Chinatown Complex Food Centre

The Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre in Singapore is a food lover’s paradise, with a dizzying array of delicious stalls. It’s home to some of Singapore’s one-Michelin-starred affordable eats and numerous top-rated local delicacies. Each visit feels like a treasure hunt.
Cheng Ji’s Sauce Steamed Pine Fish Head is a favorite of mine, having visited over 20 times. Both my grandmother and I love it and often bring friends along. The fish head is fresh and tender, perfectly complemented by their signature sweet and sour bean sauce. Their dry-fried prawns are also a must-order.
Maria’s Virgin Chicken requires advance booking for the whole chicken due to my grandmother’s age. Zhao Ji’s Hainanese Chicken Rice is quite good, with both the yellow and white chicken being very tender. I usually go for the yellow chicken leg rice, and my friend had one of the best chicken rice experiences here.
An Zhen’s Thin Pancakes are recommended by Michelin. The pancakes are slightly sweet, but you can ask them to reduce the sugar. Their little golden cups are a must-try.
Xi Jie’s Fried Kway Teow has a 20-minute wait, and while it’s quite tasty, it’s not the best I’ve had. Jia Ji’s zongzi (rice dumplings) are quite famous, especially the mung bean and salted egg zongzi, which can rank in the top three. The regular salted egg and pork zongzi must be thoroughly steamed to be delicious.
Quan Neng Qiao Ma Ma’s Laksa has a great flavor, and their Bak Kut Teh (pork rib soup) has a very rich broth. There’s also a video from my visit in 2022. That day, I ate at Yue Lai, one of the best claypot cooking restaurants in Singapore. Mr. Jerald Chua has visited twice, and every dish there is a masterpiece.

The Peranakan food stall has long gone, which I still miss it so much till these days.

And just very recently, the formers stall has been taken over by this new Nasi Padang stall.

Nasi Padang Beach Road said to have another stall along Beach Road, which I couldn’t identify which one of it.

But their new stall here serves pretty decent dishes with their Nasi Padang.

Love their Ayam Rempah here with the prawn cracker.

From a random stall. As expected, a so-so meal.

A cozy meal at an affordable price. I added a bowl of glass noodles for an extra $0.50, bringing the total to $5.50. The mini hotpot comes with thick-cut dory fish, broccoli, a few strands of enoki mushrooms, Chinese cabbage and an egg. Although the egg and Chinese cabbage were out of stock when I visited near closing time, the owner generously compensated by adding more fish and broccoli. Thank you!🙇‍♂️

While it's called a mini hotpot, I recommend pouring all the ingredients into the soup to cook together, as the fuel is limited. Otherwise, you'll need to fork out an additional $0.50 for extra fuel. After cooking, I was greeted with a rich umami flavour thanks to the high concentration of MSG in the soup base. Though the soup base claims to be pork bone broth, it's actually just pork bone base MSG powder mixed with water. While it may not be the healthiest option and is quite salty, at least it packs a punch in terms of flavour.

Despite its simplicity, the cooked items were incredibly soft and melty, making it a challenge to scoop them up with chopsticks. In the end, I resorted to using a spoon and slurping straight from the pot. Basic as it may be, it definitely fills you up!
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🚩Mu Ji Mini Hotpot, noodles and rice dishes, 02-153, Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 46 Smith St, Singapore 058956
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At this food centre, some time you really need some effort in order to try some of the hidden and secret stalls here.

Take for example this stall called the Chinatown Cooked Food, you may find this stall often closed on the day. That’s because they only opened for a few hours early in the morning everyday.

Started as early as 6:30am in the wee hour of morning, serving laksa and fried beehoon; with add-on available with their yong tau foo pieces.

Came on early morning around 7:30am and there’s a short queue about 5 person in front.

So you really need some effort to wake up early in order to try their laksa or fried beehoon with yong tau foo. The reason I say so many a because they usually sold out by 9am.

I actually came a few times past 9am and unfortunately they usually sold out by then.

A very tasty bowl of laksa they have here, creamy and not too spicy. Topped with your choice of yong tau foo such as fish cake and fried beancurd.

You probably won’t find any much articles about this place on internet, not even on Google Maps. So if you wake up enough to be here by 8am, then you should try this stall for breakfast.

One of the old school tze char stalls here, which is located at the hidden side of the hawker centre.

You could easily spot them by their big name, 林大强. They have all sorts of dishes here including this sliced fish hor fun.

It has this unique taste with the use of fermented black bean sauce, overall wok hey enough. A generous size of sliced fish is provided and it tastes fresh.