Bukit Merah Central Food Centre: 8 Hawker Stalls to Try

Bukit Merah Central Food Centre is one of those neighbourhood hawker centres that can be easy to overlook if you don’t live or work around the area.

Head upstairs, though, and there is quite a bit to eat. You’ll find familiar favourites such as fishball noodles, carrot cake and char kway teow sitting alongside Sarawak kolo mee, laksa, roast meats and comforting bowls of soup.

What I particularly like here is that many of the stalls still feel very much like everyday neighbourhood food. Prices are generally reasonable, portions at several stalls are surprisingly generous, and you’ll still spot elderly hawkers who have been cooking the same dishes for years.

Some stalls draw serious lunchtime queues, while others are quieter finds that deserve a little more attention.

After eating my way around the second floor, here are 8 hawker stalls at Bukit Merah Central Food Centre that you can consider trying.

1. Zhong Pin Noodle House — #02-04

Signature Dishes: Kolo Mee & Sarawak Fusion Laksa
Operating Hours: 8am – 2pm
Closed: Fri & Sat

Seeing Sarawak Fusion Laksa on the signboard immediately got my attention. It isn’t something you come across at every neighbourhood hawker centre, and Zhong Pin gives its version quite a substantial treatment.

The Sarawak Fusion Laksa ($5.50) arrived with a surprisingly generous amount of ingredients for the price, including three medium-sized prawns and scrambled egg.

The broth was the star of the bowl. It was full-bodied and fragrant, with herbs and spices coming through quite distinctly. This isn’t the lighter sort of laksa broth that disappears after every mouthful; the flavours stay around for a while, including a noticeable herbal aftertaste.

Personally, I found it quite interesting, although diners who prefer a cleaner and more straightforward laksa might need a few mouthfuls to get accustomed to it.

The prawns were fresh and paired nicely with the richer broth.

There is also a little trick worth knowing. For an additional 50 cents, you can request to replace the usual bee hoon with kolo mee.

I’d probably do that on my next visit. The firmer noodles give you a bit more bite and make the bowl feel almost like a cross between two Sarawak favourites.

Then there is the stall’s Kolo Mee, available at $4.50 for the small and $5.50 for the large.

If you’re hungry, I’d go straight for the large.

The serving is substantial, with minced meat, char siew and crispy pork lard scattered across the noodles. The char siew was pleasantly soft while those little pieces of pork lard added crunch every few mouthfuls.

You can also choose between three different flavour profiles — black with soy sauce, white with shallot sauce, or red with a sweeter sauce.

That gives you a reason to return even after trying it once.

Between the two dishes, I found the laksa more unusual, but the kolo mee is probably the one I’d pick when I simply want a filling, satisfying lunch.

2. Ling Heng Roast Meat — #02-05

Signature Dish: Roast Duck Noodles
Operating Hours: 10am – 6pm
Closed: Sat & Sun

Ling Heng is the sort of roast meat stall that doesn’t immediately shout for attention, which is perhaps why I think it flies a little under the radar.

I ordered a combination of roast duck noodles and dumplings, with my meal coming to $7.

What I appreciated first was the seasoning of the noodles.

Instead of being drenched in a dark, salty sauce, the noodles were relatively lightly seasoned. That allowed the roast duck to contribute most of the savoury flavour.

And the duck deserves some attention.

The meat carried a good roasted fragrance, while the skin still retained its juiciness and richness. I particularly enjoyed eating a slice of duck together with the noodles rather than treating the two as separate components.

The dumplings were another pleasant surprise. Each came with a small prawn inside, giving them a little more substance than I was expecting.

There was nothing elaborate about the meal, but everything came together comfortably — nicely cooked noodles, flavourful roast duck and dumplings that didn’t feel like an afterthought.

I also have to mention the uncle running the stall, who was friendly and sincere throughout my visit.

Sometimes that old-school hawker hospitality makes lunch just a little nicer.

For $7, I walked away quite satisfied.

3. Lim Kee — #02-43

Signature Dish: Fried Carrot Cake
Operating Hours: 7.45am – 3.30pm
Closed: Wed

Some dishes have an uncanny ability to remind you of childhood, and Lim Kee’s white carrot cake did exactly that for me.

Perhaps it was the aroma coming from the wok, or perhaps it was seeing those slightly browned edges among the pieces of radish cake.

Either way, this felt reassuringly old-school.

I ordered the small white carrot cake ($3.50) and was pleasantly surprised by the portion.

The hawker had managed to get a good mix of textures onto the plate. Some pieces remained soft and chewy in the centre, while others picked up crisp, lightly charred edges from the wok.

There was also plenty of egg distributed throughout the carrot cake, together with cai poh, which gave little bursts of saltiness here and there.

What I particularly liked was the wok fragrance.

You could smell those toasted bits even before digging in, and they made the slightly crunchy pieces especially enjoyable.

A spoonful of chilli was placed at the side. It didn’t look like much, but it was enough to add some heat and savouriness when mixed through part of the plate.

I wouldn’t describe this as a fancy or reinvented carrot cake.

That’s exactly why I enjoyed it.

It tastes like the sort of straightforward breakfast I remember eating from neighbourhood hawker stalls years ago — eggy, slightly smoky and best eaten while still hot.

At $3.50, it’s also increasingly difficult to complain about the price.

4. Lai Hin Fish Ball Kway Teow — #02-11

Signature Dish: Fish Ball Noodles
Operating Hours: 9am – 2pm
Closed: Sun

Here’s one warning before you visit Lai Hin Fish Ball Kway Teow:

Don’t assume that turning up during weekday lunch means you’ll get your noodles quickly.

The stall has its regulars, and queues can apparently stretch to around an hour during the busiest lunch period.

Thankfully, there is quite a bit going on in this bowl.

My $4 mee pok came with fishballs, fish cake, minced meat and sliced pork, making it a fairly loaded serving for the price.

The noodles were what won me over first.

They had that springy, al dente bite I always look for in mee pok. Personally, once mee pok becomes too soft, even an excellent sauce has a difficult job rescuing it. Here, the noodles still had enough firmness to make every mouthful enjoyable.

The sauce mixture was also more interesting than I expected.

A small amount of black vinegar added fragrance and a faint tang rather than making the whole bowl sour. Then came the chilli paste, which had a slightly smoky character that lingered around the noodles.

If you’re not comfortable with spice, do ask for less chilli when ordering.

The fishballs and fish cake were another highlight. They had a springier, more substantial texture than many generic factory-made versions.

I also liked the addition of tang chye and spring onions, which brought some old-school savouriness and freshness to the bowl.

But don’t neglect the soup.

It wasn’t merely a token bowl of clear liquid served beside the noodles. The broth had a noticeably deeper savouriness while staying nicely balanced — neither particularly sweet nor excessively salty.

In fact, I found myself going back to the soup repeatedly between mouthfuls of mee pok.

Would I queue an hour every week? Probably not.

Would I eat it again when the queue is manageable? Definitely.

5. Shen Tang Soup — #02-48

Signature Dish: Assorted Soup
Operating Hours: 10.30am – 1.30pm
Closed: Sat & Sun

If you’re after something comforting rather than fried or heavily seasoned, Shen Tang Soup makes a pretty convincing case for lunch.

And judging from the queue during lunchtime, plenty of office workers around Bukit Merah Central seem to have reached the same conclusion.

The stall specialises in traditional-style soups priced at $4.50 each.

You can pair yours with:

White Rice — $0.70
Pumpkin Rice — $1.20

The first thing that struck me was the serving size.

These are not tiny bowls intended merely to accompany rice. The portions are substantial enough that a soup-and-rice combination feels like a proper meal.

I also appreciated the restraint in the seasoning.

The soup had enough flavour to be enjoyable, but it wasn’t aggressively salty or loaded with seasoning. You can actually drink several spoonfuls comfortably rather than needing rice after every sip.

For me, that’s exactly how this type of soup should be.

It is the sort of lunch I’d choose after several consecutive days of fried noodles and roast meats — warm, straightforward and easy on the stomach.

There is one catch: come early.

The stall operates for only a few hours each day, and the lunch crowd can get surprisingly long.

When you see office workers patiently queueing for soup in Singapore’s weather, you know the stall must be doing something right.

6. Chun Kee Fishball Noodle — #02-37

Signature Dish: Fishball Noodles
Operating Hours: 7am – 1.30pm
Closed: Sun

Chun Kee gave me the feeling of stepping back into a much older neighbourhood noodle stall.

Run by an elderly couple, this is one of those places where the food doesn’t try to be fashionable. Instead, you get familiar fishball noodles prepared in a style that many Singaporeans grew up eating.

I ordered the $4 fishball noodles, which came with fishballs, sliced fish cake, fish paste dumpling and minced pork.

The mee pok was nicely cooked, retaining a pleasant springiness rather than becoming limp after sitting in the sauce.

Then there were the fishballs.

They had that satisfying bounce you’d expect, while the fish paste dumpling provided another texture among the noodles.

The sauce was probably the most nostalgic part for me.

It had that familiar old-school noodle-stall flavour — the sort that doesn’t necessarily hit you with one dominant seasoning, but somehow tastes immediately recognisable once everything is tossed together.

My only reservation was the serving size.

At $4, I found the portion slightly modest, particularly if you’re arriving with a serious appetite.

Fortunately, there are $5 medium and $6 large portions, and I’d probably choose one of those next time.

The uncle was also especially friendly when I visited, which made the experience feel even more like eating at one of those neighbourhood stalls from years ago.

Not revolutionary fishball noodles — just a good, old-fashioned bowl done properly.

And sometimes, that’s precisely what I want.

7. Man Man Lor Mee — #02-14

Signature Dish: Lor Mee
Operating Hours: 6.30am – 6.30pm
Closed: Sun

Unlike some lor mee stalls where there is essentially one bowl with two different serving sizes, Man Man Lor Mee gives you several variations to choose from.

The menu includes:

Traditional Lor Mee — $4.50
Signature Lor Mee — $5
Meat Ball Lor Mee — $5
Deluxe Lor Mee — $6.30

I went for the Signature Lor Mee ($5).

The bowl arrived with a generous amount of ingredients, and I liked that I didn’t have to dig through a mountain of noodles just to locate everything.

The gravy was full-flavoured and carried enough savouriness to coat the noodles properly.

Lor mee is quite personal for me because the gravy can make or break the entire bowl. Too watery and it feels disappointing; too heavy and eating it becomes tiring halfway through.

Man Man’s version sat comfortably somewhere in the middle.

Mix everything thoroughly before eating, particularly if you’ve added the usual chilli and vinegar. That changes the character of the gravy considerably and gives each mouthful a bit more sharpness.

The Signature Lor Mee is probably the sensible starting point if you’re visiting for the first time.

But I’ll admit that the $6.30 Deluxe Lor Mee caught my eye while I was ordering.

For another $1.30, curiosity might get the better of me on my next visit.

8. Day Night Fried Kway Teow — #02-41

Signature Dish: Char Kway Teow
Operating Hours: 9.30am – 5.30pm
Closed: Thu

When a hawker has been frying char kway teow for close to 40 years, you expect him to know his way around a wok.

Day Night Fried Kway Teow has apparently been at Bukit Merah Central for around 30 years, and even at 2.30pm, I noticed customers arriving steadily for their plates of noodles.

Prices remain straightforward:

Small — $4
Medium — $5
Large — $6

My plate came with the classic assortment of egg, fish cake, Chinese sausage, cockles, bean sprouts and chives.

The noodles carried a pleasant wok fragrance and leaned slightly towards the sweeter side.

There was enough char on the noodles to make them interesting, but the dish still retained some moisture instead of being fried completely dry.

What really caught my attention, though, was the half calamansi served alongside the char kway teow.

That’s not something I encounter with every plate of CKT.

My suggestion is to eat a few mouthfuls first before squeezing it in.

The first few bites allow you to appreciate the original smoky-sweet character of the noodles. After that, squeeze the calamansi over one section and try it again.

That little burst of citrus cuts through some of the richness and gives the noodles a noticeably fresher finish.

Do I want calamansi on every plate of char kway teow from now on?

I’m not entirely sure.

But it’s an interesting touch, and after nearly four decades of frying noodles, I’d say the uncle has earned the right to do things his way.

Bukit Merah Central Food Centre isn’t the sort of place I’d visit expecting trendy hawker creations or elaborate presentation.

Its appeal lies elsewhere.

There are elderly hawkers still serving familiar noodle dishes, a carrot cake stall that feels like it belongs to an earlier generation, an experienced char kway teow uncle who’s been frying noodles for decades, and even a couple of Sarawak-inspired dishes if you fancy something different.

Prices are also still relatively approachable, with several meals starting at around $3.50 to $5.

My personal picks?

I’d return to Lai Hin Fish Ball Kway Teow for its springy mee pok and surprisingly good soup, Lim Kee when I’m craving old-school white carrot cake, and Zhong Pin Noodle House when I want something less commonly found at a neighbourhood hawker centre.

Just remember that several stalls operate mainly in the morning and lunchtime — and for the more popular ones, arriving slightly earlier could save you quite a bit of queueing.

Bukit Merah Central Food Centre
📍 163 Bukit Merah Central, Singapore 150163

Nearest MRT: Redhill MRT (EW18) — approximately 10–12 minutes’ walk

Note: Food preferences are subjective, and the comments above are based on my personal dining experience. Operating hours and prices may also change, so it is advisable to check before making a special trip.