After my recent trip to Singapore, here are 5 new places to check out if you have the time. There are a combination of places I found online as well as places I knew of before from previous travels but had never tried (for one reason or another). The last place is a food stall I happened to stumble across when I was looking for a place to eat.
- Kam’s Roast
- Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle
- Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee
- Toby’s Estate Coffee
- Putien
Kam’s Roast
For anyone who has been to Hong Kong, this should be a very familiar sounding name, and for good reason. In the Hong Kong Michelin Guide, Kam’s Roast has a Michelin star and people line up for quite some time to eat there. It seems like they’re trying to replicate their success in Singapore but with far fewer crowds.
It’s a simple restaurant and the great thing is it’s affordable which is key in a city like Singapore where it can quickly get very expensive. The one thing I absolutely love to eat is duck and when I’m given an opportunity to order it, I don’t think I can give up that chance. The order of duck and rice ordered was $10 SGD (about $7.50).
Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle
Another Michelin starred restaurant in this city, this tiny food stall is tucked away in a hawker center. I’ve heard that the lines start long and get longer during peak hours but I got really lucky and only had 3 people in front of me.
Is it worth the wait? Well all I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal and at $8 SGD, it’s again, tough to beat. I would definitely try to go during non peak times if you’re interested but I think I got incredibly lucky when I went. The noodles are really delicious and have a good chew to them and it comes with an assortment of meat. It also comes with a side of soup that is absolutely tasty.
Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee
This is a food stall in another hawker center in the Hong Lim Market and Food Centre fairly close to Chinatown. I actually stumbled across this food stall while I was walking around Singapore while trying to find some lunch. Honestly, I didn’t know what they served and only saw a massive line and decided to wait along with the locals. Yes this is true. I didn’t know what they served, how much it was, or if I’d even like it. My reasoning was that if there were this many locals standing in line, it must be good, end of story.
Well it turns out that yes it was that good and at $4SGD, it was incredibly cheap. Although I did wait for about 30 minutes, you might want to try and go when it isn’t 11:30 and you’ll probably have better luck with the wait time.
As a side note, I did find out that eatery is on the Bib Gourmand list in the Michelin guide and only found out after the fact (so sadly, I didn’t discover a “hidden” eatery) but I am glad I found this place on my own. More evidence that the locals always know where to go.
Toby’s Estate Coffee
This chic coffee shop is located in the Waterfront district of Singapore. Now I’m not going to lie. This place is a little pricy when you consider how much they charge for coffee. Now to be honest, I have to admit that I don’t really pay for expensive coffee. Let me say that although I drink coffee, I don’t drink it on a consistent basis and don’t understand the point of paying that much for coffee. That said, the coffee was great.
Toby’s also has a small breakfast menu and I ordered the French toast. It was really good and it was certainly a great start to the day. Now I’m not sure if it’s partially due to location because the waterfront district is a very trendy neighborhood. But it can be a bit pricey. I had an iced cappuccino and the French toast and that came out to $27SGD.
Putien
This restaurant has multiple outlets throughout Singapore. I went to the one at the Jewel at the airport but I had also walked by another on Kitchener. The exterior of the restaurant is unmistakable since they advertise their Michelin star pretty heavily out front.
I started with the seaweed salad with small shrimp. It was a great starter and I ordered it because it seemed like a very popular item on the menu. I then had some fried oysters since those were the special menu item. Those were good as well and it was basically what you’d expect to find in oyster po’boy sandwich but with an Asian twist. My total came out to $32 so I thought that was pretty good.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this has given you 5 great ideas for places to eat the next time you’re in Singapore. There are so many great food options for the traveler that you can really run the price spectrum. However, you don’t need to have deep pockets to eat like a king in Singapore and if you’re willing to go where the locals go (and brave a few long lines) you can really find some hidden jewels. The locals always know where to go.