Newton Hawker Center

Location: Newton, Singapore
Cuisine: Singaporean, Seafood
Prices: $18-20/person
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 10
Service: 10
Value: 8
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

Today is the last full day of our stay in Singapore and we still hadn't eaten the famous chili crab yet. So that was to goal of the day. We headed to Newton based on Emily and one of the mall guard's recommendation. Newton is known as one of the more expensive hawker centers, but with chili crabs readily available. We took the SMRT a few stops over. There was a park and overpass we needed to cross in light drizzle. Once we got to the roof covered hawker center, a heavy downpour came. A minute later and we would have been soaked. Most food stands were scheduled to open at 3pm, but there were a few that already had chili crab. We browsed around until we found the right one with everything we wanted. We ended up getting a chili crab, pepper crab, stingray and cereal prawns. It was tempting to add more to the list, but we figured we would order those 4 first and then see how we feel after.

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Topping the previous day, this became the best meal of the trip by far. At the end of our meal, there were piles of bones and shell at the middle of the table. Looking at the whole hawker center, our table looked like the end of a Thanksgiving feast compared to other local tables that had 2 plates. For more details on the dishes, see the Picasa album. This was not only the best meal of the trip so far, but probably one of the best I've ever had, earning the rare 10 mark.

The stand we chose had great service. All the people running it were super friendly. They explained all of the dishes to us and served right to our table, which was on the other side of the stand. Though prices were much higher than other meals we had, they were still very low compared to the NY equivalent of the same dishes. And this was the real thing, not some fake workaround. I'm not sure of the breakdown, but the 2 crabs were $28 each and the total receipt was $88 (less than $70 US). So that leaves $32 for both the stingray and cereal prawns.

The environment was fairly clean for a hawker center... probably around the same level as a fast food place. Bathrooms were pretty good actually.

Only halfway through the day and I was already fully satisfied!