A city where the best meal of the week can cost almost nothing or take weeks to arrange — the skill is knowing which is which
The best restaurants in Singapore do not sit in a single category. The city’s food is the product of Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, Indian, Peranakan, and Western traditions, and a good week of eating moves between a hawker centre, a dining room, and a hotel bar without any sense of inconsistency. This guide sets out the types of table, how to choose among them, and what to secure early. For starred dining specifically, see our guide to Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore.
Singapore restaurants fall into four groups, and the best meal in each is different.
The hawker table. Singapore’s hawker culture was recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2020, and its centres are described as community dining rooms where people from every background eat side by side. Two hawker stalls were the first street-food outlets in the world to earn Michelin stars, in 2016. No reservation is possible here; the skill is knowing when to go.
The national dishes. Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab, and laksa are three of the dishes most associated with the city, a product of its cuisine of many traditions. Each is best at a specialist kitchen, and each has restaurants that do it with a seat and a booking.
The modern dining room. The city’s contemporary restaurants, many of them European in technique and some Asian in spirit, are where the starred cooking lives. These are the tables that need weeks of notice.
The grand hotel. Raffles, opened in 1887 and reopened after a renovation on 1 August 2019, remains the address for the Long Bar and the Singapore Sling, said to have been invented there. It is as much an occasion as a meal.
The useful question is not which restaurant is first on a list but what the table is for.
A business dinner wants a quiet room, good service, and a menu that does not need explaining. A celebration wants a kitchen with a point of view and a table that is not near the door. A first night in the city wants something local and unhurried, usually hawker food or a classic dish done well.
The top restaurants in Singapore for a given evening are therefore those that fit the guest: the clients, the occasion, and the hour. We choose after hearing the brief, not before.
Most of the difficulty is in the dining rooms at the upper end. The most acclaimed restaurants have few tables and limited seatings, and their books open well in advance. Where the city hosts a major event, such as the Singapore Grand Prix, the pressure compounds.
Tasting-menu restaurants also tend to hold fixed seatings, so late arrival is not an option. Private rooms and chef’s tables are the first to go.
Tell us the occasion and the company, and we will secure the right table
Dinner in Singapore is often one part of a longer trip. Our fine dining and nightlife service works across the city’s restaurants and bars, and our business concierge team supports teams travelling to Singapore for meetings and client evenings.
We listen to the brief, choose the table for the occasion and the company, hold it before the books fill, and brief the restaurant on dietary needs, seating, and timing. We then arrange the car to and from, and a fallback if the evening changes. The best places to eat in Singapore are the ones where nothing needs to be explained on the night.
A quiet dining room with attentive service and a menu that suits a mixed table. We select by company and occasion, and secure it in advance
The acclaimed modern dining rooms, particularly those with few tables and fixed seatings. Hawker centres do not take reservations
The hawker centres, whose culture UNESCO recognised in 2020 and where some of the city’s best-known dishes are found
Rooms with a kitchen that has its own point of view, a good table, and a team that can be briefed on the occasion. We choose after hearing the brief
Yes. Michelin covers starred and recommended restaurants; this guide covers the whole of eating in the city. See our Michelin page for starred dining
