Food, if there is one thing you will not be short of or miss in Singapore it is food. Singapore restaurants and eateries abound offering not only local fare but just about anything from around the globe.
A main source of food are the hawker centers and foodcourts, a concept with which a number of expats may be unfamiliar. They are basically assortments of independently operated little stalls (from 1 to several dozen) with common tables; you pick and choose your food from the variety available at the stalls. The concept for both is similar but the foodcourts are indoor and air-conditioned where-as the hawker centers are outdoors. Don´t be scared by the noise and apparent mess, the food is quite safe and tasty!
A coffeeshop is a local eatery with only 1 or 2 ‘stalls’ where you will find the locals at breakfast or winding down over a beer. Dutch and those who have visited The Netherlands may have a different idea with the word coffeeshop but forget about that in Singapore.
Singapore Restaurants come in all shapes and sizes from family places to high class and serving anything from authentic Cantonese to authentic Lebanese, take your pick. Prices also differ considerably depending on the quality of food but also to a large extent location, both because of rents and crowds, reputation and ambiance.
Beside the above there is the usual big city abundance of international fast-food joints not further mentioned here, if you are interested in that read 'Fast Food Nation' by Eric Schlosser.
Competition for your dining dollar is fierce and restaurants / stalls regularly disappear and it will go to far here to mention the thousands of food outlets, we can recommend you take a look at our food experiences for an impression and buy a local guide to the best foods that will have you wondering what the heck Ah-Boleng is and whether fish-head curry really means … (yes it does). Because we ourselves often wonder too we are compiling a Singapore food dictionary for you.
You can also try www.makantime.com a great source of info. We will just mention some interesting areas:
Hawker centers:
- Golden Mile Food Center - Beach Road, food for the locals
- Newton Circus - Newton Circus, local food for the tourists
- East Coast Seafood Centre - the name says it
- Boat Quay, along the waterfront with anything from Italian to Indian
- Clarke Quay, basically not that much different
- Holland Village, in the middle of the HDB heartland
- Chijmes, central and a nice atmosphere
For some of our experiences at restaurants click here.
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