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Food tours in Singapore: what to eat and which tour to book
Singapore's everyday food comes from hawker centres: government-run open-air food courts where each stall cooks one or two dishes, and where Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan cooking sit side by side. Hawker culture was inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in December 2020. A plate of chicken rice or laksa still costs a few dollars, several stalls carry Michelin Bib Gourmand listings, and Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle holds a Michelin star. Restaurant dining, especially chilli crab and fine dining, costs much more, as does alcohol.
Use this page to decide what to order and which hawker centres to visit. Dishes and areas below tell you what each place is known for and when it is busy. The tours are real listings on GetYourGuide and Viator; we could not see prices or durations on the listings themselves this time, so the price bands are approximate and you should confirm details on the booking page before you pay.
What to eat in Singapore
| Dish | What it is | Where to eat it | Typical price* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hainanese chicken rice chicken rice | Poached (or roasted) chicken served at room temperature with rice cooked in chicken fat and stock, chilli-ginger sauce and dark soy. | Maxwell Food Centre (Tian Tian has a Bib Gourmand), and chicken rice stalls in every hawker centre. | roughly S$4–7 a plate (about €2.70–4.80) |
| Laksa laksa (Katong laksa) | Rice noodles in a spicy coconut-milk and dried-shrimp broth with prawns, fishcake, cockles and laksa leaf. The Katong style uses cut noodles eaten with a spoon. | Katong (East Coast Road) laksa shops and hawker centres island-wide. | roughly S$5–8 a bowl (about €3.40–5.50) |
| Fried flat noodles char kway teow | Flat rice noodles and yellow noodles wok-fried with dark soy, lard, egg, Chinese sausage, cockles and bean sprouts. | Hawker centres such as Old Airport Road, Chinatown Complex and Hong Lim. | roughly S$4–7 (about €2.70–4.80) |
| Satay | Charcoal-grilled skewers of chicken, mutton, beef or prawn with peanut sauce, cucumber, onion and ketupat (rice cake). | Satay Street outside Lau Pa Sat in the evening, and satay stalls at hawker centres. | roughly S$0.80–1.50 per stick, usually sold in sets of 10 (about €0.55–1 per stick) |
| Pork rib soup bak kut teh | Pork ribs simmered in a peppery, garlicky broth (Teochew style) or a darker herbal broth (Hokkien style), served with rice, you tiao (fried dough) and tea. | Specialist shops around Chinatown, Balestier and Rangoon Road. | roughly S$9–14 per person with rice (about €6–9.50) |
| Indian flatbread roti prata | Flaky, griddled flatbread served with fish or mutton curry; variations include egg, onion or cheese. | 24-hour prata shops and Tekka Centre in Little India; a breakfast and late-night staple. | roughly S$1.50–3 per piece (about €1–2) |
| Chilli crab | Mud crab cooked in a sweet, tangy tomato-chilli sauce thickened with egg, eaten with fried mantou buns. Black pepper crab is the drier alternative. | Seafood restaurants on the East Coast and at Clarke Quay; this is a restaurant dish, not a hawker one. | roughly S$90–140 per kg of crab at a seafood restaurant (about €60–95); a crab feeds two |
| Kaya toast set kaya toast | Toast with kaya (coconut-egg jam) and butter, served with soft-boiled eggs and kopi (local coffee with condensed milk). | Traditional kopitiams (coffee shops) and chains such as Ya Kun; a breakfast dish. | roughly S$4–7 for a set (about €2.70–4.80) |
Where to eat: markets and neighbourhoods
Maxwell Food Centre (Chinatown/Tanjong Pagar)
Central hawker centre at Maxwell Road and South Bridge Road with over 100 stalls, including Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice (Bib Gourmand). Easy for a first visit, but famous stalls have long queues and close when sold out.
Chinatown Complex Food Centre
One of the largest hawker centres, upstairs from a wet market, with hundreds of stalls covering claypot rice, noodles, dim sum and local craft beer stalls.
Lau Pa Sat and Satay Street
A Victorian cast-iron market building in the financial district. In the evening, Boon Tat Street beside it closes to traffic and becomes Satay Street with grill stalls.
Tekka Centre (Little India)
Wet market and hawker centre for South Indian and North Indian food, biryani, prata and teh tarik, in the heart of Little India.
Old Airport Road Food Centre
A large neighbourhood hawker centre east of the centre with a strong local reputation for char kway teow, Hokkien mee and lor mee, and fewer tourists.
Kampong Glam
The historic Malay-Muslim quarter around Sultan Mosque, with nasi padang, murtabak, Middle Eastern restaurants and cafés on Arab Street and Bussorah Street.
Food tours in Singapore compared
Every tour below is a real listing on GetYourGuide or Viator, checked on 2 Oct 2026. Prices move with season and group size, so treat them as a guide and confirm on the booking page.
| Tour | Length | Price* | Group | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore: Local Hawker Food Tour with 9 tastings | 3 hours | from €76 per person | — | First-timers who want a guided introduction to how hawker centres work. | Check dates |
| Singapore: Chinatown Hawkers Food Tour with 7 Food Tastings | 3.5 hours | from €76 per person | — | Visitors staying around Chinatown or Tanjong Pagar who want a daytime tour. | Check dates |
| Singapore Stories Food Tour with 12+ Tastings | 4 hours | from €87 per person | max 8 | First-timers who want to see the three main heritage quarters in one outing. | Check dates |
| Singapore: Guided Street Food Tour at Night with 9 tastings | 3.5 hours | from €76 per person | — | Night owls and visitors staying near the river. | Check dates |
| Singapore Hawker Food Tour and Neighborhood Walk | — | roughly S$80–140 per adult (about €55–95) | — | Visitors who want to see a residential (HDB) hawker centre rather than the downtown ones. | Check dates |
| Singapore: Hands-on Cooking Class with Cultural Immersion | 3 hours | from €83 per person | — | Travellers who want to cook the dishes again at home; easiest option for dietary needs, since you control the ingredients. | Check dates |
Singapore: Local Hawker Food Tour with 9 tastings
On GetYourGuide · run by Monster Day Tours
- Length
- 3 hours
- Price
- from €76 per person
- Rating
- 4.7 ★ from 218 reviews (on 2 Oct 2026)
- Included
- 9 tastings at hawker stalls with a local guide.
- Suits
- First-timers who want a guided introduction to how hawker centres work.
- Starts
- Chinatown MRT station
Singapore: Chinatown Hawkers Food Tour with 7 Food Tastings
On GetYourGuide · run by Secret Food Tours
- Length
- 3.5 hours
- Price
- from €76 per person
- Rating
- 4.9 ★ from 21 reviews (on 2 Oct 2026)
- Included
- 7 tastings at Chinatown hawker stalls.
- Suits
- Visitors staying around Chinatown or Tanjong Pagar who want a daytime tour.
- Starts
- Chinatown
Singapore Stories Food Tour with 12+ Tastings
On GetYourGuide · run by A Chef's Tour
- Length
- 4 hours
- Price
- from €87 per person
- Rating
- 4.9 ★ from 403 reviews (on 2 Oct 2026)
- Group size
- max 8
- Included
- 12+ tastings across Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam, listed as including hand-made popiah, laksa and oyster cakes.
- Suits
- First-timers who want to see the three main heritage quarters in one outing.
Singapore: Guided Street Food Tour at Night with 9 tastings
On GetYourGuide · run by Monster Day Tours
- Length
- 3.5 hours
- Price
- from €76 per person
- Rating
- 4.6 ★ from 525 reviews (on 2 Oct 2026)
- Included
- 9 food and drink tastings, listed as including bak kut teh, roti prata, chicken rice, satay and teh tarik, walking via Clarke Quay, Boat Quay and the Singapore River.
- Suits
- Night owls and visitors staying near the river.
- Starts
- Singapore River area
Singapore Hawker Food Tour and Neighborhood Walk
On Viator · run by Singapore Foodsters (from listing URL)
- Price
- roughly S$80–140 per adult (about €55–95)approx.
- Included
- Food sampling at a neighbourhood hawker centre and a walk through the area; transport is listed as provided.
- Suits
- Visitors who want to see a residential (HDB) hawker centre rather than the downtown ones.
Singapore: Hands-on Cooking Class with Cultural Immersion
On GetYourGuide · run by Food Playground Pte Ltd
- Length
- 3 hours
- Price
- from €83 per person
- Rating
- 4.9 ★ from 124 reviews (on 2 Oct 2026)
- Included
- All the ingredients required for the class Use of chef hats and aprons Coffee, tea, and drinking water Complimentary high-speed wifi Gratuities
- Suits
- Travellers who want to cook the dishes again at home; easiest option for dietary needs, since you control the ingredients.
- Starts
- The cooking studio is located next to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum in Chinatown. Look out for an orange sign with the local partner's name on it when you are near this landmark.
Some links on this page are partner links. If you book through them TonyPlan earns a small commission — the price you pay is exactly the same.
Street food, sit-down or a cooking class?
Street food
There is almost no roadside street food: Singapore's street food is in hawker centres, which are clean, licensed and graded. Find a table first (a packet of tissues on a seat means it is reserved, a custom called 'chope'), note the table number, then order at the stalls. Return trays and crockery to the return points; leaving litter can now bring a fine.
Sit-down meals
Restaurants cover everything from Peranakan (Straits Chinese) cooking and seafood houses on the East Coast to some of Asia's most expensive fine dining. Expect a 10% service charge plus 9% GST on most restaurant bills, shown as '++' after prices. Alcohol is heavily taxed, so a few drinks can cost more than the meal.
Cooking classes
Cooking classes are fewer than in Thailand or Vietnam and usually teach Peranakan, Malay or local hawker dishes such as laksa or chicken rice. They are typically held in a home kitchen or cooking studio and cost more than elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Check availability before planning around one.
How much to budget for food
| Style | Per person, per day* |
|---|---|
| Budget (street food, markets) | S$25–40 (about €17–27: three hawker meals and drinks) |
| Mid-range (one sit-down meal a day) | S$60–120 (about €40–82: hawker food plus a restaurant dinner with a drink) |
| Splurge (tasting menus, wine) | S$300+ (about €200+: fine dining or a chilli crab dinner with drinks) |
Vegetarian, halal and gluten-free
Vegetarian & vegan: Easier than in most of the region. Little India has many South Indian vegetarian restaurants, and Chinese Buddhist vegetarian stalls (look for the word 'vegetarian' or 素) exist in most hawker centres. Elsewhere, dried shrimp, shrimp paste (belacan) and meat stocks are common in laksa, sambal and noodle dishes, so ask.
Halal: Very easy. Malay and many Indian-Muslim stalls are halal-certified by MUIS and display the certificate; Kampong Glam, Geylang Serai and Little India have the most choice. Chinese stalls generally use pork and lard, so look for the certificate rather than assuming.
Gluten-free: Rice-based dishes (chicken rice, nasi lemak, biryani) are a good start, but soy sauce, oyster sauce and wheat noodles are everywhere and hawker stalls rarely know about coeliac needs. Restaurants in the centre are more used to the request. Carry a card in English and Chinese.
Food scams and tourist traps to avoid
- Overcharging at some tourist-facing hawker centres, especially seafood stalls at Newton Food Centre, which has a long record of touting and inflated bills (in 2009 a group of tourists was charged S$491 for a seafood meal and the stall was suspended). Never order seafood without a written price; ask the price per kg and the weight, and agree the total before cooking. Ignore stall touts who come to your table.
- Seafood restaurants pricing chilli crab 'per kg' or 'market price', then bringing a much larger crab than you expected. Ask the price per kg and the weight of the crab before it goes in the pot; a crab of about 1–1.2 kg is enough for two.
- Restaurant prices shown with '++', so the bill is about 19% higher than the menu once service charge and GST are added. Read menus as price plus roughly a fifth. Hawker centre prices are final and have no service charge.
- Queuing an hour at a famous stall that closes when sold out, or paying more at a branch that trades on a famous name. Go early (before 11:30 for lunch), check the stall's day off, and remember that neighbouring stalls are often just as good.
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Staying near the markets saves time and taxi money — most food tours start in the old centre.
Common questions
Do I need to tip in Singapore?
No. Tipping is not customary. Most restaurants already add a 10% service charge plus GST to the bill, and hawker stalls do not expect anything. On a food tour a tip for the guide is optional; if you want to, about S$5–10 per person is generous. Do not leave cash on hawker tables, where it may simply be cleared away.
Is hawker food safe?
Yes. Hawker stalls are licensed by the National Environment Agency and the tap water is safe to drink. Busy stalls turn over ingredients quickly. The main risks are heat and spice rather than hygiene; carry water, and ask for less chilli ('less spicy') if you are not used to it.
How does ordering at a hawker centre work?
Find a seat first; a tissue packet on a seat means it is taken. Note your table number, then queue at the stall, order and usually pay on the spot. Some stalls bring food to your table, others give you a buzzer or ask you to wait. Many stalls accept cards or QR payments, but keep some cash. Return your tray afterwards.
When are hawker centres open?
Most are open from early morning to late evening, but each stall sets its own hours and many close one day a week or when sold out. Hawker centres also close for several days each quarter for cleaning, and some stalls close for a week around Chinese New Year. Lunch is busiest from 12:00 to 13:30 on weekdays in the business district.
How much should I budget for food per day?
Eating at hawker centres, about S$25–40 (€17–27) covers three meals and drinks. Adding a restaurant dinner takes you to roughly S$60–120. Alcohol is expensive: a beer at a hawker centre is around S$7–10 and much more in bars. A food tour costs more than hawker food itself because you pay for the guide.
Which tour suits a first visit?
A guided hawker tour is most useful on your first day, so that you can then eat on your own. Pick a Chinatown tour if you want famous stalls and history, a multi-neighbourhood tour (Chinatown, Little India, Kampong Glam) for range, or an evening river tour if you want it to replace dinner. Check the listing for duration and number of tastings.
* Prices are approximate, gathered on 2 Oct 2026 from menus, markets and the booking pages linked above. They change with season and exchange rates.