Hawker Fare

Hawker Fare is such a fun place, and the ambiance — as one friend put it — is very «uptown Oakland,» with hanging lights and vintage Bruce Lee posters on the walls. The five of us were somehow able to snag a seat here on a Friday night and ordered a round of drinks including the «Bruce Lee-​Chee,» a lychee purée and white rum cocktail, as well as the «Hard Thai Coffee,» Thai coffee spiked with bourbon.
We decided to go family style and ordered the Fried Egg Salad, Tamarind Curry Noodles, Khao Mun Gai and Braised Pork Belly to share. All of it was really good. My favorites were the Khao Mun Gai and the Fried Egg Salad. The portions were just a bit small for the five of us, so we decided to also order the Beef Short Ribs, were are basically Kalbi, so that was a bit of a let down. Otherwise, everything was quite yummy!

Came in at 8:10 (50 minutes before close) there were about 20 people still in the restaurant and the server told us they weren’t serving any more for the night. Pretty lame guys.

I really wanted to like Hawker Fare, especially after their high ranking NYT review soon after they opened. My friend Jenn loves their green bean dish so I said Yes to going back another time.
Food:
Their food is too greasy for my tastes. Also some dishes were really salty while others lacked flavor.
Atmosphere:
Their red metal folding chairs are cute but uncomfortable. The noise level is just too loud. Sound bounces around their space and my friend and I had to sit next to one another in order to hear each other.

Summary based on one dinner:
–ok, but geez this is the same food as at a zillion authentic Thai/​Lao restaurants in the Bay Area, especially Berkeley and San Pablo, but priced 2 – 3 times as much.
–ok service, but was told they didn’t have nam kao tod, rice salad, because they ran out of rice. Huh?
–high prices. Try Thai Noodle in Berkeley or Vientian [sic] Café in Oakland and see if it’s not the same, but a lot cheaper, though admittedly no hipster ambiance. (You might have to order off menu.)
–challenging street parking

The ambiance was nice, the wait wasn’t too long and they take reservations if you need them. Our server was attentive and gave us great advice.
Tamarind cocktail was delicious. I hope to recreate it with success. I would drink that one again!
For two people we split three dishes. I can’t remember the names! We had two appetizers, one off their specials menu — pork rinds, an assortment of veggies and a fish sauce salsa. I loved the flavor profile. Our second was the fried chicken with the spicy sauce on the side. Thankful they were able to do that because the sauce is very spicy! It was burning up for me. I enjoy a hint of spice but this was a little much for me. Our third dish was the burnt rice salad with fermented pork and veggies. It was interesting and the flavor profile was different from any other dish I have had: crispy, sour, citrus, salty, spicy.
We ended our meal with the Thai coffee affogato, delicious soft serve condensed milk with coconut biscuits and Thai espresso. I wish the espresso pour was hotter! I like to melt my ice cream.
I think we ordered wrong, and I wish we had included a grilled dish. The food was different and I’m glad I tried it, but I’m not sure that I would come back. I might take my food loving friends that are from out of town looking for something interesting as I know they might enjoy the fragrant and interesting flavors, but personally the food didn’t leave the best impression. Different, but nothing addicting. get the tamarind cocktail though, that is worth it. Should you go? Yes, worth at least one try!

— Great for lunch, OK for dinner
— Within budget
— Walking distance from Ordway Offices, 10 – 15 mins from Regional Offices
— High noise level
— No private dining space
— Not great for confidential discussions
— This restaurant get’s busy, ordering ahead is a must
— Catering orders need to be made 48 hours in advance. Same day orders will be served in rice box type boxing. Restaurant is unable to do a la carte during lunch.
— Not too many vegetarian or vegan options.
Q603522

We had a wonderful dining experience at Hawker Fare. Had read a lot about it, and was very smart to take the recommendation to call ahead for reservations. Restaurant was full and as we walked in there was such a fun vibe with amazing aromas to also welcome us.
Not knowledgeable about Thai or Laotian food, our server Paloma, who took very good care of us the entire evening, guided us through the menu, listened to what we like, and started us out with a couple delicious papaya salads and appetizers. Pork Belly was something new to us all, and we loved it. All the main dishes had varying degrees of spiciness, so it was fun to mix and match as we chowed down through the meal.
Looking forward to another visit to try that which we missed.

We were so excited with the huge amount of food we ordered but sadly disappointed with every dish.
You couldn’t taste anything! There was literally no flavor or taste to anything because it was all over spicy.
I love spicy, but when it’s just unnecessarily spicy and not flavorful and just full of dried red pepper? Not cool and definitely not a fan.
Not sure if we will try again, because this had been on my list for a while, but almost all of the food went to waste and was a disappointment.
Flavor goes a long way but not knowing how to season is just a disappointment.

Came here a while back because it is right across the street from my organization’s national office. My friend took me here, and i ended up getting the pork belly bowl with rice. She got some sort of a fried chicken dish.
My food would’ve been good if it were hot, but it wasn’t. And I don’t know if y’all have ever had cold pork belly, but it isn’t pleasant. The fat just becomes hard and chewy, and the meat becomes dry. The sauce it was in was really good over the rice, but I paid way too much to get cold food.
The fried chicken dish with the dipping sauce was actually really good, so I would recommend that if you go here, but perhaps not the pork belly, as my experience with that was far from pleasant.

Super disappointing. I went with someone else, and one each of our dishes were decidedly lukewarm. Both dishes I ordered seemed to have been most likely sitting in storage for a while and were reheated, or at the least they had that consistency. I’m told this place is or was really good at times, but this was a bad night.
PRO: The waitress we had was super friendly and refunded our money on two dishes since we didn’t eat them.

Great food. Don’t be fooled by the inferior one in The Mission where the plates are hastily prepared spice soup.
Everything at the Oakland location appeared and tasted carefully prepared. The dishes have an authentic vibe to them while also seeming original and creative. The service was good considering the low-​key casual atmosphere you would expect from a place with «Hawker» in its name.

This is such a cute little asian fusion place. They have community style seating as well as small tables. This place gets pretty busy so I would recommend reservations in advance. Parking is also really hard to find in the area so go early.
We ordered the green beans, the 24 hour pork belly, and the tofu curry. We also ordered a side of chicken fat rice… mine came with a big lemongrass root. It had a nice flavor to it. The green beans were delicious and garlicky. The pork belly was way too fatty and kind of salty. The tofu curry wasn’t that great — tasted watered down, not much flavor to the dish.
The food here is decent, not spectacular. Worth checking out if you’re in the area.

Not sure what all the hype is. Everything was quite decent, although not mindblowing. The Thai iced tea was among the blandest I’ve had, while the pla muek hank (squid jerky) sounded great on the menu but was insanely tough and inedible. The short ribs with egg tasted good, although the portion size was quite small given the price.
Service was decent, however, and the venue gets a lot of light and feels a bit removed from the daily grind even though it’s fairly close to all the downtown/​uptown office buildings.

I went there for my bday dinner and I have to say, that was the worst bday dinner experience I ever had. It was a slow Wednesday night and maybe that affected the attitude of everyone there, I don’t know. I tried so many items there to give them a chance.
Started off with a spicy alcoholic drink which was too spicy for me. Not a great start but that’s not their fault. Tried their beer nuts and loved it’s seasoning. Devoured it! Picked one of their fishes (mackerel I believe) which was lean. Yet again, I can’t fault an actual fish though lean brought out because it’s freshest to slice it up oneself. Moving on.
Tried their calamari seafood dish and I thought I’d break a tooth, was way too crunchy. Ordered a thinly sliced beef dish (better description perhaps later), and thought it was seasoned adequately. It wasn’t hot or searing enough. Then tried their famous green beans, it was slightly crunchy which I liked but seasoned in a way for me not to appreciate enough. That may not be their fault, just my taste buds not preferring it. I do remember their sticky rice and I really liked it so maybe that was first, then the beer nuts, then the beef, then the rest of the dishes.
I can’t remember if we ordered other dishes. Stay tuned if I regain my memorable experience but the overall experience was a 2.5 star. I wouldn’t want to come back to make it a 3 star. Perhaps your taste buds would approve, perhaps. it could be a 3 or 4 star for you but I’m just scratching my head with that thought.
It just wasn’t special due to the service and the price for the dishes. The portions were smaller than expected, had odd seasoning/​sauces and lacked pizazz. Left there with about $ 90 spent for two. :(
Asian fusion is hit and miss to me, they lacked a general positive first impression and on my bday too!

Once upon a time, I lived at The Grand apartments in Oakland and Hawker Fare was right in my backyard so it was inevitable for me not to eat here once (or twice) a week. Step out of my apartment, take the elevator downstairs, walk a few steps and boom, I’m there — ready to order some Asian fusion goodness. The 24 hour pork belly over rice is my favorite dish here. You gotta add the egg! The egg makes the entire dish 100x better. The pork belly, rice, egg trifecta is orgasmic.
I’ve also tried:
— green papaya salad
— green beans
— charcoal grilled cuttlefish skewers
— pork chops (was a special one night)
Thumbs up to all dishes. I usually prefer a more authentic taste, but I do love Hawker Fare’s twist. I would describe the atmosphere to be divey, hipster, and intimate. It’s a trendy yet casual place to grab dinner.

We wanted to like this place, we really did. So much so that even after having a pretty bad experience the first time we came on a bustling Friday night, we went back a month later to give it another shot. This time on a busy Saturday night.
To get straight to the point: the ambience is nice – not too big, not too small, the people are friendly, the drinks are interesting, but the food here is too spicy.
We are honestly blown away that most people can eat the food here. Let me set the stage a bit: I say «most people» because my boyfriend A who can eat chilis and spicy on the spicy meters of all cuisines, and ⁴⁄₆ things we’ve had at Hawker Fare have been overwhelmed with the hot/​spicy rather than spice/​complexity/​flavor/​taste. The worst offender of all was the beef tartare larb. Sure, the hipster waitress said that it was «a little spicy» but we had no reason to think she meant borderline inedible.
That time we also had the khao man gai (not really flavorful and completely off on the sauce if you take nong’s in portland, or even lers ros in sf, as a standard) and the moo yang (nothing special, hard to get lemongrass pork wrong. The larb had dug a deep hole in how we saw the restaurant’s food. and the two other items didn’t do anything to dig its way out.
We waived that dish as a fluke. Fine, so we go back this past weekend and order completely different things: the blistered green beans, the green curry with fish dumplings, and the sausage entrée.
Green beans were good. Green curry and sausage were again, spicy for the sake of spicy. To be more specific: green curry was not that flavorful, but did include hefty chunks of thai chilis (which can be really bad for those who can’t take spice). Sausage had the thai chili built into it. Hotter that what we’d imagine most people could handle also. Oh and the chicken fat rice was nothing to linger about.
It says something when people rave most about the green beans.
Sorry Hawker Fare, we really wanted to like you, but if we’re in Uptown or Downtown Oakland, honestly our money is better spent somewhere we can taste the complexity of the flavors instead of getting our taste buds obliterated by thai chili.

I had the fried chicken rice bowl and the chicken tasted VERY GOOD. One of the best tasting popcorn chicken I’ve had. It came with a side of sauce but I had no clue what was in it. A mixture of shrimp paste and fish sauce and other stuff? I didn’t enjoy it at all. It tasted and smelt funky. Not to say that I don’t have a taste for those flavors, my parents use tons of fish sauce and shrimp paste in their dishes. The sauce was definitely not my flavor so I don’t know how the typical American can tolerate it. They gave 4 dinky pieces of chicken and a bunch of rice. It left me hungry for more. Overpriced too. I think I forked out $ 20 for a meal plus tax and tip? Sigh. That’s 2 ike’s sandwiches.
I have yet to try other items on the menu but my coworkers ordered everything else on the menu. I tasted a bit of their short ribs but it tasted like mediocre ribs. Nothing appealed to me at this restaurant and I certainly feel like its over-​hyped (although I hate to admit it).
If you got $ 20 to spare and would like to eat tiny portions but quality tasting fusion foods, this place is suited for you. I’m frugal and much rather spend $ 7 on a huge plate of legit thai food in my neighborhood.

Michael Bauer recently wrote about Hawker Fare in the same article as Lazy Bear. I have been slowly but surely missing Pok Pok in Portland. Cancelled a restaurant’s reservation to come here this evening after a very long and eventful work day that ended on a good note (as in I’m not as behind as yesterday), I was late. «My love where are you?» N calls as I’m literately walking from across the street. I was late because I got turned around in uptown Oakland. Seriously turned around. Hawker Fare is right next to my favorite uptown Oaktown restaurant — AlaMar. Good way to orient myself for next time.
Hawker Fare was busy but thankfully reservation opened up last minute which I snatched on OpenTable. The décor is very communal. It gives off the same vibe as Pok Pok. It did not have a whisky bar but their cocktail drinks looked interesting — notably a jackfruit drink. Then it was the menu, special menu included spicy beef tongue and mushroom salad. Intriguing. We had the beef tartare salad, blistered beans, half roasted chicken and the beef tongue, minced and punched with heat.
The service was great. Very friendly and fast. The neighbors were friendly but kept to themselves. It had a good vibe. People obviously love the chef and the décor, lots of photos were taken today by fellow diners, posing inside of the restaurant.
I did ask the server how it compares to Pok Pok. Clearly she’s gotten that question a lot because she seemed to have an answer for it, and that is, «we are kind of like that but the food is different.»
Portions were not huge but appropriate. I liked that. The flavor and spice were good. It has some weird dishes out there, things you don’t see in a typical Thai restaurant. It’s not like Kin Khao, where the food is more refined and more innovative, this is definitely more street food that packs heat.
I did, very much appreciate its originality and innovativeness.
Why go to the Valencia one when you could go to the original spot? And consider this: while it’s not Pok Pok of Portland, it’s closer than any other restaurants I’ve eaten in the bay area, there is no two hour wait like Pok Pok and it’s cold and rainy right now in Portland.

24 hour pork belly was all my boyfriend and I needed to hear before deciding that we NEEDED to come here.
We ordered the mung bean crepes. It was a little below average. Besides the fact that she drowned it in fish sauce (maybe ask for it on the side) there was not much flavor going on. You can add scallops for $ 3, my boyfriend said it would have tasted better with it.
We both got the pork belly with egg (add $ 1.50); Mine I got with the regular rice and my boyfriend got the chicken fat rice. Oddly enough the menu does not claim that anything about it is 24 hours? Our portions were a lot smaller than the pictures (still an adequate amount for the price/​for a meal) so maybe it was something different?
The chicken fat rice was good! Just a more flavorful rice that was pretty rich. He said he wouldn’t get it again but I liked it… maybe not necessary with the pork belly though =p
The pork belly was perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect! This seriously just melts in your mouth… if I wasn’t eating it with rice and an egg I probably wouldn’t need to use my teeth. The flavor was strong but used delicately to compliment the richness of the pork. Highly recommended.
Ugh, why must pork be soooo bad for you!!! T_​T Although I cannot confirm the flavor, their other main dishes looked really good as well if you’re trying to avoid pork.
Another plus for this place is that they have dope hip-​hop posters. I would come back again ^ ^

Yum yum good stuff! I’ve heard about this place for awhile and was finally lucky enough to find a friend who was willing to haul me all the way to Oakland to try this place at. We went on a Saturday night around 7pm. The restaurant actually was pretty empty during that time, but when we left around 8:30pm ish the restaurant was super packed and popping.
Hawkers area popular concept in SE Asia though let me tell you, this hawker is nothing like the ones that you’ll actually fin in Asia. Even though the choice of utensils and the set up of the restaurant and chairs is similar to a hawker, it is way more high-​end and classy and nice relative to an actual hawker.
We ordered the sticky rice, chicken fat rice green beans, eat and peel shrimp, pork belly, and sausage.
Both of the rices were good, but nothing exceptional. Blistered green beans left a little more to be desired and were on the spicy side but weren’t super flavorful. The shrimp also was a bit mushy which was weird… sausage was spicy and alright. The fried stuff that came with it was spot on. The pork belly was awesome though. Super soft and tender, super fatty, definitely going to take a few years off your life, but oh my goodness so good.
Service could have been a little more attentive, but was there when you asked for it or needed it which is where it really counts.
tldr; All in all, decent classy attempt at serving SE food, though the food is alright but not particularly exceptional at the end of the day.