Where to eat in Singapore?

In this article, I will share in detail where to eat in Singapore, and the price ranges for different dining options.

What are the options for eating out

Dinging in Singapore can be roughly divided into hawker centers (cheapest), food courts (mid) and restaurants (most expensive) in shopping malls. There are also high-end fine-dining restaurants that cost S$100 SGD per meal, but its beyond the scope of this blog post.

Hawker Center

The hawker center is something you cannot miss in Singapore. The food in the hawker center is affordable and good. Most hawker centers offer a great variety of food. For example, Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine, such as Singapore’s famous Hainanese chicken rice, Malaysian cuisine, and Indian cuisine. Of course, you can also find Japanese, Korean, and even Taiwanese cuisine.

Take Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice as an example, it is around S$5 SGD (around $3.8 USD) for a meal, and it is very delicious. Some Hawker stands have even earned an Michelin star. For example, Hawker Chan won its first Michelin star in 2016. And now it has overseas franchises all over the world.

Food Junction in a mall

There are many MRT stations in Singapore that are integrated with shopping malls. Thus, when you arrive at a MRT station, you can immediately go to the shopping mall in the same building. It is very convenient! Usually, there is a food junction (the price is relatively cheap) in a mall, such as - Food Republic in VivoCity. The price is a bit higher compared to the food in Hawker Center, but it is still affordable.

Restaurant

In Singapore, there are many restaurants to choose from at various price points. In addition, Singapore is very international, so you pretty much can get food from any country or culture. Many internationally famous restaurants have their franchises in Singapore.

Many food brands will choose to come to Singapore first to test the water before entering other Asian countries. Because of this, it is easy to enjoy well-known delicacies from various countries in Singapore. For example, Taiwan's Din Tai Fung has more than 20 branches in Singapore, even more than in Taiwan. Shake Shack, a fast food restaurant from the United States, also has several branches in Singapore.

Supermarket

Dining out in Singapore is quite convenient, and you can choose at a price point you can afford. Thus, if you are thinking about saving money, comparing to eating out, cooking by yourself cannot help you save much. However, if you want to eat healthier by cooking for yourself, going to supermarket will be your option.

The cheapest and most common supermarket in Singapore is Fairprice. If you need to buy ingredients for cooking, most people will choose to buy them here. The below image gives you a sense of the price in 2023.

Another option that I recommend everyone is DON DON DONKI, a cheap Japanese supermarket that many people love to shop. There are also more than a dozen branches in Singapore. DON DON DONKI's bento box is very good and affordable. Many people in Singapore buy it for lunch or dinner. One thing to note is that after 8 pm every day, you can get a discount when buying the food in DON DON DONKI. That's why many people would buy food there after 8 pm.