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Saturday, February 06, 2010

Battle of the Hawker Centres

Hawker Centres are very much part of Singapore culture that a trip here would be incomplete without paying a visit to at least one. Two of the most popular hawker centres here are Newton Circus and Lau Pa Sat. We normally frequent Newton Circus since it is closest to where we stay.

Newton Food Centre

Based on our experience, the usual practice at Newton is stall owners approach you, get you a table and provide you with a laminated menu and you order away. After your meal, the owner then informs you of your total bill. No receipt has ever been given to us nor were we ever given a breakdown. We have never questioned this practice and we always felt that paying an average of $35 per person is pretty cheap for fresh seafood. It's not as if we eat out here all the time. I guess splurging once in a while is okay.

The last time we visited Newton, there were prominently displayed comic strips encouraging patrons to go to the stall itself, check the price of each item and order there. I later found out that one stall was suspended for 3 months for overcharging their customer. Click here for article. We ordered cereal prawns, shark's fin soup, squid, fried buns and medium rice plus lime juice. The bill for the three of us came to about $120.


Since Clarice was visiting over, we wanted to take her to Newton but Em-J's friends warned us about it and told us to head to Lau Pa Sat instead.

Lau Pa Sat

I've only been to Lau Pa Sat once and that was to eat at Happy V, formerly Jolly V, so I haven't tried their Singaporean dishes yet.  I'm always game for an adventure so last night, we headed there after work. We got there at dinner time and immediately managed to get a table. None of us were in the mood for crabs so we settled for cereal prawns, large rice, chilli kang kong, a set of chicken and beef satay plus drinks. The total bill for four was $65. Food was just as good; I even found the cereal prawns to be better than the ones that we normally order at Newton. 

I guess you can say we've already made our decision. The next time we're craving for cereal prawns or chilli crabs, Lau Pa Sat it is. 

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