Hawker Hall

Late night bustling hawker markets in Malaysia and Singapore form the inspiration behind the latest addition from the team behind Chin Chin and Kong. Hawker Hall’s very name describes it well; classic hawker market-​style dishes in a large open warehouse, hall if you will, venue.
The space is amass with seating, with exception to the kitchen in the rear corner and the bar running along part of one side, there is little floor space that isn’t taken up by small tables or booths. Keeping with the market hall vibe, the interior design is simple with white painted brick walls, exposed timber beams and hanging light bulbs. A group of lighted shop signs hanging from one wall build on the night market atmosphere.
Those that are familiar with sister venue Chin Chin, and many other Asian Fusion restaurants, will not be surprised at the mammoth food menu. The menu is divided into over a dozen groups of dishes, such as dumplings and buns, satay BBQ, noodle, rice, curries and stir fries. There is a «Feed Me» option for the indecisive which consists of a selection of random dishes from the menu, and was naturally opted for on this visit. Highlights include curried potato cakes, prawn and ginger dumplings, Northern Indian goat curry, satay pork kebabs and the «Many Treasure» layered-​jelly dessert.
It is hard to describe, but although the dishes were of a high quality with well-​balanced flavours, it felt like there was something missing.
The drinks menu is equally gigantic with an extensive cocktail, wine and beer selection. A feature point of the bar is the long row of no less than 25 beer taps.
Service was excellent especially during the busy Saturday night peak with waitstaff making time to explain the components of each dish as they came out. The loud, pumping dance music from a live DJ may not be for everyone and at times can be difficult to have a conversation, this visit was on a Saturday night and week nights may be quieter.
Overall, Hawker Hall is off and running to a great start to bringing that renowned Chin Chin charm to the south.

New addition to the Windsor restaurant list with attractive fit out, knowledgeable table staff and delicious food. Particularly crowded in the evening so be prepared to wait. Lunchtime is better, with pretty speedy service.
Five spiced shredded chicken salad and Morning glory, red chilli and belachan are two of my favourite dishes.
Music was deafening on my first visit so we moved outside. Second visit it seemed not quite so loud, so maybe they’ve listened to complaints. Music volume is the only reason I’m not giving this terrific place 5 stars. Oh, and in keeping with traditional hawker style dining, they don’t serve coffee.

I wanted to like it. Nay. I wanted to LOVE it, but my heart just won’t do it.
We strolled in to Hawker Hall on a Tuesday at around 6pm and asked if we could nab a table for the more reasonable dinner hour of 7pm — the host was incredibly kind and agreeable. Wow. Considering the never-​ending lines I had heard I was surprised of the ease to get in.
When we were seated we immediately ordered cocktails — a Sea Breeze for me and a Pisco Sour for my other half. The Sea Breeze was a bit lacklustre (but perhaps I just need more punch to my cocktails) but the Pisco Sour, despite the curious addition of pineapple juice, was rather delicious.
The very-​awesome waiter who looked after us for the evening recommended we share four to five dishes. Because of the endless mentions in other Unilocal reviews, we ordered:
+ Popcorn chicken
+ Char Siu Steam Bun
+ Grilled beef short rib
and Chicken Tikka Masala (on the waiter’s suggestion.)
The popcorn chicken and grilled beef short rib were both terrific. The chicken was super tangy and a great snack to go with drinks while the beef short rib was cooked to perfection, breaking apart when we stuck a fork in.
Unfortunately the other two dishes were a bit dull. Neither of them had flavour and, dare I say it, felt a bit like they had been reheated from the morning. They just didn’t have that usual flavour explosion that you expect from sister venues Kong or Chin Chin.
Look, you have to go because soon enough you’ll be the only one left in Melbourne who hasn’t. But if you’re looking for very, very awesome Asian-​fusion food, I’d suggest sticking with the classics (Cookie, Chin Chin and my personal favourite Colonel Tans.)

Bees knees, great food, atmosphere, staff awesome… you will be back time and time again!

I have been reading about Hawker Hall before it even opened and I have been dying to come here, needless to say I am from South East Asia so I was very excited about the dishes they will be offering here and of course being a fan of Chin chin and Kong, this is my next expedition.
As you walked in, it felt like a huge hall as the name implies, music is blasting (sometimes it feels the music is a tad loud to have a proper quiet conversation but we got over that. There are so much dishes from back home that I wanted to try but since there were only 2 of us, there is only a limited dishes we can order.
We were seated at the bar where we watch the bar tender makes drinks, the pink sangria looks delicious but we didn’t order that as it came in a jug.
We settle on the nasi goreng (fried rice), morning glory with belachan, popcorn chicken and the chilli calamari.
Food wise, my thoughts were:
— Nasi goreng. my question is, why is there frozen veggies here? And pea, my pet hate is peas and we dot put peas in our fried rice. The rice overall is a little too soggy.
— Morning glory with belachan. This is supposed to be a bit spicy, a bit salty, but the dish overall was too sweet, but this is still my favourite vegetables in the whole world.
— Popcorn chicken chicken bits, nothing special and its good.
— Chilli calamari — my fav of the day. This is spicy enough, tender enough and it’s very moreish.
Overall, this isn’t really authentic Asian food and servings aren’t very big, but I have to say I really love the ambience here. Its hip but not pretentious. And there are moscato from innocent bystander (my favourite) on tap.
I will definitely give this place another go! And this tim maybe have a glass or two of moscato or even the sangria. I want to give this place 4 stars!

About 50 people from work (well, three actually but that doesn’t sound anywhere near as compelling) mentioned to me over the last week or two that they had tried to get into a new restaurant at the Windsor end of Chapel Street called Hawker Hall. Tried and failed as it turns out, because the place has been filled to capacity every time. Naturally I had to find out why.
As luck would have it the Saturday lunch crowd was somewhat thinner than that previously reported, and although still almost full they managed to find room for me at the banquette in front of the window facing the street.
Hawker Hall (as the name suggests) is big. Really big. Almost warehouse dimensions with enough seating for around 160 people. Polished granite floors, exposed brick walls painted off white with a bar running along one and bright orange letters spelling «Forever Independent» mounted on the other, and an open kitchen in the back corner.
The food (as the name also suggests) is Malaysian and Singapore Hawker fare with all the oriental goodies you’d expect; a range of dumplings and buns, roti, a variety of noodle dishes, curries and stir fries. I started off with a serve of chicken satay skewers.
I had to wait a little while for these to arrive, but it was well worth it. The dish comprised four quite generous sticks with some fresh cucumber and diced onion on the side. A lot of chicken satay I’ve had in other restaurants has been quite dry and stringy, but the meat here is delicious, moist and succulent. And the sauce was even better if that’s possible. I kept trying to think of a better version of this dish that I’d had before but honestly couldn’t. Really, really good.
For main I tried one of the noodle dishes — Char Kwei Teow — which was made with prawns, lup cheong sausage and smoky soy sauce. Another winner. Very tasty. So tasty in fact that it’s probably better eaten by itself than as an accompaniment to another dish. The smokiness of the soy was quite apparent in the flavour, and the finely diced red chilli provided a lovely mild after burn which was nicely offset by a couple of glasses of Pink Sangria
Great food, great atmosphere and great service. Not hard to see why my friends had such a hard time getting in.

Firstly sat down in a nice ambience, with neon lights and an open kitchen, the restaurant stands out with its service. We moved to a booth because there was more room to place dishes and eat. I ordered a Shiki Lager which had a nice taste on tap and was refreshing. The food came quite quickly after around 15 minutes and this was at a busy time. It was cooked very hot and had lots of flavour. First was the five spiced chicken salad, this dish was one of the best with a refreshing taste and the chicken was very soft and flavoursome. ⁹⁄₁₀. The popcorn chicken came next with a satay sauce. Was very delicious ⁷⁄₁₀. The vegetable dumplings came next. It reminded us of my grandma’s «Tei» with its glutenous pastry but the filling wasn’t amazing ⁶⁄₁₀. The potato cakes came next. Very good ⁸⁄₁₀. Sauce also good. The Portuguese devil chicken curry was next and it was very spicy but had a good tomatoey flavour with it. ⁹⁄₁₀. The egg noodles came next. Bit boring but was cooked well. ⁵⁄₁₀. The penang duck curry was very good with the duck texture being soft and juicy ⁹⁄₁₀. The smashed chicken was refreshing ⁷⁄₁₀ with the hainanese chicken coming last. So flavoursome with the chicken being crispy and soft on the inside. ⁹⁄₁₀. Desserts came next and must comend the coconut ice cream, very flavoursome. Overall the experience was a ⁹⁄₁₀ and the prices were not on the expensive side. The bill came to around $ 200 for 5 people but we ate alot. Very good restaurant and would recommend to others!

A 45 minute wait just to discover they have got their basics all wrong or rather confused by promising Singapore hokkien mee and delivering mee goreng. We ordered Otak Otak and it turned out to be baked salmon. We ordered the oyster omelette but it is no where the same as what you get in Singapore. Instead, you will get friends omelette wrapped in raw bean sprouts and 1 or 2 raw oysters. If you are looking for authentic Singaporean food, this restaurant have over promised and under delivered. The loud music and dim lights in the restaurant doesn’t make the ambience any better. On the upside, very friendly and helpful waitresses who are willing to take in constructive feedback and willing to improve on the authencity of the food.

When your only complaint is the music being too loud (and some consideration given to their wait staff for their first week) the place is close to full marks.
Food lacks the punch of Chin Chin, but delivers on Singaporean Hawker Hall favourites extremely well.
We got the HH Feast/​Feed Me and were delivered a wide range of Asian treats.
A must do.

Great food but dishes are on the small side. That said, the prices are alright, not too expensive. Unfortunately, like too many ‘in’ places, they don’t take reservations, so you have to either turn up really early or be prepared to wait an hour or more for a table

I was pretty impressed with this very new addition to Chapel St — it’s a very cool space, the staff are pretty damn sweet and the food was tasty. But not mind blowing, I have to say.
I can’t remember how I’d heard about Hawker Hall (probably Unilocal) and so when we were in the area, we decided to head here for some mid-​afternoon light bites and drinks. We got a table for 3 easily on a Monday afternoon (thank god) and I’ve got to say, the place is really nice inside. High roof, cool signage on the walls (except for «Forever Independent» which I thought was a bit too much). The menu is pretty massive but is split into sections so it’s easy to navigate. The waitress talked us through it but as we were just in for light bites we didn’t really need that — we just stuck to the smaller dishes.
The waitress took my menu away to mark dairy allergy items which was super helpful actually — I was more concerned with the drinks menu as there was a drink with MILO (!!!) in it which she got made for me without milk and it was awesome. (I’ve been living away from Melbourne for too long, obviously).
We ordered: popcorn chicken, prawn & ginger dumplings, braised oxtail dumplings, roti canai with eggplant sambal. Everything arrives at its own pace and overall, the food was good. Personally I didn’t like the braised oxtail dumplings but the prawn & ginger were the absolute highlight. Roti canai was pretty standard and I didn’t get a chance to try the chicken as I was too stuffed from the Milo drink.
Our bill came to about $ 70 for three of us with some beers. While I definitely wasn’t disappointed about the food, I just wasn’t as impressed as I was hoping to be. Maybe if we were in for a proper meal I’d change my mind.

Thank you Hawker Hall for being a bustling, playful and soulful spot to experience delicious food. From dumplings to popcorn chicken, beef short ribs, char kwai teow and nasi goreng — we tried several dishes and the flavours blew me away. Loved the white ale recommended by our waiter. Save room for dessert — the back pepper pineapple with whiskey ice cream was perfection after a fun evening! We’ll be back to try more dishes at this new knock-​out Melbourne food experience. Congrats Exec Chef Benjamin Cooper and Head Chef Damian Snell… I’m hungry after writing this review so I think I’ll be back sooner rather than later!

This place is where it’s at. The food is off the hook amazing, the service is brilliant, cocktails are addictive and the atmosphere is terrific.
The food has the ability to transport you to another place. There were several dishes that made me feel like i was in another country — Nasi Goreng for one. I could have sworn i was in a warung in bali. Hawker hall lives up to its promise of the food being inspired by the vibrant street-​food culture.
Its rare these days that you find something new that makes you want to return the very next day. Hawker hall did that too me. I am still having food fantasies about the shredded 5 spice chicken salad with coconut and the Char Siu Pork with Bok Choy.
Pan Fried, Rolled Dumplings of Braised Oxtail were meaty and full of flavour. Just remember to dip it in some soy sauce. Don’t worry though the staff are more than happy to give you a run down on every dish, which was refreshing.
I can not wait to return to Hawker Hall to try some more of the menu. ¹⁰⁄₁₀

Well well well. You all know how much I love a place that gives me a ‘wow’ and Hawker Hall did just that!
Staff were absolutely amazing. Indulging in conversation and making sure our dining experience was the best it could/​should be.
Food: pulled pork lettuce cups to start. Pork was succulent and tasty accompanied by a tasty plum dipping sauce. Oxtail dumplings, out of this world, if you have them don’t forget to dip in their soy sauce. Five spice chicken and coconut salad just blew my tastebuds to pieces. I want this everyday. Flavor Flavor Flavor! We then had the Nasi Goreng and seriously for a moment I was transported back to Bali. So authentic. Then came the Hoi Sin pork with bok choy, a big winner. We then had the Black pepper pineapple with whiskey ice cream. Perfect way to end a sensational meal. Cocktails are on point. I had the gin cucumber cooler which had a nice hint of coriander. I actually had 4 of those.
Atmosphere is funky. Not too loud. Toilets are as they should be. Unisex. With the sounds of a language interpreter explaining how speak Malaysian. Unique touch.
We absolutely loved Hawker Hall. I would almost go as far as saying it’s better than Melbournes institution of Chin Chin. I say this as the menu is more varied.
Well done Lucas Group. You just broke Windsor to pieces, in a great way! The bar has been set.

Pre opening night. The food was delicious, the atmosphere awesome and the people amazing. That’s the best way to describe this new upbeat addition to the Lucas Groups new digs. Chef Benjamin Cooper has made good work of the menu and some slick design will see this place hard to get into.