Hjh Maimunah

Michelin took the Bib back in 2025. Jalan Pisang carried on pointing at the trays.

Hjh Maimunah is the easy answer to a nasi padang lunch near Bugis: halal, air-conditioned, two storeys and a counter full of trays you point at. It suits a weekday lunch between the Sultan Mosque, Arab Street and the Bugis offices, and a friend who has never done nasi padang and needs a gentle first go. The compromise is that the Bib Gourmand is history and there is no booking, so arrive before the lunch rush and judge the plate for yourself.

The restaurant was founded by Madam Mahiran Abdul Rahman, who inherited many of the recipes from her late mother, and it started life as a modest shophouse on a once-quiet street. It picked up a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2016, held the listing several times and fell off it in 2025. Along the way it grew into multiple outlets, a frozen food arm and a catering business, and in 2023 it opened its first stall in the west, inside a food court at Clementi Mall. The Jalan Pisang flagship is the one with the history, and the one to visit.

The format is classic nasi padang: you point, they scoop, and a plate of rice disappears under whatever caught your eye. The trays run to rendang, fried and grilled chicken, sambal telur, bergedil and vegetables swimming in coconut gravy. The counter moves quickly, which is half the point of nasi padang at lunchtime.

Our way to order: one meat, the sambal telur, a vegetable and a bergedil, and keep the first plate modest. Coconut gravy gets into everything, and a plate built too high ends up as one dish with several names (we say this as people who have never once followed our own advice).

The air-conditioning matters more than it sounds. Most good lunches in this neighbourhood come with a side of sweat; here you get two storeys of cool and a seat to recover in before the walk back to the office.

How to do it well: it is about an eight-minute walk from Bugis MRT. Arrive before the lunch rush, since there is no online booking, and check opening days before you plan a Sunday visit. If you are showing someone nasi padang for the first time, let them point; that is the whole lesson. Lost Bib or not, it is still a fixture of the street.

Good to know Hjh Maimunah is halal-certified and about an eight-minute walk from Bugis MRT. Listed in June 2026 as open Monday to Saturday, 7.30am to 7pm; check before a Sunday visit. There's no online booking, so arrive before the lunch rush.

Hjh Maimunah | 11 Jalan Pisang, Singapore 199078 | Nearest MRT: Bugis