From the hawker stall to three MICHELIN stars: the Singapore table, the back story

About From the hawker stall to three MICHELIN stars: the Singapore table, the back story

By the ULTIMATE Singapore Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Singapore eats out more than almost anywhere, and its food is a portrait of the city: Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan cooking side by side. Hawker culture, the communal dining of the hawker centres, was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020 (ich.unesco.org). At the other end of the scale, the MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2026 gives three stars to Odette, Les Amis and Zén.

The hawker centres

Hawker centres are covered food courts of small stalls, each cooking one or two dishes. UNESCO added Singapore’s hawker culture to its intangible heritage list in 2020. Lau Pa Sat, in a National Monument on Raffles Quay, and Maxwell Food Centre in Chinatown are the easiest places to start.

Singapore classics

Chilli crab is the dish visitors ask for first: JUMBO Seafood at Riverside Point and Long Beach on Dempsey Road are long-standing names. Hainanese chicken rice is the national comfort food; Tian Tian at Maxwell holds a Bib Gourmand, and Chatterbox serves its Mandarin chicken rice at Hilton Singapore Orchard.

Eat lunch at a hawker centre and dinner in a dining room, and you will have seen both sides of Singapore.

Peranakan

Peranakan cooking, the food of the Straits Chinese, blends Chinese and Malay traditions. Candlenut, at COMO Dempsey, holds one MICHELIN Star in the MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2026.

The starred tables

Odette, in the National Gallery, Les Amis in Shaw Centre and Zén on Bukit Pasoh Road hold three MICHELIN Stars; 1887 by André at Raffles, JAAN on the 70th floor of Swissôtel The Stamford, Thevar and Seroja hold two (MICHELIN).

Booking

The starred restaurants book up weeks ahead, especially at weekends. Hawker stalls take no bookings: go early, before the lunchtime rush.

Our advice: try one dish at each of three hawker stalls rather than a full meal at one.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with From the hawker stall to three MICHELIN stars: the Singapore table, the back story before you go.