Restaurant in Singapore, Singapore
Michelin-recognised hawker bowl under $10.
Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) make this Toa Payoh hawker stall one of Singapore's cleaner street food decisions. Walk-in only, $ pricing, and a 4.2 Google rating across 272 reviews: the recognition is real and the cost of the meal is negligible. Go early to avoid sell-outs.
If you are in Singapore for a short trip and want to understand what a Michelin-recognised hawker bowl actually tastes like without spending more than a few dollars, Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodle at Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre is the right call. This is a stall built for solo diners, early risers, and anyone who takes Singapore street food seriously enough to seek out a Bib Gourmand in a neighbourhood hawker centre rather than a restaurant with a reservation system. It is not the place for a group dinner or a special occasion in the conventional sense — it is the place for a meal that costs next to nothing and earns its keep on flavour alone.
Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre sits in Toa Payoh, one of Singapore's older public housing estates, at 22 Lorong 7. The centre itself is a covered, open-air hawker environment , the kind of functional, community-facing infrastructure that makes Singapore's food scene work at scale. Plastic stools, tiled floors, ceiling fans doing their leading in the humidity: the spatial experience is entirely utilitarian. There is no bar, no ambient lighting, and no curated playlist. What the space offers instead is an unfiltered hawker centre atmosphere that has its own kind of integrity , you are eating exactly where the stall has always been, surrounded by regulars who live nearby and know the rhythm of the place. For a food enthusiast seeking context rather than comfort, that is worth something.
Hai Nan Xing Zhou occupies stall #01-06 within the centre. The physical footprint is small, as hawker stalls are. Seating is communal and shared with the rest of the food centre, so peak-hour visits mean working around other diners and finding your own table in the broader hall. The format rewards arriving early: hawker centre crowds build through mid-morning and lunch, and popular Bib Gourmand stalls in Singapore can run out of their main preparations before noon. If operating hours are a concern , and the database does not carry confirmed hours for this stall , arriving by 9 or 10 AM on a weekday is a reasonable approach for any well-regarded hawker stall in this tier.
Back-to-back Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025 puts Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodle in a specific tier of Singapore street food: not a Michelin star, but an explicit acknowledgement from the guide that the value-to-quality ratio is high enough to call out. The Bib Gourmand designation is given to places where inspectors believe a diner can eat well for a modest sum , in Singapore's hawker context, that typically means under SGD 15 for a full meal. At the $ price range listed, this stall is almost certainly operating well below that ceiling. A Google rating of 4.2 across 272 reviews supports consistent quality rather than a one-off spike, which matters more at a hawker stall than an effusive single review.
For context, Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle holds a Michelin star , the ceiling for Singapore hawker recognition , and draws significant queues as a result. Hai Nan Xing Zhou operates at the Bib Gourmand level, which in practice means the recognition is real but the crowds, while present, are more manageable. Among Singapore's Bib Gourmand noodle stalls, it sits in good company alongside names like 545 Whampoa Prawn Noodles and A Noodle Story, each recognised for doing one thing at a high level for very little money.
No booking is required or possible , this is a hawker stall operating on a walk-in basis. The address is direct: Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre is a well-established centre in Toa Payoh, accessible by MRT (Toa Payoh station on the North-South Line is close). There is no dress code and no tipping expectation. Payment at most hawker stalls in Singapore is via cash or digital wallet (PayNow, PayLah), so carrying small notes is sensible. The $ price tier means a full bowl of beef noodles will cost a fraction of what you would spend anywhere with table service.
Because hours are not confirmed in the database, check recent Google reviews or arrive during standard hawker breakfast-to-lunch operating windows (roughly 7 AM to 2 PM is common for noodle stalls, though this varies). Running out of key preparations is a real risk at popular stalls, so earlier is generally better.
Book this , in the sense that you should make the trip deliberately rather than stumbling across it. At $ pricing with consecutive Bib Gourmand awards, Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodle is one of the cleaner decisions in Singapore street food: the recognition is real, the cost of a miss is low, and the cost of the meal is lower still. It belongs on the same itinerary as Adam Rd Noo Cheng Big Prawn Noodle and 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee if you are working through Singapore's Bib Gourmand hawker tier seriously. If you are based in another part of the city, weigh the travel time against your schedule , but for anyone in or near Toa Payoh, it requires no justification at all.
For a broader map of where this fits in Singapore's eating options, see our full Singapore restaurants guide, our full Singapore bars guide, and our full Singapore hotels guide. If you are exploring the wider region's street food, compare notes with Michelin-tracked stalls in George Town , including 888 Hokkien Mee, Ah Boy Koay Teow Th'ng, and Air Itam Duck Rice , or venture into Thai street food with A Pong Mae Sunee in Phuket and Anuwat in Phang Nga for a sense of how the Bib Gourmand benchmark travels across Southeast Asia. Additional regional context is available through Air Itam Sister Curry Mee, Ali Nasi Lemak Daun Pisang, and Banana Boy in Hong Kong.
There is no bar at Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodle. It is a hawker stall inside Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre, with communal open-air seating shared across the centre. You order at the stall, find a seat in the hall, and eat. The format is self-service and informal throughout.
The stall's name signals the focus: beef noodles in the Hainanese style. The database does not carry confirmed menu details, so ordering from the core beef noodle options , whatever the stall presents as its main preparation , is the right move. This is what the Bib Gourmand recognition is based on, and it is what regulars return for.
Yes , it is arguably better suited to solo dining than any other format. Hawker centre seating is communal, ordering is quick, and a single bowl at $ pricing is a complete, low-friction meal. Solo diners can arrive, order, and eat without waiting for a table or coordinating with a group. It is one of the more comfortable solo dining formats in Singapore.
Only in the sense that eating at a two-year consecutive Bib Gourmand stall is itself meaningful for food-focused travellers. This is not a special occasion venue in the conventional sense , no private dining, no wine service, no atmosphere beyond a functioning hawker centre. If you want to mark an occasion with Singapore food, Summer Pavilion at $$ or Jaan by Kirk Westaway at $$$ are more appropriate choices. Hai Nan Xing Zhou is for the occasion of eating well for very little money.
There is no tasting menu. Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodle is a hawker stall , you order individual bowls from a short menu, pay per item, and eat. The value case here is the opposite of a tasting menu: low spend, high quality per dollar, and no commitment beyond what you order at the counter.
Groups can visit, but the hawker centre format makes larger parties more logistically awkward than a restaurant. Seating is communal and not reserved, so groups of four or more may need to split across tables during busy periods. For a group meal with more control over seating and format, a restaurant setting will work better. For groups of two to three who want an authentic hawker experience, this is fine.
No booking is possible or needed , this is a walk-in hawker stall. The practical question is timing rather than advance booking: arriving early (before 11 AM on weekdays) reduces the risk of sell-outs and long queues. Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025 has increased visibility, so expect more visitors than a typical neighbourhood stall, but the format remains first-come, first-served.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodle | Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | $ | — |
| Zén | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
| Jaan by Kirk Westaway | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$ | — |
| Iggy's | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$ | — |
| Summer Pavilion | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | $$ | — |
| Waku Ghin | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
There is no bar here. Hai Nan Xing Zhou operates as a hawker stall inside Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre — you order at the counter, collect your bowl, and find a seat at the shared open-air tables. It is as casual as Singapore street food gets, which is exactly the format.
The stall's Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in both 2024 and 2025 is anchored to its beef noodle — that is the dish to order. The menu is a hawker stall format at $ pricing, so stick to what earned the award rather than treating it as a broad menu exploration.
It is one of the better formats for solo dining in Singapore. Hawker centres operate on shared tables, there is no reservation pressure, and a single bowl at $ pricing makes a complete meal. Turn up, order, eat — no awkwardness, no minimum spend.
Not in the conventional sense. If the occasion calls for a sit-down meal with service, wine, and a private table, look at Zén or Waku Ghin instead. That said, if the point is to share a genuinely recognised Singapore hawker experience with someone who appreciates the food culture, this delivers that at a fraction of the cost of any fine-dining alternative.
There is no tasting menu — this is a hawker stall. You order individual bowls at the counter. The Michelin Bib Gourmand award recognises quality at accessible price points, not multi-course format. If a tasting menu is what you want, Jaan by Kirk Westaway or Iggy's are the appropriate comparisons.
Yes, in hawker-centre terms. Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre has communal seating, so groups can pull tables together during quieter periods. Larger groups should arrive early or off-peak — there is no reservation system, and popular stalls draw queues. For groups who need a private space or coordinated service, this format will not work.
Booking is not possible and not needed — walk-in only, no phone reservations, no website. Timing is the actual variable: arrive early, as hawker stalls with Bib Gourmand status at Kim Keat can sell out or close once supplies run out. Check hours before making the trip to Lorong 7 Toa Payoh, since the venue data does not confirm current opening times.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
