pork chop adds a satisfying heartiness. The dried chilli on the side also gives the dish an extra punch of flavour that enhances the overall experience.

HK Cheong Fun 2.0 out of 5 The rice rolls had the taste and texture I was hoping for, though the presentation was a little messy. I ordered the scallop rice roll ($6.80), but the filling tasted more like fish cake — I couldn’t detect any real scallops at all.

Unfortunately, the service experience here left much to be desired. When I asked for some chilli, the staff — who appeared disinterested and rather unprofessional — told me curtly to “take only what I needed.” The chilli pot was nearly empty and difficult to scoop from, which made the interaction unnecessarily unpleasant. It’s disappointing, as the food had potential, but the poor attitude of the staff dampened the...

Great to have many nice famous hawker food under one roof consolidated in Orchard. I have not tried the originals though so can’t comment on how the quality of the food compares, but having tried two stalls (Eunos BCM & Nam Seng HKM), the quality is honestly not top notch. HKM is not as flavourful, although I personally do like dried version HKM with sliced chilli, the way Nam Seng’s one is served. Eunos BCM’s soup is really good with ‘cloudy’ minced meat, but the mee kia is a bit too ‘yellow’ (too much alkaline) - maybe I should try the kway teow next time if they have it. One further comment - the drinks stall. The slightly hunched-back old auntie is very grouchy. 😆 I wanted to order half-boiled eggs, so I asked ‘Auntie ah, got any more eggs?’ Auntie ‘gotta wait’ Me ‘oh, need to wait how long ah?’ Auntie ‘until the eggs are cooked.’ 🙄😅 I just walked away.. though can’t help lol when I related to wifey. And wifey made the same observation about the auntie being very ‘smelly-faced’ when she bought her teh-see earlier, which btw wifey found not thick enough to her liking. Bottomline - not a bad option if you are craving for reasonable quality hawker food in the middle of Orchard. But be prepared to wait for a table during peak hours as there is a limited number of...

A bunch of famous hawker brands opening offshoots in a gentrified simulacrum of a hawker center in the basement of a fancy-schmancy Orchard mall? You already know how this story ends: endless complaints about mediocrity, price gouging, and how nothing can measure up to the originals.

And you'd be right, in a way - expecting either the price points or the quality of the originals is a fool's errand. You're traipsing about in a mall that sells ten-thousand dollar couture, for chrissakes, and the actual people who perfected the craft of their respective dishes are decidedly elsewhere.

That said, it is precisely because these stalls can never live up to their storied progenitors that I think the whole thing is probably a misfire. Culinarily, to be clear- I'm sure it's raking in plenty of cash from thousands of credulous, soon-to-be-disappointed souls wafting through the mall every day.

Liked: Prawn chee cheong fun was decent.

Ambivalent: Nam Sing Hokkien Mee. I'm not expecting it to be that cheap or that good, but this falls short even by normal food court standards. Expensive, tiny and normal. Bak Chor Mee. The dumplings are very good but the soup is thin, salty slurry. Also a very underdressed bowl for...