Just about 4 hours away from our little tropical island, Singapore offers a different kind of island experience. Singapore is a bustling concrete jungle with a cosmopolitan flair. With an easy LRT system (also lots of taxi stands) to get around the city, Singapore is an easy country to explore.
Despite reasonably priced flights available to Singapore from Colombo and the fact that it is one of the few countries that give us an on-arrival visa (yay, no lengthy annoying visa applications!!!), Singapore is known to be quite taxing on a person’s wallet. This is why it’s perfect for a quick get-away of just a few days when you have some extra cash saved up!
In addition to spending most of my days shopping at Orchard road or scavenging the markets at Bugis Junction, one of the main reasons I go to Singapore is to eat. Not surprising at all I know! Restaurants and cafes keep popping up around Singapore like chicken pox lesions (I’m sorry, everything has to relate to medicine and I couldn’t think of a better description). So every time you visit, theres always a gazillion new places to try. A really good blog that I visit before going to Singapore is Lady Iron Chef (a food & travel blog). They have an insane restaurant index and you can virtually find any type of cuisine that you crave.
So here is my list of favourite spots to keep my tummy happy in Singapore (because “hangry” is never a good look!).
Favourite spots to eat
This is an area where you don’t necessarily need to splurge. Singapore cuisine caters to just about everybody and anybody’s taste. Listed below are some interesting spots to indulge, but the list is forever being updated! I most definitely have a lot more places to try out so feel free to send in more suggestions.
- Mamak food ($) – Kway Teow and fried carrot cake ! My mouth is watering as I even type about it. This can be found at any food court at any shopping mall in Singapore and also any street Mamak stalls. This is a Singaporean/Malaysian street food dish and is so ridiculously satisfying. The Char Kway teow is fried flat noodles with seafood normally (prawns and mussels) and lots of bean sprouts. Carrot cake which contains absolutely no carrots (!!) is actually made of radish (a.k.a white carrot to some people) and rice flour. The white carrot cake means that it’s mixed with egg whilst black carrot cake is fried with dark soya sauce and tastes sweeter than the white carrot cake. This is very affordable and the perfect meal to have in between your shopping.
Char Kway Teow and Carrot cake at Ion Orchard
- Fish head curry ($) – I think all south asians love this. My father and fiancé are obsessed with this dish and will make a special trip to Little India as soon as we land in Singapore just to have this. It’s a perfect blend of spices and even their vegetarian side dishes compliment the dishes perfectly. Some well-known places to try Fish head curry is Banana Leaf Apollo and Muthu’s curry. I personally am not the biggest fan of fish head curry and so this recommendation comes from my father.
Banana Leaf fish head curry
- Hongkong Soya sauce chicken rice and noodle ($) – Did you know that you can get Michelin Star food for just about $5? From a street hawker joint nonetheless? Well yes, you can. Just make a trip down to chinatown, but be prepared to stand in queues if you go during busy meal times. I basically didn’t think the food was that amazing, but hey you can officially say you’ve dined at a michelin star restaurant. The chicken was slightly undercooked for my liking, and I slathered the sauces all over my rice because dry rice does not agree with me (typical Sri Lankan-ism)!
Soya sauce chicken rice
- Wild Honey ($$) – The holy grail of breakfasts. Possibly the best one out there! With perfectly poached eggs, creamy hollandaise sauce and prosciutto on Brioche bread, there is absolutely nothing more scrumptious than their ‘European’ dish. They also have a really yummy eggs benedict on portobello mushrooms if you’re veg or don’t eat pork. The Norwegian has smoked salmon with salmon pearls for extra crunch with your eggs benedict. They have a restaurant at Mandarin Gallery (right above Victoria Secret) and one at Scott’s square.
The European
Portobello Road (R), The European (Below) and the Norwegian (L)
- Din Tai Fung ($$) – The best best best place for dumplings. This chain of restaurants is well known for their mouthwatering dumplings and have numerous locations to choose from. Most of their dishes have pork and they only have one chicken option for dumplings, so if you don’t eat pork just know that your options are limited. The dumplings sort of burst in your mouth and have a small amount of soup-y content which you taste first (mind-blowingly amazing!). Their egg & shrimp fried rice is also bomb.com and you should definitely try it also. They do have vegetarian dumpling options as well and some truffle mushroom dumplings (don’t be fooled by the word truffle, they weren’t too yum – more like a mush of mushrooms).
Vegetable dumplings, Chicken dumplings & pork with shrimp dumplings
These are just a few of my must-try picks for dining in Singapore, but there are so many other popular places to visit in Singapore that will cater to everyone and anyone.
In the night time, head down to the ever so popular Clarke quay where you can pick from numerous places to dine, drink wine and party afterwards. For a spectacular view and a ear-popping elevator ride, 1altitude is a rooftop bar that you must visit. Though I’ve never been, C’est la vie at Marina Bay Sands also gives you an amazing view and I’ve heard that the music is good too. For shopping, you really can’t beat Orchard road for a good dose of high-street and high-end brands. If you like bustling markets though, Bugis is a great place to get your discount game on. For electronics, Sim Ling towers is where to go, but don’t forget to BARGAIN. For places to stay, holiday inn on orchard road is really good for its’ location and price. You don’t need to walk miles after a long day of shopping with heavy shopping bags. BUT! Keep an eye out for offers to stay at Marina Bay Sands! Yes it’s a swanky place with a just as swanky price tag, but boy is it worth it. It’s probably the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at. I mean the pool is just glorious (Yes, instaholics!), their cocktails & canapés every afternoon by the pool is to die for (two words: unlimited champagne.) and you can catch a theatre performance just downstairs. The only negative is that it’s an LRT ride away from Orchard road which means “heavy shopping bag carrying” required.
If you have any more recommendations about places to go in Singapore (especially places to eat!) please comment below 🙂
