Ayer Rajah Food Centre was built in 1979 to serve residents around the West Coast area and students from the nearby National University of Singapore.
It has recently gone through some renovations and has reopened 1 Aug 2022 with a repainted bright green exterior.
If you need somewhere with Halal food for dinner or supper, visit Ayer Rajah Food Centre is for its extensive variety of Halal food selections amongst other choices.
Additionally, there are seventeen hawker stalls in the market which won the Singapore Top Heritage Food award by the International Business Federation (IBF). Since there are only 110 awards given across Singapore, this food centre is an achievement.
Here are some of Ayer Rajah Food Centre’s recommended stalls:
Tokyo BBQ Stingray 東京烧
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-07
Opening Hours: 6pm – 11:30pm (Mon-Sun)
Tasty BBQ Stingray Since 1984
Those who think that the West of Singapore does not have exciting hawker fares probably have not come across Tokyo Seafood BBQ.
Their Barbeque Stingray is rumoured to be one of the best in Singapore. The melt in your mouth fish flesh cuts nicely away from the cartilage.
Sambal paste adds a fiery kick to each mouthful of fish. Add chinchalok and chilli achar, which gives a pleasant sour aftertaste. The prices start from $10 to $18, depending on size.
Another popular dish is The Oyster Omelette ($8 for small, $10 for medium, $12 for large) which comes nice and fluffy.
Other dishes you can try are their White Lala ($8 for small, $10 for medium) or clams. These clams are cooked in sambal chilli paste, leaving your tongue burning but begging for more. Grilled prawns are another alternative dish to try.
Joo Chiat Prawn Mee
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-04
Opening Hours: 7:30 am – 2pm (Mon, Wed-Sun), Closed Tues
Savoury Joo Chiat Prawn Mee is at Ayer Rajah
This stall moved from Joo Chiat to Ayer Rajah and kept its old name so that regulars could identify it.
It has a long history; the lady hawker, Mdm Lee’s father, started the shop after migrating from Xiamen. Mdm Lee took over the stall with her son-in-law to continue her father’s legacy of delicious prawn mee.
The stall was closed five years ago as Mdm Lee had to care for her husband. Now it’s back in business, and queues get long around lunchtime. Having fed generations with its good soup, be prepared to queue if you don’t get there before noon.
Their star dish is the $5 Prawn Mee (Dry). Cooked with shallot oil for flavour, it comes with three partially deshelled prawns, pork ribs and fresh kangkong. No pork lard is used, just the fresh clean taste of ingredients lending a sweet umami flavour to the gravy.
The chilli is a dose of spicy goodness; layer it on and let your noodles soak it up if you like spice.
Uncle Noodle
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-04
Opening Hours: 5:30am – 2:30pm (Mon-Sun)
Humble Noodle Stall with Loyal Fans
This noodle stall was called previously Jurong Wanton Noodles, a tribute to where they started. But it is now renamed Uncle Noodles and attracts a loyal, steady following.
Springy wanton noodles ($3.30) served with a tasty secret sauce are what make their fans come back.
The generous servings of flavour laden dumplings, tender char siew and fresh chye sim are another reason to tuck into a bowl of noodles here.
Another recommended is the chicken feet noodles, which are lauded as a portion of comfort food for cold days.
Uncle Noodle has kept its prices the same throughout the years, only increasing by ten per cent sometime in March 2022. Their noodles can sell out early because of the reliable pricing and good food.
Ah Hua Teo Chew Fish Ball Noodle
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-43
Opening Hours: 7:30am – 3pm (Mon – Sun)
Teo Chew Fish Ball Noodle with A Lot of Variety
Not to be confused with Ah Hua Eating House at Pandan Gardens, Ah Hua Teo Chew Fish Ball Noodle has an extensive menu for noodle lovers.
Apart from variety, you will notice that their servings are also very generous for their affordable prices. The prices have not increased much over the years, and the food remains comforting.
You can order a bowl of Teochew fishball noodles for $3. Try the mee pok (dry), which has a lot of positive reviews.
The springy noodles are cooked with crispy lard. You also get minced meat, meatballs, fish balls, fish dumplings and fishcake slices.
A. Rashid Khan
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-58
Opening Hours: 8am – 11 pm (Tues – Sun), Closed Mon
Chunky Kambing Soup for a Cold Day
Beginning from a pushcart stall at Shenton Way, A. Rashid Khan has a long history of serving authentic and delicious street food to the masses.
Therefore, you know that what you eat is the real deal. The stall has an extensive halal food menu, but we recommend trying the mutton soup.
Kambing Soup is $3 for a hearty broth laden with satisfying, tender chunks of mutton. It is a spice-heavy combination of coriander, leek, and ginger. This soup will wake your senses when you feel slightly under the weather. Dip soft slices of French loaf bread into the soup for a meal.
You can also try their Indian-style Mee Siam ($3). This is a fast-disappearing dish in Singapore, so go for the orange beehoon cooked with mutton.
N M Abdhul Rahim Mee Goreng
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-60
Opening Hours: 10:30am – 12am (Mon – Sun)
Much-loved Mee Goreng Previously From Shenton Way
This stall has been around for more than 35 years and is a huge hit with the regular diners here.
When you see plates of bright red noodles at Ayer Rajah Food Centre, that is most probably Mee Goreng ($4) from N M Abdul Rahim.
Cooked with a cast-iron wok, you get that deliciously charred smoky wok hei taste.
It’s punched with local flavour, even though the ingredients are merely peas, eggs, and cucumbers. But it’s often the simplest dishes that showcase the chef’s cooking skills.
You can add a sunny side egg with a runny yolk and crispy white edges. You can also opt for a maggi mee version of this dish.
Habib’s Rojak
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-68
Opening Hours: 11:30am – 9:30pm (Mon – Sun)
Habib’s Rojak with a Never-ending Queue
For those who love Indian Rojak, you will know that the dipping sauce makes the difference besides the different selection of fritters.
At Habib’s Rojak, their sauce is on the sweeter side with finely chopped peanuts in it. Each item can range from $0.70 to $7 per piece.
Some must-haves include the coconut fritter or Tepong Kelapa (S$0.70 per piece). It is fried well with a tender bread interior and a crispy batter.
Crispy prawn at $2 per piece is another item you need to add. The batter itself has small prawns, so it extends the sweet prawn flesh.
The other popular Indian Rojak stall at Ayer Rajah is Abdhus Salam Rojak.
Allauddin’s Biryani
Ayer Rajah Food Centre
Opening Hours: 10am – 10pm
Specialises in Halal Southern Indian-style Biryani
The signature Nasi Briyani (or briyani rice) is made with fluffy, long-grained high-quality basmati rice.
Choose from Mutton, Chicken or Fish Biryani for $6 ($7 with egg and papadum), and customers can top up with chicken sambal ($4), fried chicken ($4), fried fish ($4) or sambal chicken ($4).
Hong Kong Yummy Soup 真之味
Ayer Rajah Food Centre #01-06
Opening Hours: 11am – 8:30pm (Mon – Fri), Closed Sat, Sun
There is always a moderately long queue for this Cantonese Soup stall, all for comforting, nutritious soups at inexpensive prices.
Its counterpart stall at Alexandra Village food centre is awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand.
The types of soup offered by the stall are Spareribs Soup with Lotus Root ($4), Spareribs Soup with Winter Melon ($4), Peanut Chicken Feet Soup ($4), Spareribs Soup with Mushrooms ($4), Cordyceps Flowers Soup with Chicken ($5), and Night Blooming Cereus Spareribs Soup ($4).
Compared to other soup stalls, I think people like their offerings because they are flavourful but not overly rich. Note that the popular choices are always sold out early.
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* Compiled by Daniel Ang @DanielFoodDiary and Juliet Huang.
It’s quite a stretch that in a food centre with more Indian Muslim stalls than most and making up the majority of the stall, that 5 of the 10 entries in this article are of Chinese food?