
Singapore’s Chinatown — also known as 牛车水, meaning “bullock water cart” — is the largest historic district of Singapore and a popular tourist destination for its vibrant, rich culture, blending heritage with modernity. It is also a huge food haven with numerous restaurants, cafes, foodcourts, hawker centres, traditional bakeries, etc, serving both local and international food options, especially dishes with Nanyang-Chinese and China-Chinese origins.
Chinatown also has the highest concentration of restaurants and eateries recommended by Singapore Michelin Guide since 2016 — I/we have been using it as a valuable guide to start a series of food-hunts in the area for the last 10 years.
Food Places
Below is a list of food places around Chinatown, including food centres and traditional bakeries, that we have visited. It will be a long list as we continue to explore the historic district and try out more food places.
For food stalls in Chinatown Complex, see:
SG Eats & Buys: Chinatown Complex Food Centre (牛车水大厦)
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Singapore Eat: High Street Tai Wah Pork Noodle (大华肉脞面) @ Hong Lim Food Centre
High Street Tai Wah Pork Noodle, a popular Michelin-listed Singaporean hawker brand, is famous for its Teochew-style bak chor mee (minced pork noodles).
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Singapore Eat: The Noodle Memories (古月面) @ Hong Lim Food Centre
The Noodle Memories has been serving Malaysian-style noodle dishes using handmade noodle for 30 years before their new venture in Hong Lim Food Centre.
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Singapore Eat: Ji Ji Noodle House (基记面家) Wanton Noodle @ Hong Lim Food Centre
Formerly Ji Ji Wanton Noodle Specialist, the Michelin-listed Ji Ji Noodle House specialises in a variety of noodle dishes, especially its wanton noodle.
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Singapore Eat: Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake (洪家福州蚝饼) @ Maxwell Food Centre
Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake offers only original Fuzhou oyster puff, a traditional snack from Fuzhou, since 1962, and is Michelin-listed since 2024.
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Singapore Eat: Hokkien Street Bak Kut Teh (福建街肉骨茶) @ Hong Lim Food Centre
Hokkien Street Bak Kut Teh has been around since the 1960s and serves their Michelin-recommended Hokkien-style bak kut teh the old traditional way.
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Singapore Eat: Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee (欧南园炒粿条面) @ Hong Lim Food Centre
Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee is famous and Michelin-recommended for its smoky fried kway teow mee. Great patience is required to eat it.
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Singapore Eat: Famous Sungei Road Trishaw Laksa (驰名结霜桥三轮车叻沙) @ Hong Lim Food Centre
Famous Sungei Road Trishaw Laksa, at Hong Lim Food Centre, offers unique laksa and mee siam with fruit juices and crayfishes (for premium options).
Use these tags to filter by specific food centre:
- Maxwell Food Centre
- Hong Lim Food Centre
- People’s Park Food Centre*
- Amoy Street Food Centre*
Once we have accumulated a sufficiently large set of food places in any of the food centres, we will create a separate listing for them.
* We are still in progress of moving our posts from the old website. Check the old site for missing posts.
Location
Find the locations of the eating places mentioned above.
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