Sek Tong Gai @ Commonwealth Crescent • Unique Singapore Hawker Centre Experience 食通街 ☏ 8138 7637

Sek Tong Gai 食通街 | Commonwealth Crescent Market & Food Centre, stall #02-076, Singapore 149644 🚅 20 minutes walk from Farrer Road station ☏ 8138 7637 ⏰ 6pm - 10pm

When buddy Cat shared about her dinner at Sek Tong Gai, it was the delicious looking dishes that attracted me. So, I mentioned that we could have a future get together here.

Next thing I knew, Cat set up a gathering for 8 people at Sek Tong Gai 🙏

Truth be told, looking at the dishes Cat had and the somewhat grand name, I was expecting Sek Tong Gai to be at least a shop lot restaurant, if not something grander.

You see, Sek Tong Gai 食通街 is Cantonese for "eating the whole street" meaning a glutton who eats everywhere and everything. Not talking about me 🤭

Anyway, Sek Tong Gai turned out to be a hawker centre stall that operates from 6pm to 10pm at Commonwealth Crescent Market and Food Centre. It's a unique place as almost all the food stalls are closed at night, leaving just a small handful open.

Camera shy chef Ah Soon is a one-man-show - he is the only person running the stall without any helpers. He buys the ingredients, prepare and cook them alone. He also collects payment and clean up afterwards.

How does that work?

So, here's how a one-man-show can work.

Before you come, you have to call Ah Soon ☏ 8138 7637 and arrange the time and dishes. When you arrive, Ah Soon will start to cook your dishes. He will give you a pager. When the dish is ready (pager buzz), you go to the stall, collect your dish, bring back to your table and enjoy. Repeat until all your ordered dishes are served. So, self service is a big part, which isn't an issue at Singapore hawker centres.

Old menu for reference only. Prices have all adjusted to current market

Backgrounder:

Sek Tong Gai was founded in 1989 as Sin Lee Chinese Cuisine 新利园 at Kim Seng Road in Tiong Bahru. Sin Lee Chinese Cuisine moved to Neil Road in 2008 where they operated for five years. They then moved to a Tanglin Halt shop lot in 2013 and renamed Sek Tong Gai 食通街. When redevelopment of Tanglin Halt flats began in 2022, Sek Tong Gai moved here at Commonwealth Crescent hawker centre. At the hawker stall, we can still taste Sek Tong Gai's Sin Lee restaurant roots, hence the restaurant type dishes and quality.

First dish was Shark Fin Soup S$44.

Its just shark fin, juicy crunchy bean sprouts (roots plucked), dried scallop and crab meat in gooey thicken smooth mildly umami savoury superior stock.

椒盐日本带子金针菇 Deep Fried Scallop with Enoki Mushroom S$33.

The enoki mushrooms were nicely deep fried till light and crisp. The scallops were alright, tender and moist.

Iberico Pork 西班牙黑猪肉 S$30.

Pork slices were thin, tender, tasted savoury with a bit of garlic and chili pepper heat. Comforting home cooked taste and feel.

Kailan in Two Ways 二松芥兰 S$18. Nicely executed so we can taste the crispy fried whitebait's savouriness and crisp aromatics over the sweetness of juicy crunchy blanched kailan stems and stir fried leaves.

Soon Hock in Claypot with Minced Meat & Bean Curd 肉酱顺壳煲 S$69 (seasonal price).

A popular dish from STG's Sin Lee Chinese Cuisine 新利园 days, it's a deep fried Soon Hock fish stewed in a nice thick savoury sweet minced pork sauce with egg plant and tofu. The Soon Hock meat was soft tender and still had the sweetness of the fresh fish.

Deep-fried Seafood Roll 海鲜卷 S$13.30.

Crisp batter outside, umami savoury sweet prawn and fish paste inside.

Braised Crab Bee Hoon S$96 (seasonal price). This was the grand finale and crowd winner.

Just one 1 kilo crab shared among 8 people 😜 But, no problem in my humble opinion, as the best thing was the bee hoon and soupy rich umami savoury sweet sauce (which there was enough for all of us).

The fresh crab meat was very nicely umami sweet. And, the skinny rice vermicelli infused the umami savoury sweet superior stock / sauce well. This crab bee hoon is enough to make me come back to Sek Tong Gai again.

I am very happy to have dinner with kaki kaki at Sek Tong Gai. I mean, nice well appointed restaurants with tasty food is not very difficult to find in Singapore but it will be yet another nice dinner.

Sek Tong Gai is different - the restaurant quality food topped with the delight of snagging a good dinner at an unexpected location at an affordable price is the experience I look for everywhere.

Reminder to be patient as Sek Tong Gai is a one-man-show, so Ah Soon has very little time to stop and talk while service is on-going and customers waiting.