CITY BREAK What to see, do and eat on a culinary trip to Singapore

A melting pot of global cuisines, this city state is home to Michelin-starred restaurants, Unesco-recognised street food and creative cocktail bars

It may be diminutive in size, but Singapore is a gastronomic powerhouse, with a dining scene that reflects its unique cultural fabric. During its days as a trading post in the 19th and 20th centuries, immigrants from across the globe — including China, India and the Malay Archipelago — travelled to its shores, bringing with them the unique culinary traditions of their home countries.

This cultural diversity remains a distinctive feature of Singaporean cuisine, nowhere more so than at the ubiquitous hawker centres — open-air food complexes where vendors serve an array of cuisines at affordable prices. Here, you can feast on dishes with Chinese origins, such as Hainanese chicken rice (poached chicken served on a bed of rice cooked in chicken fat) and Teochew bak kut teh (pork rib soup), or Malay nasi lemak (coconut rice served with various toppings) and Indian rojak (a salad of eggs, tofu, fritters and vegetables drenched in a spicy-sweet sauce) — each for less than £5.

At the other end of the spectrum, there’s also an abundance of fine dining restaurants, including three-michelin-star establishments Odette and Les Amis. And like any major city worth its salt, Singapore is home to its fair share of celebrity chef-led establishments, including Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen and Daniel Boulud’s db Bistro & Oyster Bar.

While many long-standing venues have been forced to shut for good as a result of the pandemic, exciting new entrants are springing up in their place, much to the delight — and relief — of food-loving Singaporeans. And some are positively thriving: Restaurant Euphoria, which showcases homegrown chef Jason Tan’s unique brand of ‘gastro-botanica’ cuisine, debuted on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 list, despite having only opened its doors at the end of 2020.

Be it at a fancy restaurant, a bustling hawker centre or no-frills kopitiam (traditional coffee shop), there’s nothing Singaporeans enjoy more than getting together with friends or family over a hearty meal. In a city-state where food is a national obsession, dining out is a beloved communal pastime and a fundamental way of life.