How to order at a hawker centre, stall by stall.

The phrasebook

What they ask, and what to say.

Stall one

Ordering chicken rice.

Not sure what makes it special? See Hainanese chicken rice for the dish itself.

• The default is white — poached chicken. Roasted is the other choice, and a mix often costs a little more.
• Name the cut. Breast, thigh or drumstick; drumstick can cost extra.
• One person, or a share? A single plate comes with rice. Half or whole chicken is meat only, so order rice for each person separately.
• Sauces are self-serve. Chilli and minced garlic usually sit by the counter; help yourself while you wait.
• Your order, out loud: “One chicken rice, white, drumstick, eat here.”

Stall two

Ordering noodles: four choices, in order.

Taking dry noodles away? Ask for the soup — some stalls leave it out of a takeaway. Your order: “Mee pok, dry, chilli, small, dabao.”

1. The dishBak chor mee (minced pork noodles), fishball noodles, wonton mee — whatever is on the sign.
2. The noodleMee pok is flat egg noodles, mee kia thin egg noodles, kway teow flat rice noodles, bee hoon thin rice vermicelli.
3. Dry or soupDry noodles are tossed in a sauce of chilli, oil and vinegar with the soup on the side. In Hokkien, dry is “tah” and soup is “terng.”
4. Chilli or not, and the sizeSay chilli or no chilli for dry noodles. Many noodle stalls sell two or three sizes; point at the size on the sign or ask for small, medium or large.

Stall three

Ordering economy rice (cai fan).

Economy rice is a stall of ready-cooked dishes in trays: you choose a few and they go over a plate of rice.

• Say “eat” or “takeaway” first, before the rice is scooped, so it goes on the right plate or box.
• Point and say “this.” Pick dishes from the trays; they all go on one plate of rice unless you ask for them separately.
• It is priced by the combination — vegetables cost less than meat, and fish or cutlets cost more. Ask the price before you add a fifth dish.
• Ask for curry or braised gravy over the rice. It is usually free, and it makes the plate.
• Want more rice? Ask for “a little more rice” — extra plain rice is often free.

Stall four

Ordering at a zi char stall.

Zi char (also tze char) stalls cook home-style Chinese dishes to order, for the table to share — sambal kangkong, cereal prawns, sweet and sour pork, sometimes chilli crab. Pick a size for each dish; even a small can be family-sized, so two people do well with two or three smalls and rice. Give your table number, sit down, and the dishes come out as they are cooked.

Before you queue

Paying, halal signs and drinks.

• Carry cash. More than 11,500 hawkers had taken up the national SGQR code by late 2024, and PayNow and PayLah are widely accepted — but cards often aren’t, and some hawkers still prefer cash.
• Halal: look for the MUIS halal certificate at the stall. A “no pork, no lard” sign is not the same as certification; HalalSG’s advice is “check, ask, decide.” Many coffee shops have separate halal stalls.
• Drinks come from their own stall. For the kopi and teh words, see our hawker food guide. A takeaway drink in a plastic bag often skips the container charge.
• Check the days. Each stall sets its own hours and rest days — even famous ones close one day a week.

Copy this

Your first hawker order, written out.

• ☐ Table number: ___ (and tissues on the seat)
• ☐ “One chicken rice, roasted, thigh, eat here.”
• ☐ “Mee pok, dry, chilli, small.”
• ☐ “Kopi peng.” (Iced coffee with condensed milk.)
• ☐ Something you have never heard of, from the stall with the longest queue: ___
• ☐ Tray returned. (It’s the law.)

Keep it

Four stalls, one tray, one photo.

A hawker lunch is plates from four different stalls on one table. Snap it once and PlateDiary cuts every plate out into its own save, filed under that hawker centre and that lunch. Write the stall number in the note, give the stall a stamp in Stamps — a street stall counts — and its page remembers what you ordered there. Prices stay in Singapore dollars, exactly as you paid.