Penang Hawkers’ Fare at York Hotel 2016

Penang Hawkers’ Fare at York Hotel is here again. The Penang buffet is ever popular and have been a recurring event at White Rose Café, York Hotel Singapore for many years. We often associate York Hotel with Penang food. This year is the 30th Anniversary of the event. The first of 3 installments of the Penang Hawkers’ Fare this year will run from 11 to 27 March 2016. The next installments will be 2 to 18 September 2016 and 16 December 2016 to 1 January 2017.

This year 12 stalls are set up by Penang’s popular hawkers in White Rose Cafe to serve up a buffet of mouth-watering street food. The Penang hawkers are selected by the hotel based on word of mouth recommendations. The recommendations are spot on. The food at York Hotel’s Penang Hawkers’ Fare is delicious.

York Hotel’s Penang buffet is still very popular. They open up an extra dining hall for the event. They don’t take reservations and tables are allocated on a first come first serve basis.

The Prices for Weekdays (Monday to Friday) are $29++ for an Adult and  $20++ for a Child below 12 years. On Weekends (Saturday & Sunday) and Public Holidays the prices are $33++ (Adult) and $23++ (Child).

The buffet includes a free flow of bandung and calamansi juice. Iced water was also served to all diners.

The Penang Hawkers’ Fare this year seemed better planned and organised. There is even a show kitchen where the chefs can display their skills. All the food are prepared fresh by the hawkers at the stalls. We were there on a weekend and did not see long queues at the stalls, even the very popular ones like the char kway teow stall. The staff were pleasant and efficient.

One of the new items that we had not tried previously was the Nasi Lemak with Nonya Chicken Kapitan. The fusion dish was very interesting and enjoyable. The succulent chicken covered with a thick curry gravy with a complex mix of spices was very delicious. We had to stop ourselves from going for a second round as there were so many other items to savour.

Another new item was Pasembur, a Chinese-Indian delicacy. It was like a salad with shredded cucumber and bean sprouts with Indian rojak seafood fritters drizzled with a sweet and spicy nut sauce. It was refreshing and enjoyable. Equally refreshing and delectable was the more familiar Penang Rojak.

The Lor Bak and Penang Prawn Mee were also very good. In fact, we would be saying the same of almost every dish. So we would just show you the photos of the various items we tried. If there was one minor complaint, it would be that the Oyster Omelette had very little oysters – but then again that might mean they were really serving food the way you find them in hawker stalls in Penang.

Oyster Omelette

Penang Prawn Mee

Kway Teow Soup

Cuttlefish Kang Kong

Penang Assam Laksa

Char Kway Teow

Ban Chang Kueh – one of the best we had tried. Thin and crispy and full of flavours and aroma. Simply delectable. We just had to go back for another serving.

Ice Kachang and Chendol

We enjoyed the Penang Hawkers’ Fare at York Hotel very much. We had good food in a comfortable setting. We probably ate much more than we should.

Judging by the many smiling faces, the York’s Penang hawker food buffet is still very popular among Singaporeans. No wonder the good Penang hawkers keep coming back. They are here so many days in a year, we wonder who are running their stalls back in Penang. You may recall the newspaper report with the headline “Penang to ban foreign cooks at hawker stalls”. Maybe they need foreigners to run the hawker stalls in Penang so that the Penang chefs can come more often to Singapore. Anyway, we hope they continue to come and continue to bring great Penang hawker food to us.

Ratings:
Food: 5
Service: 4
Value: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating:  4 TOPs  

Penang Hawkers’ Fare
White Rose Café
York Hotel Singapore
21 Mount Elizabeth
Singapore 228516

Tel : +65 6737 0511

Opening Hours
Lunch : 12.00 pm to 2.30 pm
Dinner : 6.30 pm to 10.00 pm

White Rose Cafe Webpage

The Ordinary Patrons
a Singapore food blog by ordinary people looking for places to eat