Hawkers Asian Street Food — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

I've been coming to Hawkers since they opened and I cannot stress enough how terrible the service staff has become on top of the food timing. They prioritize food delivery orders it seems over actual in person customer that leave tips for their servers. We came here tonight for my birthday and as soon as we walked in a large man just yelled at us "15 minuter or outside" like what the heck you weren't even busy and couldn't wait for us to walk up to the stand and greet us at least? Then he asked if we wanted outside or the bar again and I just asked if we can we sit at the bar while we wait and he gave a weird look and said yeah. The bar was full except for a few single seats in between a bunch of people so the two of us couldn't even sit and have a drink while we waited. We almost decided to leave because how off putting the two hosts guys were and the lack of any bar seating. Then the table was ready so we sat down and the second host guy was rude as well. Our server came over within 30 seconds asking what we'd like and I said I just needed a minute to look and got an attitude in response. Then we ordered and asked for napkins that never came. She dropped the Korean wings at our table and we asked for napkins again and ordered a drink from the bar and she apologized and brought the drink right over with no napkins even when the wings came. Our hands were so sticky after waiting 15 minutes for napkins. Not even an apology. Then a few things we wanted to order were out of stock. So we ordered whatever we could. Waited 30 mins for her to come back and take our entree orders and were told any noodle dishes would take over 30mins and the curry ramen we came for was sold out. It's a Sunday and not even busy yet they're out of so much and our server should have let us know how long the entrees were going to take if she was going to wait 30mins just to come back and check on us. The heavier host guy seemed like we were annoying him just walking in the door and then the other host guy had some weird attitude and pointed the menus to where he wanted us to sit without any sort of hello or greeting. Oh and the server sat down right next to me touching my legs and was breathing in my face as she took our appetizers. It felt like we were at a food truck just lucky to even get served. We didn't feel any sort of customer service from all three of the workers we interacted with and we were in such a good mood ready for a good dinner.. we didn't order entrees because we didn't want to be there for two hours just to eat and told her to take the double margaritas we ordered with dinner back so we could leave and go down the street to an actual restaurant that has any sort of decency.

TLDR; this place has no customer service skills and prioritizes Uber eats and the like over actual patrons that support the servers with tips. Rude service everywhere, we did not feel welcome at all. The first year they were open was great, but now it's full of arrogant employees that don't know how to treat customers with respect or decency. Just order take out from here like they want you to. Lucky they even got a tip, and I work service industry and make a point of tipping for good service. They didn't even...

Hawkers has been one of my favorite joints in the St. Pete area. I mean St. Pete is a hub for good food and beer, and even with all the option we keep coming back to hawkers.

The old fashion made with Japanese whiskey is really delicious. Try any of their Japanese whiskeys they all are good. (Hawkers do charge for ice if you ask for on the rocks, which I think is ridiculous)

One of my favorite things to eat at Hawkers is their Steak Kimchi Fried Rice - I do have a note to the chef though. As a person of south Asian origin, it’s crucial that the rice is cooked right in a fried rice. It’s like 95% of what a fried rice dish is made off. That being said, the kimchi fried has not been consistent. My humble request to the chef. Please cook the rice all the way. Out of the 10 times I have had this dish, the rice was not cooked all the way like 7 times. Cooking the rice all the way is really crucial to this dish. And I say this with all the love, because this is my favorite dish in all of St. Pete. Please!! Please!! Please!! Cook the rice all the way. I really don’t want to eat kimchi fried rice anywhere else.

Re-fried Korean wings are very unique. These wings are Not for you if you like BWW’s wings. BWW are trash. These are real wings. Not sure what BWW’s has been serving.

One of the best roti canai I have ever eaten. It comes with 2 roti’s. Get an extra roti with your order. You will need it. Roti canai is Malaysian in its etiology, but the curry is the closest thing to the curry from the western region of India. If you ever ate a curry at an Indian restaurant and they told you it was curry, my friend you have been lied to. This roti canai is your opportunity to taste something that comes very very close to the curry from western India.

There isn’t too much I can complain about when it comes to hawkers. It’s definitely one of my favorite places in St. Pete. I am an Asian food junky!!!

Edit : another visit on 04/07/2022. It was packed the wait was 2 hrs but we got a table less than an hour later. Sorry Amanda, you had already left for the day. That’s ok!!! May be we can meet next time ( hint: I like the place to keep coming back).

So this time we tried everything on one side of the menu as the other side of the menu was gonna take some time.

Steamed Baos w/ char siu: OMG!!! It was melting in our mouths!! Well made buns.

Chicken Egg roll: this is one of the most unique egg rolls. Remind me very much if the indo-Chinese (If you have not eaten indo-Chinese yet, you haven’t lived a satisfied life) egg roll recipe.

Summer rolls, are my favorites, cas they don’t have a soul within them. The soul of a summer roll is actually outside of them: The Peanut Sauce. Hawkers definitely does a great job on that.

Street Skewer: Chicken Satay, not good!! Being honest!! Chicken was not cooked all the way. Sorry to say but that’s the truth. I get it the place was packed, chef rushed it probably but, hey!! Gotta be careful with chicken.

Can’t go to Hawkers and not order the roti canai and The Korean wings!!! Always consistently good.

Pretty good night for us.

The place still...

Well, there we were: me, a couple of hungry kids, couple of hungry seniors, and one progressive hangrier wife. 30 minutes into our wait for a table I pointed out that wifey's choice of a hip spot in a hip neighborhood on a Saturday at 7pm may not have been her most expedient of choices. She shot me daggers and I winked. We looked around at the half hearted Asian decor for the eighth time.

Our host had just seated the second party of 4+ that came in after us, but the discombobulated look in his eye said enough. Being hip doesn't necessarily make you good at your job I guess.

Things were looking up for a moment when our server was pleased that we wanted food as quickly as he said he wanted to turn our table over again after we left. But it was all downhill again from there.

Beers: warm and 3/5 on draft out of stock Kids drinks: in a glass, awesome Water: 3 for 5 people, smart Gin drink: pumped full of of syrup yeehaw Mohito: literally served in a catheter bag? No like..for real.

First round of dinner plates still had nice tender morsels of the last users rice stuck to them...so that was perfect while we waited, we were starving!

Ok on to the food!!!

Chicken bao buns: dry and overcooked Duck bao buns: dry and overcooked Have you people ever considered sauce? Like even just use Yum Yum sauce from Publix for the love of Buddha!

Entrees were just...hapless. chef literally dumped an entire salt shaker in the Singapore Mei Fun.

Ill never know what the steak kimchi fried rice tastes like because the server brought me the wrong dish, a passable steak and basil fried rice that my kid spit right out.

When I pointed out the distinct lack of fermented cabbage in my dish the server blamed the kitchen...but looked a touch embarrassed when we got the bill and I gently asked him to take off the steak and basil since I never ordered it and he clearly put it in wrong. Teamwork!

Meats were somewhat better but way overpriced for the portions.

Satay Skewers: drier than a Kabul aquifer 5 Spice Wings: 5 Lil dudes but quite good Bulgogi Steak: very good! I truly enjoyed this!

I think the staff of Hawkers could really benefit from a nice field trip to Hop Alley in Denver, which is actually hip and actually awesome Asian Street Food.

Another option would be to pick one region of "Asia" - then visit there - and try to get good at one regional take instead of destroying an entire continent's culinary dignity.

Ok that's enough. I have to hustle back to the loo for round 5 of liquid fire today....