CityBuddy
Tekka Centre
Best time to visit
Weekday mornings from 9:30am to 11:30am hit the sweet spot, when the market is liveliest and curry queues are short. Evening visits from 6pm bring the rojak and halo-halo rush, so go early to grab a fan-cooled table.
Budget tips
Most cooked meals run between SGD 4 and 8, and the fish head curry is priced per head so sharing keeps it cheap. Carry cash for the older stalls and save on drinks by buying fresh coconut water from the fruit sellers downstairs.
Recommended for
Curry lovers, Budget travelers, Vegetarians, Home cooks
Plan your visit
1-2 hours
About
Quick facts: For a spicy taste of the city's Indian Muslim quarter on a local's budget, the two-storey centre stacks a working wet market directly beneath a cooked-food level. Traders haul in live fish and gunny sacks of chillies every morning, while upstairs the woks turn out curry, rojak, and biryani under stacks of clattering plates.
Highlights: The fish head curry here simmers to order in a sour tamarind-laced tomato gravy, with the whole head, gills and all, served beneath okra and brinjal. Order the mutton soup and the cook tears a fist-size dough of flaky bread straight from a decades-old tin basin, dipping a chunk into the broth before your eyes.
Insider tips
- Carry cash, several older stalls still reject cards and QR payments.
- Grab a perimeter table under the ceiling fans, the centre aisles turn sauna-hot by 11:30am.
- Queue for curry before 12:15pm on weekdays, office lunch crowds arrive right after.
- Buy fish downstairs and the wet market vendors will gut and scale it on the spot for a small fee.
Practical info
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