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The beloved Berseh Food Centre in Jalan Besar will be pulling its shutters down for Repairs and Redecoration (R&R) from 29 Sep to 28 Dec 2025; regulars will have to plan their calendars out carefully (or tabao 3 months’ worth) if they want to savour their favourite meals before it happens.
This R&R will be conducted by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in an effort to keep our heartland gems neat and tidy for the regulars around the block and visitors around the island.
Berseh Food Centre is just one of a few hawker centres islandwide that are temporarily closing their doors for R&R this Sep, with 75 other marketplaces and hawker centres undergoing cleaning works.
While the location may have seemed dated and dingy on the outside, it has served as the central gathering place for Jalan Besar’s hawkers and foodies since the 1970s, with a legacy spanning decades and generations.
One of the highlights of this place is the formerly named Aunty Sham Ayam Penyet, now renamed Aunty Syam Ayam Penyet. While I’m rather perplexed by the stall’s name change, you’ll forget about that oddity rather quickly once you take a bite of the food.
The stall is run by the lovely Aunty Sham, and she serves a plate of Ayam Penyet (S$6.50) with a sizeable scoop of rice and a humongous chicken leg so big you’d question if it was from a chicken or Godzilla. Though you’ll be breathing out an Atomic Breath after tasting her handmade sambal chilli.
Another must-try stall is Kelantan Kway Chap, a star stall of Berseh Food Centre that has made it on the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand list since 2022.
The stall’s Kway Chap (S$5) comes with a bowl of slippery and soft flat rice noodles swimming in pork bone broth, served with a generous offering of pork belly and pig intestines on the side to boot.
Be sure to check these out and many other stalls in Berseh Food Centre before 29 Sep 2025, and make sure to pop by once the place is renovated and take in the sight of our renewed heartland darling.
