Review: Maxwell Food Centre

Tell us about your first impressions when you arrived.
There are more than 100 stalls at this sprawling hawker center. Note that the space is only kept cool by powerful ceiling fans, meaning it can get sweaty during the fierce tropical summers.

What was the crowd like?
Avoid peak meal periods, particularly lunch hour (between 12 and two p.m. on weekdays), when office workers from around the area throng the complex and stand in line at the most popular stalls. Throughout the day, Singaporeans and tourists stream in and out for a cup of local coffee or tea and their favourite dishes.

What should we be drinking?
Lots of soft drinks, local kopi (coffee) and teh (tea), fresh fruit juices (order a sugar cane juice with a spritz of lemon), and bottled beers. All these go for a song compared to Singapore's restaurants.

Main event: the food. Give us the lowdown—especially what not to miss.
With over 100 stalls, deciding what to eat can be overhwhelming. The most popular stalls here are Tian Tian Chicken Rice and its rival Ah Tai, as well as the fry-it-yourself Hum Jin Pang, which serves plain or red bean-filled dough fritters. Join the queue for Zhen Zhen Fish Porridge or pick from a host of flavofrul curries to eat with steamed white rice at Zhong Guo Jie Hainanese Curry Rice.

And how did the front-of-house folks treat you?
The stall owners range from rude and cantankerous to truly friendly. Keeping smiling through the experience—it's not personal, promise.

What’s the real-real on why we’re coming here?
Dress lightly and come with friends so you can sample a wide range of Singapore's most popular hawker dishes.