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We Queued 3 Hours For Fried Chicken At Shilin Singapore & Walked Away Empty-Handed

If you’re going to Shilin Singapore's market this weekend, don’t be like us.

If you’re going to Shilin Singapore's market this weekend, don’t be like us.

If you’re going to Shilin Singapore's market this weekend, don’t be like us.

With the crazy crowd at the newly opened Jewel Changi Airport, you’d think Singaporeans would be all queued out. Yet, throngs of people also made their way to Shilin Singapore, the local version of Taiwan’s famous Shilin Night Market, last week, which is also happening this weekend on April 26 to 28 (Fri to Sun), at The Grounds@Kranji.

Organised by Invade, the folks behind the Bangkok-inspired pop-up container bazaar ArtBox, the day-to-night market features “over 300 Taiwanese and local” street food, drinks, artisanal products, games and performances. And in case you missed the many crowd-filled social media snaps and news coverage on the event, Shilin Singapore was packed. Crazy packed. Queues were reportedly everywhere, even to get into the market itself.

Because you can’t trust everything you see on the Internet, we decided to head down on Day 3 (21 April) to check it out for ourselves and find out if the crowd was truly as massive as some claimed. How foolhardy we were.

1 of 12 Wait long long

Since early birds catch worms, we decided the best way to combat the crowd was to arrive at the market early — we got there just a half hour after it opened its doors at 3pm.

There was a line of sorts to get in, but that could be chalked up to the narrow pathways that acted as a people filter, pushing groups into a neat two-by-two line. Inside, the market was divided into four categories: Eat (food and beverages), Shop (retail), Play (game booths and activities), Fun (entertainment) zones, and did not seem very busy. It was quite spacious, even. We got a little more hopeful (prematurely) about getting Taiwanese grub into our belly and patted ourselves on the back for being early (again, prematurely).

Photo: @shilinsingapore, Instagram

  • 2 of 12 Then, we got to the Eat section of the market.

    It was, as expected, busier than the play or retail areas. The crowd was large enough there that weaving our way through it took a bit of manoeuvring and lots of “Sorry, excuse mes”. Snaking queues had already formed at the three first-time-in-Singapore Taiwanese brands, like fried chicken cutlet heavyweight Devil Evolution Chicken, milk beverage makers Milksha, as well as ChiaTe, which specialises in Taiwanese pineapple cakes. There were also lines at other familiar names like Taiwanese street snack brand Hot Star and beloved bubble tea brewers GongCha.

    Photo: Gwendolyn Lee

  • 3 of 12 The start of a 3-hour-long, futile queue at Devil Evolution Chicken

    The queue for Devil Evolution Chicken, in particular, was packed with an estimated 80 to 100 people — it took us 10 minutes to walk from the stall itself to the end of the line. With roots in Taichung, Taiwan, it is famed for its crispy-on-the-outside yet juicy-on-the-inside fried chicken cutlets, and apparently edges out its rivals Hot Star and Shilin Fried Chicken as Taiwan’s top pick. Despite the long line, we were optimistic and decided to make it our first stop, naively thinking it would take an hour and a half at worst.

    Five minutes in, we realised joining the queue on an empty stomach wasn’t such a great idea.

    After an hour, the stall was still out of sight. “How long do you think we’ll be here for?” we heard someone from the group of ladies behind us ask. “We’ll probably get our fried chicken tomorrow,” her friend jokingly replied. What an ominous but not altogether unreasonable prediction.

    Photo: @driftingmango, Instagram

  • 4 of 12 Milksha and Ho6ix to the rescue

    A painful two hours later, we were only about 50th in the queue. We got so desperate that we asked the group behind us to save our spot so we could get something, anything to eat. We ran to grab the Fresh Taro Milk we had pre-ordered from Milksha via the Klook app (see pre-ordering tips below); and snacks from Ho6ix, usually seen at pop-up markets selling locally-inspired light bites like salted egg mayo fries. There weren’t long queues at either and it took us 10 mins to get our food and drink. Milksha’s Taro Milk ($5.20), concocted with fresh milk from its own dairy farm in Taiwan, was a drinkable orh ni (Teochew yam paste dessert) and made for a pretty yummy thirst-quencher.

    Photo: Gwendolyn Lee

  • 5 of 12 Mid-queue nibble #1

    Ho6ix didn’t disappoint either. The Abacus Seeds ($10), a traditional Hakka dish with small, chewy discs made of yam, and stir-fried with dried shrimp, dried cuttlefish, julienned black fungus, and shitake mushrooms were a good mix of bite and bounce.

    Photo: Gwendolyn Lee

  • 6 of 12 Mid-queue nibble #2

    We also got Ho6ix’s Bubble Milk Tea Mantou Fries ($8) there: Sliced mantou (Chinese buns) fried and topped with condensed milk and, strangely, bubble tea pearls. We had reservations about the obviously made-for-social media dish, but the combination of crunchy ‘fries’ and sweet, tender pearls worked somehow.

    Photo: Gwendolyn Lee

  • 7 of 12 We give up

    An excruciating three hours later, under a blanket of humidity with zero toilet breaks, and still a long way from the stall, it started to rain heavily. We finally decided we loved our sanity more than we loved fried chicken, and gave up. We later heard it took a whopping 4 hours before one could get their chicken that day. As we walked away dejectedly in the downpour, the ladies behind us quickly moved up to fill the gaping hole we left in the chain. So we can’t tell you if Devil’s chicken was worth the wait — though online reviews so far say the chook is indeed juicy and crunchy. Hmph — but is any fried chicken, no matter how luscious, worth four precious hours of your time?

  • 8 of 12 No Gongcha Bubble Tea Funhouse fun for us either

    Weary from all the waiting, we gave up on our plans to visit the Gongcha Bubble Tea Funhouse too, where you can create your own bubble tea with your choice of flavours, toppings and colours, and play in a bubble tea pearl ball pit for kids of every age. Because there was a line of about 20 people there, and we decided we had done enough queueing for the day.

  • 9 of 12 Ex-queues me

    The demand for Devil Evolution Chicken — and the other two first-time-in-Singapore brands Milksha and ChiaTe — isn’t surprising given how it’s the Taiwan-based brand's first time in Singapore. With the overwhelming response they got, opening up permanent stores here might be a smart move, though no plans are confirmed at press time. However, even brands you can easily find at most neighbourhood malls had two to three-hour-long queues — ridiculous, Shilin market-exclusive flavours such as Hot Star’s Mala Chicken Cutlet and Gongcha’s new Rosa Latte, a dragonfruit latte with white pearls, be damned. A handful of local stalls like grilled meat guys The Niu Age and bun specialists D’Bun (who were serving up bowls of lu rou fan, or Taiwanese braised pork belly rice, along with their signature steamed buns) were the exception, with relatively fast moving queues and 15 to 30-minute-long wait times.

    If you don’t want your Shilin Singapore experience to be all queue and no fun, here’s what you need to do:


  • 10 of 12 Pre-order, pre-order, pre-order

    If you’re heading down this weekend, pre-order your food via Klook asap, a local and regional destination and attraction booking app, and one of the partners for Shilin Singapore. We noticed some stalls had Klook priority rows and decided to give it a shot with Milksha — an unintentionally good move given how Milksha only accepts Klook orders. The short queue you see at its stall is only for collection of pre-orders. There isn’t an extra charge on purchases, and you can also pre-pay on the app to save time. Crew members were also walking up and down particularly long lines looking for those who’ve pre-ordered, so you can skip the order queue and jump straight to the collection...queue. The latter moves faster, making it the lesser of two evils. You can book your food on the day of your visit itself — it’s what we did — but note that there are limited orders available daily so book early to play it safe. Also, you can only pre-order from the following stalls:

    ● Devil Evolution Chicken (we know, silly us — we heard the wait for those who pre-ordered was about two hours, which is still pretty long. By the time we realised we could do this, pre-orders were sold out for Devil Evolution Chicken on the day we visited.)

    ● ChiaTe (we spied a short queue for this)

    ● Milksha (only a short queue for pre-order pickups)

    ● Gongcha

    ● Hotstar

    ● Kazo, which specialises in Hokkaido-inspired crispy cream puffs.

    ● Liang Sandwich Bar, and its Jay Chou-endorsed scallion pancakes and sandwiches.

    ● Chun Chui He, popular bottled Taiwanese milk tea you’ve probably seen in 7-11.

    Playmade, another Taiwanese bubble tea brand, known for its variety of house-made pearls.

    ● Blackball, with their Taiwanese dessert.

    ● Jim Beam, which served high balls and Taiwanese craft beer.

    ● Horoyoi Fruit Beer, from, erm, Japan’s Suntory group.

    Photo: @shilinsingapore, Instagram

  • 11 of 12 Show up at 3pm

    Go early, before or right when the market opens, if possible. There are queues from start to finish, but it gets progressively busier — and increasingly harder to get your food within a reasonable timeframe — as the night goes on. Some food stalls also start selling out as soon as 5.30pm. Also, the weather has been pretty sweltering in the afternoons and wet in the evenings, so head down with both a fan and an umbrella to survive the long waits. There are plenty of makan areas near the main stage and karaoke stage, decked out with benches, and tables and chairs made out of repurposed wood pellets — environmentally-friendly and quite comfy. However, most of the market (including the rest areas) is not sheltered, so you’ll still be vulnerable to the heat and rain. ​​​​​​​

    Photo: @mr.blur_1988, Instagram

  • 12 of 12 Go in a group

    This is not the place to go solo. Visit the market in larger groups so everyone can split up and join separate lines to save time and you all get a chance to taste a variety of food from different stalls. Shilin Singapore is definitely not an authentic copy of the real Shilin Night Market experience, but with some fun activities ranging from the Gongcha Bubble Tea Funhouse, to a human claw machine and outdoor KTV booths, it can be worth a visit with the right group of kakis. But if what you want is authentic Taiwanese street food, just plan a trip to Taiwan for the real deal, sans soul-sapping queue. We'll be chilling at home this weekend, recovering from our ordeal.

    Shilin Singapore is on this weekend from April 26 to 28, 3pm to 11pm, at The Grounds@Kranji, at Singapore Turf Club. Entry to the market is free. Get updates via Instagram @shilinsingapore.

    Photo: @shilinsingapore, Instagram

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