Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle

The stall sits on the ground floor of a public housing block, unit #01-12, and the walk from Lavender MRT takes a few minutes. Kampong Glam and the Arab Street area are close enough to combine with a visit. In the first Michelin Guide Singapore in 2016 it was one of the first hawker stalls to receive a star, and it has kept that star in later editions. Michelin's inspectors describe it as worth queueing for.

The family has made the noodles to the same recipes for decades. Each bowl is cooked to order, which is why the line moves slowly. At the counter you choose your noodle type, whether you want it dry or as soup, and how much chilli to add. The dry version is tossed in vinegar and chilli, then topped with minced pork, tender slices of pork liver, fluffy pork crackling and crisp dried plaice. The vinegar gives the dish a sharp edge that sets it apart from other bak chor mee in town.

The stall opens daily from 09:30 to 21:00. It closes on the first and third Monday of each month, on public holidays and over Chinese New Year, and the family posts closures on its Facebook page. There are no reservations. You queue, order and pay at the counter, and payment is cash only. A meal here takes under an hour once you are seated, though the wait before that can run past an hour at lunch and on weekends.

Prices are low, in line with other hawker food in Singapore. Bring small notes and know your order before you reach the front. Weekday mornings shortly after opening usually have the shortest line, and that is the time to come if your schedule is tight.

Tang Joon Teo started the business on Hill Street in the 1930s, which explains the name. His second son, Tang Chay Seng, took over management in the 1960s and still runs it. The stall moved to Marina Square in the 1990s and to Crawford Lane in 2004. When it won its star in 2016 it was one of the first two street food stalls in the world to do so, alongside Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, and the usual wait grew from about 30 minutes to as long as two hours.

Sources: Wikipedia, Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle. Facts checked November 2026.