Shilin Night Market Singapore – The hype is real but is it worth it?

No matter whether you have been to Taiwan, everyone would know the night market culture in Taiwan is renown all over the world. One of the biggest and most famous night market in Taiwan is Shilin night market. Now, you don’t have to go to Taiwan to enjoy the Taiwanese street food, Shilin night market comes to you. Shilin night market will operate outside Singapore Turf Club, if you are taking the train, you can alight at Kranji MRT station and you will be guided to the venue through signs placed around the station. We visited Shilin night market and we decided to tell you all about it.

Before you read the entire article we got to be honest. The Shilin inspired night market was a flock to us. It was overcrowded, long queues on food stores, limited selection of authentic Taiwan street food, over-priced street food and lots of “concept hype food wannabe vendors”. We did not try all the food so we can’t tell you if they are worth the 1 hour – 2 hours of queuing up in the already crowded vicinity.

Activities

One of the most welcomed activities in any night market is the games you can play, there are several vendors that allows patrons to have fun in it. You have the typical air rifle shooting or baseball pitching station for you to win a soft toy home, or you can enjoy the excitement of getting a prize from the claw machine. One of the most popular game stations in Shilin night market is the human claw machine. One player will be the “claw” and the other play will control the claw to claim the prizes that are hidden in the ball pool.

Most of the street games we have seen in the legit Shilin Night Market was not present in our Singapore version. The games section was mostly 80% covered by claw machines.

The most interesting game we found was this human claw machine. Disappointing much huh? If you were looking to have a wide selection of games vendor there we suggest you look somewhere else.

If you want to chill somewhere and enjoy the food that you have purchased, you can sit among many likeminded people and enjoy Taiwanese movies in the outdoor cinema, there are no other enjoyment than watching a movie with good food. If you are a music lover, there is a live band performance stage where music and songs will be sung. Even if you want to express your singing, you can approach the open mic zone and sing it to your heart content.

Food

Street food is the main player in Taiwanese night market, so how does it fare when it finally landed in Singapore. Unfortunately, this is where it got a little under expectation. Other than a handful of stalls, many of them are operated by local Singaporeans. Not that we are saying Singaporean can’t cook, but the unique Taiwanese taste seems to be lacking in it. However, there are some food can be recommended. One of them is the toasted butter bread with chunky prawns. I have to say that I was surprised by the taste, it was better than expected. The fragrant from the butter bread and the prawn are surprisingly compatible, the size of the bread also made it quite a filling snack.

We also tried one of the iconic Taiwanese street food, Fried Milk. Yes, you did not misread it, it is indeed Fried Milk. As oddly as it may sounds, we cannot contain our curiosity of it and purchased it. It tasted like milk pudding, but a denser milk taste, the sweetness of the condiments also a plus point to the snack.

However, as far as it tries to be street food, the price most certainly did not reflect that. Many of the items can be priced at 4 dollars and as expensive as 16 dollars if you are getting barbequed beef cubes or any of similar nature. To make an accurate comparison the beef cubes are sold in Taiwan for NTD150 (SGD$6.50) compared to Singapore version at whopping SGD$13.90.

It is a shame we did not get to buy the fried chicken chop, staff stopped patrons from queue as it is about to close. Looking at the queue and other patrons’ chicken chop, it does look amazing.

So how was it?

Spending two hours walking around Shilin night market, it is most certainly contains some element of the original night market, but it is merely a shadow of the real deal. Some of the street food were good, but the price does not reflect the fact that it should be street food. The activities, however, is a plus point for anyone to enjoy a chill weekend night with your love ones but do not have a high expectation of this overly hyped event.

Shilin night market will continue to operate from 26^thApril to 28^thApril 2019, 3pm to 11pm.

Shilin night market:

Carpark B of Singapore Turf Club

1 Turf Club Ave, Singapore 738078