Sims Vista Market & Food Centre is a popular hawker haunt in Geylang
and one of my personal favourites. The sprawling hawker centre has a friendly, relaxed, laid back
feel. Clean, comfortable, highly accessible by public transport (steps from
Aljunid MRT station) and most important of all, it has a good range of
delicious dishes from popular food stalls.
Sims Vista Market & Food Centre is highly accessible as it is just a 5 minute walk from Aljunid MRT Station. 80% of the distance is under sheltered walkways.
I like the bright, spacious, airy, well ventilated space at Sims Vista. The ceiling is high, the seating area is big, rows of stalls are far apart. The area is well maintained and cleaned.
Most important of all, there are many interesting stalls here serving
delicious food at affordable prices. There are over 70 food stalls and
these are some of the popular ones.
Dubai Express stall #01-02 serve a variety of Malay snacks and mixed dishes with rice (nasi campur). Their signature is nasi briyani with lamb shank set available only on Wednesday and Saturday. Stall owner is the grandson of the founder of Islamic Restaurant, one of Singapore's oldest and most famous briyani houses. Opens 6:00am - 3:00pm daily.
Tai Dong Teochew Duck Rice stall #01-04 used to be from Circular Road (near Boat Quay, the old Teochew enclave) with a loyal following there. Their braised duck meat is tender and succulent. The braising sauce is watery, and tastes mainly savoury salty (no added starch). Serves only boiled plain white rice. Must also order their savoury sweet braised cabbage. To its fans, this is authentic Teochew braised duck. Opens 10:00am - 5:00pm (Thurs off).
Hao Qing Xiang 好清香 AMK 628 stall #01-05 serve an excellent steamed tapioca cake or kueh ubi kayu. Their KUK has just the right soft-tender texture and the level of sweetness I like. It's a delicate balance of texture, flavour and aroma which Hao Qing Xiang hit the sweet spot, in my opinion. Hao Qing Xiang also serve chee cheong fun, yam cake and glutinous rice. Their KUK and yam cake are made at the stall. Opens for breakfast and lunch (Mon off).
Green Chili Chicken Rice stall #01-09 is the most popular stall at Sims Vista. There is a constant long queue of at least 10, and 20 during the lunch peak. Their signature is spice marinated fried chicken smothered in a pulpy green sambal. They use basmati rice cooked with gentle spices like cardamon and cloves. At $5 per set, I feel it is good value for money (2021 price). Opens 10:30am - 1:30pm (Fri off).
Warong HJH Kamisah stall #01-13 is a third generation stall by a family from Solo, Indonesia serving Indonesian staples like mee rebus, lontong, tauhu goreng, ayam penyet, ikan penyet, etc., at affordable prices. Their nasi ayam penyet set comes with a huge fried chicken thigh and they are generous with their excellent sambal. Just $4.50 per set at 2021 price. Opens 8:00am - 2:30pm (Fri off).
Jin Feng Fried Bee Hoon Nasi Lemak stall #01-22 serve Chinese style nasi lemak and fried bee hoon with sides such as chicken wings, otak otak, fried cabbage, hash brown, etc. Always sports a long queue but is fast moving. Food is always hot and freshly cooked due to high turnover. Rice on the sweet side, savoury fried bee hoon has a nice crunch, good crisp savoury chicken wings. Opens 6:30am - 1:00pm (Sat off).
Hock Heng stall #01-31 serves fish / seafood soup / noodles. This stall has one of the longest queues at this hawker centre. So far, I've tried only their fish soup. The ikan batang fish slices were reasonably fresh but I didn't quite like the strong choy sum green taste in the soup. Their seafood soup with fish, fishball and prawn seems more popular and I need to try that later. Their dry noodle version looked like the top seller. Opens 5:00am - 1:00pm (Mon, Weds, Fri only).
Liang Ji Ban Mien 亮記板面 stall #01-55 is popular with locals as the daily queue attests. But, it is usually just 3 to 5 deep, except during lunch when it can get up to 10 deep. Their ban mien and mee hoon kueh are handmade with good tender-firm texture. Have both dry and soup versions but the latter is more popular as their savoury sweet flavour is nice. Pricing is very competitive with lots of ingredients (prawn, minced pork, fried anchovies, generic pork ball, etc) in the serving. This row and Liang Ji's corner stall have a slight bird issue. So, watch your food. I had to help an auntie shoo off birds while she queued for her food 🐦 😄 Opens for breakfast and lunch.
Seletar Sheng Mian Mee Hoon Kway stall #01-60 is a branch run by relatives of the original stall in Toa Payoh. They are known for their sheng mian (noodles) and handmade mee hoon kueh which have soft-tender, soft-chewy texture. Robust savoury sweet pork and anchovy soup, hand pulled mee hoon kueh, and lots of ingredients in the serving (fried anchovies, fried shallot, prawn, pork slices, minced pok, lard crouton, etc). Many people raved about their dried version but I have not tried yet. Opens for breakfast and lunch.
Hollywood Duck Rice stall #01-73 was founded in 1976 (and previously known
as Lian Kee when it was at the old Hin Hollywood Canteen in Katong). It serves tender
braised duck with a thick gooey (starch thickened) mildly herbal, sweet, savoury sauce. Besides
white rice, they have yam rice, porridge and kway chup which they serve with
a light braising stock and their signature thick sauce. Opens 9:30am - 3:30pm (Weds off).
Steps away from Sims Vista food centre, Blk 45 Sims Drive has two corner coffee shops with popular food stalls. We take a food walk down Blk 45, starting from Sheng Hui coffee shop at the left of this picture.
Zhen Zheng Handmade Pau 真蒸手工包 (inside Sheng Hui coffee shop) serve kong bak bao, char siew pau, tau sar pau, pork buns, fan choy (rice), lo mai gai (glutinous rice), and other traditional Cantonese steamed buns. They have a wide range including little pink lotus buns with lotus paste filling. Popular, always sports a long queue. The buns handmade and freshly steamed at the stall are quite nice though I couldn't remember any particularly memorable item. Suggest you try the kong bak bao, if you like to check out the stall. Zhen Zheng fans here please help recommend other buns 🙏 Opens 6:00am - 5:00pm (Tues off).
Blk 45 Kuey Zhap • Pig's Organ Soup stall is the kway chap local unkers (middle aged men) are chomping down on (but I haven't tried yet 🙇). Shall update this section once I've tried. Meanwhile, if you have tried, please share your experience with us in the comments 🙏
Update: Blk 45 Kuey Zhap serve Teochew style braised pork offal in a light savoury sauce. Fans like their light sauce and tender offal & pork braises that have a subtle natural taste. I especially like their tender-chewy pork skin. Opens 5am - 1pm.
Geylang Laksa Prawn Noodles serve old school prawn noodle with pork rib and pig tail. The prawn and pork soup has umami and depth of savoury sweet flavours. Their dry version is served with an excellent savoury spicy sambal. They also have laksa which is thick and creamy. The laksa tastes sweet spicy savoury. Opens 6:30am - 1:00pm (Tues off).
Meng Boon Teochew Fish Ball Noodle is at 45 Brewcoffee kopitiam at the other end of block 45, Sims Drive. This is a three generation traditional, old school Teochew fishball stall. Simple and doesn't really stand out in the noodle, fishball or sauce departments but they have fried fishball which is rarely found in Singapore nowadays. Meng Boon have a loyal following which followed them from their old address in Serangoon market. Opens 6:45am - 3:30pm (Mon off).
I missed your favourite stall(s)? 😨
My apologies 🙇 🙏
Please give me a shout out in the comments.
I promise to visit your recommendation(s).
I may add the stall to the list after tasting. If not, at the very least I will reply to your comment.
Written by Tony Boey on 14 Nov 2021
There is a "亚木潮州粿條湯 (柴船头) Ah Mu Teochew Kway Tiao Soup (Boat Quay)" at #01-43 which is supposed to open fr 4am-10am and closes on Weds. But it was closed when I was there on a Fri at 9.30am.
ReplyDeleteThe Zhen Zheng bao stall is the one that sells the cute little rabbit shaped baos rite?
Wow Thanks! I missed out Ah Mu. Shall look for it next time.
DeleteYes, Zhen Zheng have a lot of different bao, so it should be the one.
Next to Meng Boon Fishball noodle stall is also another good Kway Chap Stall with very good trotters. On the other side of Meng Boon is a good vegetarian stall selling healthy vegetarian noodles...different from the typical vegetarian oily stuff.
ReplyDeletePersonally i will not recommend 3 stalls. The Hollywood Duck Rice, the one in charge of the orders and payment is rude and overcharge people sometimes, the Jin Feng Fried Noodles stall as the price is ridiculous expensive and lack of choices when it is 10am. The third stall will be the Seletar Mee Hoon Kway, i heard stories that the store is dirty since they shifted from Blk 121, Geylang East Central, i maybe wrong, but different sources of mine did told me.
ReplyDelete