Singapore might be small, but it is one of the great food cities of the world. Decades of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Peranakan influence have produced a hawker-centre culture so good that some stalls have earned Michelin stars, and you can eat like a king for a few dollars.
We have been back to Singapore several times together, and the routine never changes: drop the bags, head straight for a hawker centre. Our love affair started years ago with a simple lunch at the Maxwell Food Centre near Chinatown, where one bowl of fish head bee hoon turned a quick bite into a full-on eating mission. This guide rounds up the best food in Singapore, from the dishes everyone should try at least once to the local favourites we keep going back for, with the stalls to find them at.
Best Food in Singapore at a Glance
| What to eat | 18 must-try local and hawker dishes, from chicken rice to chilli crab |
| Where to eat it | Hawker centres: Maxwell, Chinatown Complex, Old Airport Road, Lau Pa Sat, Tiong Bahru, Amoy Street |
| National dish | Hainanese chicken rice |
| Most famous dish | Chilli crab |
| Typical cost | About S$3 to S$8 per hawker dish |
| Best for | First-timers and food lovers on any budget |
| Do not miss | Laksa, char kway teow, satay |
The best way to eat here is to graze: order small, share, and move between stalls, and follow the queues to find the standout vendors. If you would rather be guided, a local food tour is a great way to taste a lot in one evening with someone to explain what you are eating.
What Makes Singapore Such a Great Food City
Singapore’s food is the product of its history. Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Peranakan communities each brought their own kitchens, and over generations the cooking blended, borrowed, and specialized until single dishes were perfected by people who make nothing else. That is the real secret here: a stall that has cooked one bowl of noodles for forty years tends to make a very good bowl of noodles. The culture runs so deep that UNESCO added Singapore’s hawker scene to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2020.
A hawker centre is an open-air food court of independent stalls, each doing one or two things well. The system is simple once you know it: grab a seat first (locals reserve a table by leaving a packet of tissues on it, a move called “chopping”), then order from whichever stalls catch your eye, pay cash at most of them, and clear your own tray when you are done, since there is now a fine for leaving it. Cheap rents keep prices low, which is why you can eat some of the best food of your trip for a few dollars a plate.
Standards are high enough that some stalls have earned Michelin recognition, including a soya sauce chicken rice stall once billed as the cheapest Michelin-starred meal in the world. You do not need a star to eat well, though. The longest queue is usually the only review you need.
The Must-Try Dishes at a Glance
| Dish | What it is | Try it at |
|---|---|---|
| Hainanese chicken rice | Poached chicken, fragrant rice | Tian Tian, Maxwell |
| Chilli crab | Crab in sweet-savoury chilli sauce | Jumbo, East Coast |
| Laksa | Spicy coconut curry noodle soup | 328 Katong |
| Char kway teow | Smoky stir-fried flat noodles | Hawker centres islandwide |
| Satay | Grilled skewers with peanut sauce | Lau Pa Sat Satay Street |
Iconic Singapore Dishes You Have to Try
1. Hainanese Chicken Rice
If you try one dish in Singapore, make it this. Hainanese chicken rice is the unofficial national dish: poached chicken served with rice cooked in chicken stock, with chilli and ginger on the side. It looks plain and tastes anything but. For the famous version, line up at Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice at the Maxwell Food Centre.
2. Chilli Crab and Black Pepper Crab
Singapore’s most famous seafood dish, and the messiest in the best way. Mud crab is stir-fried in either a sweet, savoury chilli-tomato sauce or a punchy black pepper sauce. Order fried mantou buns to mop up the sauce, and bring friends, since it is rich and best shared. Jumbo Seafood at East Coast Lagoon is a classic spot.
3. Laksa
Laksa is a rich, spicy coconut curry noodle soup with shrimp, fish cake, and bean sprouts. The Katong style is the most famous, served with the noodles cut short so you eat the whole thing with a spoon and no chopsticks. It is creamy, a little fiery, and the kind of bowl that ruins every other laksa for you afterward. Order it with extra cockles if you like them, and a glass of something cold to cut the richness. It is worth the trip out to 328 Katong Laksa.
4. Char Kway Teow
Flat rice noodles stir-fried with prawns, Chinese sausage, cockles, egg, and bean sprouts in a smoky dark sauce. The magic is the wok hei, the charred breath of the wok that a good hawker gets and a home cook almost never can. It is rich, a touch sweet, and unapologetically a treat rather than health food, which is exactly the point. If cockles are not your thing, just ask the stall to leave them out.
5. Satay
Skewers of grilled chicken, beef, or mutton served with a thick peanut sauce, cucumber, and ketupat rice cakes. It is best in the evening with a cold drink and a few people to share with, since you order satay by the ten or twenty. Lau Pa Sat turns its Boon Tat Street into an open-air Satay Street after dark, with the smoke and the sizzle spilling into the road. It is one of the most fun places to eat in the city, and our go-to first night back in town.
6. Bak Chor Mee (Minced Pork Noodles)
Bak chor mee is springy egg noodles tossed in a tangy vinegar-chilli sauce with minced pork, fish balls, braised mushrooms, and crispy fried shallots, and you can pile on extras like pork meatballs and crispy lard. Order it “tah” (dry, with the soup on the side) so the noodles stay springy and the sauce does the talking. Tai Wah Pork Noodle (stall #02-16) at Hong Lim Market is one of the most celebrated, and the queues prove it.
7. Nasi Lemak
This Malay favourite is rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan, served with fried anchovies, peanuts, cucumber, a fried egg, and sambal, plus add-ons like fried chicken (ayam goreng) or otah. The sweet-spicy sambal is what makes or breaks it, and a good plate has that fragrant, faintly coconutty rice you keep going back to. Spicy Wife Nasi Lemak (stall #02-119) at Amoy Street Food Centre does one of our favourites.
8. Bak Kut Teh
“Meat bone tea” is a peppery pork rib soup eaten with rice, dough fritters for dipping, and a pot of tea on the side. Despite the name there is no tea in the soup itself. The Singapore style is clear and heavy on white pepper and garlic, rather than the darker, herbal Malaysian version. It is the ultimate comfort bowl, popular for breakfast and late nights alike, and most places will refill your broth for free. Song Fa is the famous chain if you want a sure thing.
9. Hokkien Mee
Singapore Hokkien mee is yellow and rice noodles braised in a rich prawn-and-pork stock with squid, prawns, egg, and pork lard, finished with a squeeze of lime and a dab of sambal chilli. Look for a wetter, savoury version where the noodles have soaked up the stock and the seafood sweetness comes through. Squeeze the lime over the top before you dig in, it lifts the whole plate.
10. Roti Prata
Roti prata is a crispy, flaky griddled flatbread of Indian-Muslim origin, stretched and flipped until it is paper-thin, then folded and fried on a hot plate. You tear off pieces and dip them in curry, and it is just as good plain (“kosong”) as it is loaded with egg, cheese, or onion. It is the classic Singapore breakfast, but plenty of stalls serve it around the clock, and a late-night prata with teh tarik is a small ritual worth adopting.
11. Oyster Omelette (Orh Luak)
Orh luak is a fried omelette built on egg and a starchy batter that crisps at the edges and stays gooey in the middle, studded with small, briny oysters and hit with a tangy chilli-vinegar sauce. It is messy, a little indulgent, and completely addictive. If you like oysters, this is the one dish on the list you should not skip, ideally eaten the moment it leaves the wok while the edges are still crackling.
Local Favourites and Deeper Cuts
12. Fish Head Bee Hoon
This is the dish that hooked us. A milky, slightly sweet broth with rice vermicelli, greens, and fish, sometimes with the head left in. If a fish head in your bowl is not your thing, order the sliced-fish version instead, which is just as good. We had ours for about S$5 at the Maxwell Food Centre and were instantly converted.
13. Soya Sauce Chicken
Tender chicken braised in a fragrant soya-sauce master stock, served over rice or noodles. It is simple, glossy, and deeply savoury. We followed the longest queue at the Chinatown Complex Food Centre, waited 15 minutes for a plate that cost around S$2.50, and understood the line the moment we tasted the chicken juices soaking into the noodles. This is also where you will find the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred meal, so the queues are part of the experience.
14. Chwee Kueh
Easy to overlook and impossible to stop eating. Chwee kueh are steamed rice cakes topped with savoury preserved radish (chai poh) and a little chilli. The soft, jelly-like cake against the salty, oily topping is the whole point, and at around S$2 for five pieces it is the cheapest happiness in the building. Jian Bo Shui Kueh (stall #02-05) at Tiong Bahru Market is the benchmark.
15. Fried Carrot Cake (Chai Tow Kway)
No carrots and not a cake. This is radish cake cut into cubes and stir-fried with egg, preserved radish, and garlic. “White” is savoury and “black” is sweeter thanks to dark soy sauce, and it reminds us more of a great pad thai than anything dessert-like. Tiong Bahru Market is a great place to hunt it down, with carrot cake stalls that regularly land on lists of the city’s best, and it is one of our favourite plates anywhere in Singapore.
16. Bak Zhang (Rice Dumplings)
These Hokkien-style dumplings hide a lot of flavour under a humble exterior: glutinous rice with minced pork, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts, and salted egg, wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed until fragrant. They are portable, need no utensils, and make a great snack between bigger stops. Hoo Kee Rice Dumplings (stall #01-18) at Amoy Street Food Centre is the one locals point you to.
17. Rojak
Rojak is a local salad of fruit and vegetables (think pineapple, cucumber, and unripe mango) tossed in a sticky, pungent shrimp-paste dressing and topped with crushed peanuts and crunchy dough fritters. Sweet, sour, savoury, and funky all at once, it is an acquired taste that is absolutely worth acquiring. Share a plate as a palate-resetter between richer dishes and you will understand why locals love it.
18. Curry Chicken Noodles
A bowl of yellow or rice noodles in a coconut curry broth with chicken, potato, fried bean curd, and bean sprouts. It sits somewhere between a laksa and a Malaysian curry mee, milder than the former and a little soupier. It is the kind of warming bowl you order when you want something rich and filling, and the potato soaking up the curry is quietly the best part.
Save Room for Dessert
Singapore’s hawker desserts are cheap, cooling, and the perfect antidote to the heat.
Ice kachang is the headliner: a mountain of shaved ice over jellies, red beans, and sweet corn, drenched in colourful syrups and condensed milk. We like the version at the Lau Pa Sat for the sheer range of flavours. For something gentler, tau huay (soybean curd) is a silky, lightly sweet beancurd pudding that locals swear by, and Lao Ban at the Old Airport Road Food Centre makes a famous one.
Where to Eat Hawker Food in Singapore
The dishes above are scattered across the city’s hawker centres, and half the fun is the hunt. Maxwell, Chinatown Complex, Old Airport Road, Tiong Bahru, Amoy Street, and Lau Pa Sat are all reliable, each with their own famous stalls. For a full breakdown of the best ones and what to order at each, read our guide to the best hawker centres in Singapore.
Lau Pa Sat or Maxwell?
This is the question every first-timer asks, and our honest answer is to do both, on different days. Maxwell is the one we send people to for a classic daytime feed: it is compact, central, and home to the chicken rice and fish bee hoon that started our own love of the place, so you can hit several icons in one sitting without walking far. Lau Pa Sat is the night move. The Victorian market hall is handsome, it is right in the business district, and after dark the adjacent Boon Tat Street closes to traffic and becomes Satay Street, all smoke and folding tables. If you only have one meal, pick by the clock: Maxwell for lunch, Lau Pa Sat for a satay-and-beer evening.
Planning the rest of the trip around the food is easy, and if you are watching the wallet, our tips on visiting Singapore on a budget will stretch it further without skimping on the good stuff. If you would rather have someone lead the way, you can book a Singapore food tour or other experiences and taste a dozen things in one go with a local to explain them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What food is Singapore most known for?
Hainanese chicken rice and chilli crab are the two most iconic Singaporean dishes, followed by laksa, char kway teow, and satay. Most of the best food is found in hawker centres rather than restaurants.
What is the national dish of Singapore?
Hainanese chicken rice is widely considered Singapore’s national dish. It is poached chicken with rice cooked in chicken stock, served with chilli and ginger.
How much does hawker food cost in Singapore?
Most hawker dishes cost about S$3 to S$8, which makes Singapore one of the cheapest places in the world to eat exceptionally well. Seafood dishes like chilli crab are the pricey exception.
Where is the best place to eat in Singapore?
The hawker centres. Maxwell, Chinatown Complex, Old Airport Road, Tiong Bahru, Amoy Street, and Lau Pa Sat are all excellent. See our best hawker centres guide for what to order at each.
Is Singapore street food safe to eat?
Yes. Hawker centres are licensed and graded for hygiene, and standards are high. Follow the locals and the queues and you will eat very well and very safely.
Are there vegetarian options at hawker centres?
Yes. Most hawker centres have a dedicated vegetarian stall, and dishes like chai tow kway, rojak, and many noodle dishes can be found in meat-free versions.
Final Thoughts
The best food in Singapore is not in a fancy dining room, it is under the fans of a busy hawker centre, served on a melamine plate for a few dollars. Start with the icons, follow your nose and the longest queues, and leave room for one more bowl. We always do.
What is the best thing you have eaten in Singapore? Tell us your favourite dish and stall in the comments below.
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