Open from now till 22 April 2023, the Geylang Serai Ramadan bazaar is finally back after 3 long years of COVID-19 restrictions. It boasts a whopping 700 stalls, with 150 serving food, and its opening hours are 10am to 11.59pm daily. Unlike the Kampong Gelam Ramadan Bazaar, the walkways here are wider and easier to navigate. The entire bazaar is also completely sheltered, which ensures that your visit doesn’t get cut short due to gloomy weather!
Seating areas are aplenty, with wooden benches and tables on the first floor, as well as a cozier, lounge-like option at the upper deck. However, do note that there are varying seating limitations at the upper decks, with one of them being a maximum of 50 pax.
Moving on, here’s some of our F&B recommendations:
1. Charkoi
This box encapsulated the meaning of a perfectly fried dough fritter (youtiao) perfectly. Each piece was extremely crispy on the outside, while still maintaining a warm and fluffy centre. Flavour-wise we went with their best-seller, Cookies & Cream. The frosting carried the right amount of sweetness and the oreo crumbs added on a nice crunch as well.
If you see their trays looking a little empty, don’t worry. They prepare most dough fritters on the spot, so its a constant cycle of selling out what’s on display and replenishing stock.
2. Praffles
After the stall owner told us that the Beef Rendang flavour was newly released, you know we had to try it. The beef cubes were prepared on the spot and were succulent without tasting gamey. The sauce also carried a spicy kick and paired well with the crispy and fluffy praffle. However, this was quite a big portion, so we would recommend sharing one praffle between 2 or 3 people.
3. Kakak Dim Sum
Although they might seem unassuming, this stall has quite an interesting menu. They specialise in deep fried buns, and each one has a different filling inside. For a fusion of sweet and salty flavours, you can go for the Salted Egg Fantasi ($5) which comes with a fried bun filled with salted egg yolk, vanilla ice cream, salted egg yolk drizzle and a candy topping. If you’re undecided on which bun to get, you can order their Dim Sum Goreng (from $5) where you can mix and match a combination of individual buns.
We opted for a sweeter option and tried their Milo Bom ($5). This cup came with a chocolate-filled fried bun, vanilla ice cream and a generous scoop of milo powder. The bun was perfectly fried and still remained crispy even after 10 minutes. The vanilla ice cream also combined well with the milo powder, so it’s still yummy even when melted!
4. Jom Lekor
Jom Lekor offers a unique dining experience, where you get to DIY your own bowl of Indomie. Customers will get to pick out their choice of noodle from the display, select their add-ons and spice level.
The noodles were springy and surprisingly spicy, even though we ordered their lowest spice level.
There are also a variety of retail stores and game booths. Some games include your classic arcade games like basketball and claw machines, but they also have the old-school game booths where you knock down cans or pop balloons to win a prize. They even have a horse riding area at the back of the tent!
In a separate stretch of the bazaar we also found a stall selling DIY bags.
There was a wide variety of adorable stickers and patches to choose from, and quite a range of bag types too! The patches were selling at 1 for $2 and 3 for $5, while the bags ranged from $6 to $15.
After choosing our patches, they helped us iron them onto our pouch, and it was done in just a little over 5 minutes!
Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to the Geylang Serai Ramadan bazaar. However, we would advise you to put aside at least half a day for your visit, because it really takes quite some time to walk through the entire bazaar. It was quite stuffy and humid too, so you can consider bringing along a portable fan.
