Tiong Bahru Market

This market was a polling station before it was a breakfast. These days the vote is between chwee kueh and lor mee.

Tiong Bahru Market is the best weekend breakfast in the estate, provided you come early and bring friends. Each stall keeps its own hours and many are done by early afternoon, so a late lunch here is mostly a tour of shutters. Order across several stalls rather than everyone joining the longest queue, then walk it off on the heritage trail that starts at the door.

What to eat

Downstairs is the wet market, with flower stalls and brisk morning bargaining. Upstairs, the food centre is high-ceilinged and open-sided, which on a Singapore morning is the whole point, and it has been known for Chinese breakfast dishes since the 1970s. Jian Bo Shui Kueh has been steaming chwee kueh here since 1958. Hong Heng Fried Sotong Prawn Mee, Koh Brother Pig's Organ Soup and Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice all hold a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide. Lor Mee 178 does thick gravy with fried shark nuggets; on a weekend, send one person to queue for it while the others fetch everything else.

The quieter names are part of the fun. Teck Seng Soya Bean Milk makes its soya milk by hand, 14 buckets a night, and opens at 2am. Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice traces its story back to 1946. Not everything lasts: Golden Pig, a roast-meat stall that began as a 1950s pushcart near the old market, closed in 2022 when its owners retired. Eat the classics while they are still being made.

The town hall before the brunch

The building has a better civic record than most. In March 1951 residents gathered at the new market on Seng Poh Road and decided the estate needed a community centre; it served as a polling station for the 1951 Legislative Council and 1953 City Council elections, and hosted political rallies in the 1960s. The first version, finished in 1950, was a wooden structure with a zinc roof, built to give street hawkers a permanent home, many of whom had followed residents out of Chinatown. It was renamed Tiong Bahru Market in a 1993 revamp, demolished in 2004 and reopened in 2006 as the two-storey block you see now, with Art Deco touches that nod to the 1930s Singapore Improvement Trust flats around it. Repairs from April to July 2025 brought new tables and stools and more greenery in the courtyard.

Walk it off

The market is the official starting point of the Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail, and a storyboard on site covers the estate and the market. The flats around you were some of Singapore's earliest public housing, built on land that was once largely graves. People live in every one of them, so keep the photo shoots polite. Tiong Bahru MRT is the nearest station; check for market cleaning closures before you travel.

Good to know The market is at 30 Seng Poh Road, also the start of the Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail; the nearest MRT is Tiong Bahru. Stall hours vary and many close by early afternoon, so check individual stalls and any market cleaning closures before you travel.

Staying in the estate? Our Tiong Bahru cafés and market guide covers the rest of the morning.

Tiong Bahru Market | 30 Seng Poh Road, Singapore 168898 | Nearest MRT: Tiong Bahru