Hawker Centre Guide: How to pay for food

Singapore is renowned for its hawker culture, which offers an array of tasty local dishes at affordable prices. Traditionally hawker stalls only accepted cash payments to save on overhead costs, but this is changing. I’m going to cover in this article the various ways to pay for food at hawker stalls, with a focus on the best methods for visitors.

Cash is still the best way to pay for food at a hawker stall. Nearly every hawker in Singapore will accept cash as payment. Avoid using the large $50 and $100 notes at a hawker stall, many prefer the smaller notes or coins. Some hawker stalls accept credit card, but this should not be relied upon as many do not.

Photo of hawker stalls — Hawker stalls in Singapore - this is one of my favourite places to buy coffee (Old Airport Road hawker centre)

I wrote this guide to focus on hawker stalls, whether those stalls are located in a hawker centre, coffee shop, or air conditioned food court (if you’re interested in the difference, check out the guide here). All amounts listed in this article are in Singapore Dollars.

Cash is widely accepted

Cash is widely accepted in Singapore for payment at all restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, and hawker centres. I rarely find places that are cash-less.

Hawker stall dishes typically cost less than $10 per person. Typical prices for popular hawker dishes are as follows:

Meal	Cost
Chicken rice	$4 to $9
Laksa	$3 to $9
Kaya Toast (set)	$3 to $6
Satay	$1 to $2 per stick ($15-20 per plate)

If you’re ordering seafood or cooked dishes from a hawker stall be prepared to pay more. A steamed fish can cost over $20, and chili crab can easily cost over $60 for a small crab.

I usually recommend visitors carry around $50 to $100 in cash per person (at the higher end if you want to eat seafood). Make sure you have a good mix of the $2, $5, and $10 notes as it is difficult for hawker stalls to give change for the bigger notes. Carrying some coins can also be a good idea.

I’ve never heard of a problem carrying these amounts of cash in Singapore before – it’s a safe city with very low rates of pick pocketing and petty crime. I’ve also never heard of anyone being mugged here either.

Credit Card is accepted by some

There are hawker stalls that accept payment by credit card. Typically these are located in areas that attract more tourists. The famous example is Lau Pa Sat.

Usually these hawker centres are run by an overarching brand (“Kopitiam” in the case of Lau Pa Sat), which is why they have the infrastructure to support card payment compared to the government managed hawker centres. I’ve found Singaporeans will tell you that this makes it more expensive, but as a short-term visitor, I doubt you’ll worry about spending an extra dollar on your chicken rice compared to a neighbourhood stall (especially considering the transport costs to make it out to the neighbourhood stalls).

The food quality at these hawker stalls is still great! Outlets of famous Michellin starred restaurants can still be found at these card-accepting centres. And the famous satay street also falls under this umbrella.

There is no additional fee for paying by credit card in Singapore. Hawker stalls that accept card however typically only accept Visa and Mastercard. Debit cards issued on these networks should also work.

EZ-Link prepaid cards can also be used

The only other real alternative to cash for tourists is using a prepaid EZ-Link card. EZ-Link is a prepaid card system originally setup for use on Singapore’s public transport network. It can be used for retail purchases at the likes of convenience stores and hawker stalls.

EZ-Link cards are best purchased at train stations. It costs $10 and comes with $5 of credit. EZ-Link cards can also be purchased at convenience stores, but they may charge an additional fee. It is possible to refund the credit balance, but it is a complicated process.

Topping up an EZ-Link card can be done at a train station or convenience store.

I’ve never used an EZ-Link card at a hawker stall before, but I have used it to pay at a convenience store before. I’m not aware of anywhere that accepts EZ-Link but doesn’t accept credit card.

I do not recommend using EZ-Link to pay for food at a hawker stall. Stick to cash and credit card.

QR Codes are available, mostly for locals

Most hawker stalls in Singapore accept a form of QR code payment system. Usually this is a mechanism for direct bank transfer or using a prepaid app (such as Dash Pay or Fave Pay). I’ve left the bank transfer options to a later part of this guide, as they are really only for locals.

Technically apps like Dash Pay and Fave Pay can be used by short-term visitors, but I’ve found the hassle of setting them up to not be worth the convenience when it comes to paying; you’ll also have a small amount of money left in the app that you can’t get out.

Anyone living in Malaysia can take advantage of DuitNow in Singapore. This is a Malaysian bank QR code payment system that has recently been enabled in Singapore. If you have a Malaysian bank account with DuitNow enabled, you should be able to scan any “PayNow” QR code at a shop in Singapore and it will work.

Other

There are other ways to pay at hawker stalls, but these are typically not available to short-term visitors. These include:

PayNow, PayLah!, and Pay Anyone – QR code method of direct bank transfers
GrabPay – a virtual wallet using the Grab app
NETS – Singapore’s card-based domestic payment system

I don’t usually recommend these to tourists as you really need a local bank account to use them.

Bottom Line

Use cash. Cash is the best way to pay for food at a hawker stall. I recommend carrying around $50 to $100 per person as you travel around Singapore, this should be enough to cover cash purchases such as hawker food and small snacks – this should be in $10, $5, and $2 denominations.