“Some wag once said that the quickest way to start a debate in Singapore is to walk up to a random group of people and ask them, ‘So where can I get the best chicken rice?’”

– Terry Tan and Christopher Tan, Singapore Food: Fabulous Recipes from Asia’s Food Capital

Even before I set foot in Singapore, I’d heard that Singaporeans were crazy about their food. I don’t blame them. I mean why not when your cuisine consists of a mix of two of the greatest cuisines in the world, Chinese and Indian, two of the most intriguing ones, Malay and Peranakan, and its own homegrown Singaporean cuisine? The chance to try this rich and complex cuisine was one reason I chose to visit. And what better way to get the inside scoop on it than to take a food tour of Singapore?

But which food tour?

When I was looking for one, there seemed to be as many food tours being sold to clueless tourists as there were hawker centers in Singapore.

Ok. That’s an exaggeration.

There are currently over 100 hawker centers, and according to Tripadvisor, 31 food tours. Still, that’s a lot.

For me, food is REALLY important. So, I didn’t want to skimp on a cheap tour. I wanted the very best Singapore food tour that would:

• let me sample the most dishes
• take me to the most parts of the city
• have the most knowledgeable guides

In the end, I splurged on the most expensive tour: Hello Singapore Food Tour. Cost: US$143.

Did they live up to their hefty price tag?

Should you take this tour?

Read and find out.

Hello Singapore did not sponsor or pay for this tour in any way, shape, or form. They were also unaware that I’d be writing about the tour. This is my own unbiased and honest review.

This food tour is also part of my Singapore Itinerary 5 Days post. Check it out and find out how to discover the history and culture of this fascinating country.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate and a Bookshop.org Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  Please see this website’s Disclosure for more info.

About the Hello Singapore Food Tour

Hello Singapore is a tour company with offices in both Singapore and Hong Kong. Along with the food tour, they also do walking tours, kayaking tours, and sunset cruise tours. They do both small group and private tours. I also did their small group night tour, which was good because we went to places that I never would have gone to on my own.

Below is what their website advertised as of April. I added the type of cuisine to each dish.

1. Katong area – the heart of Peranakan culture

• kaya toast and kopi – Chinese
• bak chang – Peranakan
• kuehs – Peranakan
• laksa – Peranakan

2. Old Airport Road Hawker Center

• hokkien mee – Singaporean
• rojak – Singaporean; this wasn’t advertised when I took my tour
• carrot cake – Singaporean

3. Kampong Glam – Malay area

• teh tarik (“teh” is not a typo) – Malay
• beef rendang – Indonesian
• murtabak – Arabic

4. Little India – Indian area

• dosa – Indian
• Indian sweets – Indian
• Masala milk – Indian

Pre-Food Tour Assistance from Hello Singapore

Hello Singapore showed how professional they were by providing detailed information to get to the meeting place:

• time
• location with a photo of the building to meet at,
• best way to get to the meeting point,
• cost of transportation,
• items to bring (sun protection and umbrella), the tour guide’s name, and the
• What’sApp numbers of the tour guides

Getting to the Food Tour

Hello Singapore recommended taking a Grab (Southeast Asia’s version of Uber) to the meeting point on East Coast Road in Katong. My ride cost S$11 (US$8.13) from Chinatown. I suspect that in 2024, it will cost more than US$11.

To find out more ways to travel on a budget in Singapore, check out my article on How to Save Money in Singapore.

Was it Easy to Find the Meeting Spot?

My driver had a difficult time finding the place, but eventually, he got it but dropped me off half a block from my destination and then pointed the way toward it.

Luckily, I found it by spotting other people who looked like clueless tourists along with a woman with an iPad who looked like she knew what she was doing.

However, the meeting spot looked nothing like the photo they had sent me.

How Was the Tour Guide?

Our guide was Janice, who was wonderful. She was incredibly patient, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. She was always equally friendly to everyone and was always in a good mood. I couldn’t have asked for a better guide.

How Were the Other Tour Members?

As advertised, there were indeed only eight people on the food tour:

• Me,
• 1 guy from England
• 3 couples from the U.S. who were traveling on cruise ship

I have to say the people on the tour were the best tour mates I’ve ever had before. Even as a single person, they made me completely welcome. They were friendly, respectful toward the local culture, and open-minded about trying new foods.

What Did Hello Singapore Provide?

One thing I liked that Hello Singapore did was give everyone a wallet-sized checklist of the must-eat Singaporean dishes. I could then keep track of what I’d eaten and what I still needed to try.

Katong (Joo Chiat) 

The first stop on the Hello Singapore food tour was in a neighborhood on the East Coast called Katong. It’s also referred to as Joo Chiat, which was named after a man, Chew Joo Chiat, who had owned plantations in the area in the 1800s.

This culturally and historically rich area of Singapore is unfortunately overlooked by many tourists. Guidebooks also don’t highlight it and travel bloggers don’t mention it, so it was originally not on my Singapore itinerary. That’s too bad because after visiting the area, Katong became my favorite neighborhood in Singapore. There’s so much wonderful history, heritage, and culture in Katong.

In the 1800s, this area mainly consisted of plantations, seaside bungalows, countryside estates, and villages.

However,  around the 1900s, as the population increased and other areas became more crowded, the people began moving in and pushing the plantations out. Katong especially saw an influx of Eurasians and Peranakans.

Because so many Peranakans settled in Katong,  you can see lots of examples of their culture there such as the rows of pastel-colored Peranakan terrace houses and shophouses, shops that sell Peranakan crafts and foods, Peranakan restaurants and bakeries, and a Peranakan museum (Katong Antique House).

Katong has some of the most beautiful architecture in Singapore. We didn’t visit the most famous and interesting places on the tour, but if you’re interested in going on your own, you should visit Koon Seng Road (see above photo). Check out my Singapore itinerary for more ideas on what to see and do in Katong.

Food Stop #1: Kaya Toast and Kopi

The first food stop on the food tour was at a 94-year-old Hainanese kopitiam (kopi means coffee and tiam means shop).  The kopitiam specializes in kaya toast and kopi (coffee), which is what Singaporeans traditionally eat for breakfast. This was also where we met our tour leader, Janice.

When we first got to the restaurant, there were no seats available, so Janice took us down the street to another restaurant, but that place was closed. Luckily, we went back to the original kopitiam and found tables.

Kaya is a jam made of coconut, sugar, and sometimes pandan leaves. The coffee shop we went to makes their own kaya jam.

The kaya is spread over toasted white bread or a toasted bun and then a slab of butter so large it’ll block at least one of your arteries is placed on top of the jam. This coffee shop toasts its buns over a charcoal grill.

You also get a soft-boiled egg which you break into a saucer. Sprinkle white pepper and soy sauce onto the egg yolk, and then dip your bun with kaya and butter into the egg. It was very delicious!

I had kaya toast many times in Singapore and Malaysia, and if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that not all kaya toast is equal. The way the bread is toasted, the type and quality of the bread, the quality of the kaya jam, and the placement of the butter on the toast all make a huge difference.

The first time I tried it, I was at a kopitiam in Chinatown, and my first thought was that it was just ok.

The second time was here at the coffee shop on East Coast Road, and I was blown away. Every time I ate it after that, I was sorely disappointed. Nothing was as good as what I had on that day.

I realize now that there’s good kaya toast and there’s bad kaya toast. If you eat good kaya toast, you’ll fall in love with the stuff. If you eat bad kaya toast, you’ll think the Singaporeans are crazy for liking white bread covered in an overly sweet jam.

Kaya jam is sort of a Chinese/Southeast Asian take on British jam. It was first invented by Hainanese Chinese working on British ships. They ran out of fruit to make jam, so they used coconut instead. People loved it and over time it was incorporated into the menus of the kopitiams throughout Singapore and Malaysia.

By the way, when you’re leaving Singapore, pick up a jar at the airport. I picked up two: one with pandan leaves and the other without. But it really only tastes good on certain types of bread. Sourdough is THE best. Whole wheat bread not so much.

Kopi is a type of coffee in which the beans are roasted with sugar and margarine. It’s amazing coffee. The taste is supposed to be more caramelized and chocolately. I’m not sure about the chocolate part, but it was really good.

It’s important to know how to order kopi. Here’s a list of the different ways to order kopi in Singapore:

• Kopi: black coffee and condensed milk
• Kopi-O: black coffee and sugar
• Kopi-C: black coffee, evaporated milk, and sugar
• Kopi-Kosong: black coffee with no milk and no sugar

There are many other ways to order kopi, but those are the basics.

Peranakan Houses

After having one of my best breakfasts in Singapore, Janice took us down East Coast Road and then to a side street with these pastel-colored Peranakan houses called the Painted Ladies of Singapore.

Before the Singapore government went land reclamation crazy, the sea actually went up to the houses here. Thus, the houses had to be built up. If you want to buy one of these nowadays, you’ll need to fork over tons of Singapore dollars.

Who are the Peranakans?

The Peranakans are the most fascinating ethnic group you’ve probably never heard of. They are descendants of the ancestors of Chinese fathers and Malay mothers.

In the 17th century (and some say as far back as the 15^th century, but according to the Peranakan Museum, there’s no written proof of that), Chinese traders came to Malaysia and Indonesia to trade in spices and started settling down on the Malay peninsula, especially around Malacca. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was also collapsing and China was in chaos.

Because of the chaos in China, strict laws forbidding women from leaving China, the punishment of decapitation for emigrating from China, and the commercial advantages of having guanxi (connections) with the locals, these Chinese traders married local Malay women and had children with them. These children became known as the Peranakan, which means “locally born.” The males were respectfully referred to as “baba” and the females as “nyonya.” Sometimes Peranakan food is referred to as Nyonya cuisine.

The Chinese were not the only ones who married local Malays. There are also Peranakan Muslim Indians and Peranakan Hindu Indians, who are the descendants of Indians who married Malays.

When the British colonized Singapore and Penang in the early 1800s, the Chinese from Malacca saw a great opportunity and moved to these new colonies. They became known as Straits Chinese or Straits-born Chinese. Unlike the Chinese who came to Singapore later on and who were poor laborers, these Peranakan Chinese were wealthy businesspeople.

The economic depression in the 30s and World War II hit Peranakan businesses hard. Many did not recover financially. I’m still not sure what their financial and social status is now or whether there is much of a distinction nowadays between the Peranakans and the Chinese in Singapore.

To give you an idea of who they are, the characters from the book and movie, Crazy Rich Asians, are Straits Chinese. Lee Kuan Yew was one as well.

Food Stop #2-4: Peranakan Cakes & Sweets

We then crossed East Coast Road to our second food stop of the day at a Peranakan bakery/shop/museum.

What is Peranakan food?

Before traveling to Singapore, I’d only heard about Peranakan food from watching Anthony Bourdain but I’d never actually had it before, so it was the food I was most eager to try on the tour. Peranakan food uses a combination of Chinese ingredients with Malay and Indonesian spices and cooking techniques.

Many dishes contain spices that are common in Southeast Asian cooking such as coconut milk, chilies, pandan leaves (above photo), tamarind, galangal root (if you ever get a chance, smell galangal—it’s heavenly!), shrimp paste (kind of pungent) and kaffir lime leaves (also heavenly!).

Peranakan cuisine also has a lot of “cakes” or “sweets” called Nyonya kueh (also spelled kuih). That is what we tried at the bakery in Katong.

We sampled three different kinds:

• bak chang (above)
• onde-onde
• 7-layer kueh

Bak chang is sticky rice and pork wrapped in banana leaf and then steamed. It tastes and looks just like the Chinese dish, zongzi. Like zongzi, bak chang is eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Onde-onde are glutinous rice balls filled with palm sugar and covered in coconut flakes. They sometimes contain pandan juice as well. Very delicious.

7-layer kueh is a small, rectangular sweet consisting of 7 layers of different colors–red, green, purple, and yellow. It’s made with tapioca flour and rice flour. The texture is soft and chewy.

The second floor was a combination shop and museum. It showcases Peranakan cultural objects like a bed, ceramics, and clothing. This is the best shop in Singapore for buying Peranakan souvenirs. 

Food Stop #5: Laksa

We had our last bite of Peranakan food down the road from the bakery at a well-known laksa restaurant.

What is laksa?

Laksa is by far my favorite Singaporean dish.

There are a few versions of Laksa:

• Laksa from Penang, Malaysia: a tamarind flavor so it was more sour
• Laksa from Melaka, Malaysia: a stronger coconut taste

The Katong laksa we had was more on the coconut side but also had a heavy dose of shrimp paste. It consisted of coconut milk broth, shrimp-based broth, shrimp paste, fish cakes, and short-cut noodles.

What were the Katong Laksa Wars?

East Coast Road is famous for its laksa restaurants. Back in the 90s and early 2000s a war, which is referred to by Singaporeans as the Katong Laksa Wars, took place on this same road. Fortunately, no one died during the war. Five food stalls on the East Coast Road competed fiercely with each other for customers, all claiming to be the original Katong Laksa. Things have subsided and competition is not so fierce.

The real Katong Laksa restaurant was started by a guy named Janggut (named after the hairs coming out of a mole on his face) peddling his laksa on the streets in Katong. In 1963 the health inspector chased him off the street and he and his brother opened a restaurant on 49 East Coast Road and named it Marine Parade Laksa. This restaurant and another one on the same road had the best laksa in Singapore and Singaporeans would come from all corners of the country to eat there. As a result, everyone referred to the laksa on East Coast Road as Katong Laksa.

Marine Parade Laksa closed down for a while and then moved a few more times to where it currently is at Roxy Square. A few of the other laksa restaurants from the Laksa Wars are still around or have closed down. Some have tried franchising.

You can read more about it from an article in the Straits Times: 5 Famous Singapore Food Feuds and from the famous food blog, i eat i shoot i post.

How can you find out more about Nyonya Cuisine?

If you want to learn more about Peranakan food, check out a series of books about a Peranakan chef named Aunty Lee. There are three books in the series: Aunty Lee’s Delights, Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials, and Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge. Despite the farfetched premise of a Peranakan chef turned Angela Landsbury-like detective who solves crimes even the Singapore police can’t solve (it seems that all 7 murders that occur in Singapore each year happen in her restaurant!), these novels are pretty entertaining and they’re a memorable introduction into Singapore food and culture.

Old Airport Road Food Centre

We got on a bus and went to a hawker center called Old Airport Road Food Centre. Hello Singapore covered the cost of the bus ride.

What is a Hawker Center?

Hawker centers can be found in Singapore and Malaysia. They are usually located in large no-frills un-airconditioned structures. There is a roof but the sides are usually open to the elements.

There are rows upon rows of stalls each specializing in one or a few dishes. For example, one food stall might serve just satay, while another one specializes in char kway teow, a Chinese stir-fried noodle dish. The prices are quite reasonable often around S$3 to S$7 (US$2.22 – $5.17). You can even get chili crab at the Maxwell Hawker Centre in Chinatown for about half the price as at a sit-down restaurant. The food is really good.

History of Hawker Centres

To understand the history of hawker centres, you need to go back to the mid-1800s when the Chinese would set up temporary food stalls on streets or walk around selling food to laborers. There wasn’t much regulation over these itinerant unlicensed food vendors so sometimes hygiene would be a problem.

To make things more sanitary, in the 1970s the government clamped down on these vendors moving them all to permanent locations in hawker centres. There are now over 110 hawker centres in Singapore today and 20 more are expected to open up by 2027.

Hawker Centres are an important part of Singapore’s heritage. The government has nominated these centers for UNESCO World Heritage Status.

There are even 3 Michelin-starred hawker stalls in Singapore (the first food stalls in the world to get a star):

• Hawker Chan soya sauce chicken in the Chinatown Hawker Centre
• Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodles
• Chey Sua Carrot Cake at Toa Payoh West Market and Food Centre

Food Stops #6 – 7: Rojak & Michael Jackson

Unfortunately, we were supposed to have the Singaporean dishes of Hokkien Mee (yellow noodles with seafood) and carrot cake (don’t let the name fool you; it’s not actually made from “carrots” but instead made from radishes.) here, but the food stall that sold them was closed. Instead, we had rojak and sugarcane juice or Michael Jackson.

What’s Rojak?

Rojak is a unique dish that tastes like nothing I’ve ever had before. The origins of the dish are a bit murky because Indonesians and Indians have a similar dish. However, the rojak served in Singapore is still so different from the ones in those countries that rojak can be considered a Singaporean dish.

The dish contains fruits and vegetables like pineapple and cucumber along with fried dough covered in a brown sauce of shrimp paste, lime, and chilies topped with a sprinkling of nuts. The dark brown sauce didn’t make it look very appetizing. The taste was interesting. It’s both tangy and sweet. I’m really glad I had a chance to try this dish as I’m not sure I would have it on my own. I think it could grow on me. However, feedback from my tour mates was a thumbs down.

Michael Jackson?

We also had a choice of drinking sugarcane juice or a grass jelly and soybean drink called Michael Jackson. Janice told us why it was called Michael Jackson, but I can’t remember the story. I’ve had grass jelly before but I’m not that fond of it and had the sugarcane juice, instead.

History of Chinese Food in Singapore

Most Chinese food in Singapore comes from the southeastern region of China:

• Canton
• Chaozhou (Teochew)
• Hainan
• Fujian (Hokkien). 

The Chinese from these areas brought their own food culture to Singapore.

However, a lot of the dishes changed over the years so now they are often not the same as those in China. For example, the person who created Hainanese chicken rice came from Hainan but Hainanese rice in Singapore is different from what I tried in China. I lived for five years in the region the Hokkien come from, and I recognized very few dishes in Singapore.

A lot of the Chinese dishes are comprised of noodles and seafood. Lots of roast meats like duck, chicken, and pork. Unlike in China, I noticed very few vegetable dishes in Singapore.

Kampong Glam

After Airport Road, we went by bus to the colorful and hip Kampong Glam for some Indian food and Malay food. The word Kampong comes from Malay meaning village and Glam is a type of tree.

Kampong Glam is another great area to explore Singapore’s architecture. It’s got these old shophouses from the 1800s and some colorful shops and cafes covered in street art.

When the British came in 1819, Kampong Glam was just a village. However, it didn’t stay that way for very long. The guy who signed away Singapore to the British in exchange for a yearly stipend and the title of Sultan settled his family and 600 servants in Kampong Glam.

The new sultan of Singapore, Sultan Hussein, built his palace in Kampong Glam, naming it Istana Kampong Glam. The palace was turned into the Malay Cultural Center in the 1990s (see above photo). This is also where Janice began our tour of the area.

When the Malay Sultan set up shop in Kampong Glam, more Malays moved into the area.

Soon after taking over the island, the British had what they thought was a smart idea: let’s segregate the races into different sections of the city so they wouldn’t have to mingle with each other. The Chinese should be in their section, the Indians in another, the Malays in yet another part, and the Europeans in their own. The original Kampong Glam area was the Muslim section. Malays, Arabs, and other ethnic groups from Indonesia settled there.

Today the Singaporean government makes a conscious effort to integrate the ethnic groups. Public housing, which over 80% of Singaporeans live in, have quotas on what percentage of each ethnic group can live in each housing estate to avoid one public housing estate becoming predominantly one ethnic group. That’s probably one reason all of these ethnic groups live together so much more harmoniously than in other countries.

Probably one of the most recognizable landmarks is what looks like a building straight out of Aladdin, the Sultan Mosque, the largest mosque in Singapore. You can’t miss it.

After Sultan Hussein settled in Kampong Glam, he asked the British to build a mosque next to his palace. They agreed and a single-story mosque was completed in 1826.  However, in the 1920s the mosque needed repairs, so it was decided to tear the structure down and build a new one in its place, which is the one that we see today.

Food Stop #8: Teh Tarik

After a history lesson from Janice, we headed next to try our first sampling of the food and drink of Kampong Glam at a tea stall for teh tarik, a Malay drink consisting of black tea with condensed milk.

The name literally means “pulled tea.” The preparer pours the black tea back and forth between two vessels, producing a lot of froth on the top. You’ve got to make sure you see them make this at least once during your visit. It’s really quite cool. Unfortunately, there were too many customers blocking my view of the preparation for me to get a photo or video of it.

We also weren’t given a glass or cup, but instead a plastic bag with a plastic straw.

Teh tarik was really strong and bitter. I don’t recall it being very sweet. I liked it,  but I couldn’t finish it by the time we got to our next stop, and since it was in a bag, I couldn’t set it down anywhere.

Haji Lane and Arab Street

After getting our teh tarik, Janice took us on a tour of the trendy area of Kampong Glam, around Haji Lane and Arab Street.

There are tons of shops and hip Western-style cafes and bars in this area. Janice took us through the area too quickly for me to take any photos. The photos I’m showing here are from another day. They were taken in the morning when there weren’t many people about. When we were there with Janice in the afternoon, it was a lot busier.

Food Stop #9: Murtabak  

Our next meal was murtabak, originally an Arabic dish, that is very popular in Singapore so it’s become part of Singaporean food culture.

Murtabak is flatbread filled with meat like chicken, beef, mutton, deer, and sardines. We had chicken, egg, carrot, and onion inside ours.

The murtabak is dipped in a curry sauce and a tomatoey ketchup dipping sauce. We had three different kinds of curry sauces: chicken, mutton, and fish. Everyone loved the murtabak.

What about beef rendang?

According to Hello Singapore’s website, there should have been another stop for the famous beef rendang. However, we didn’t have it. Janice may have said why, but I didn’t hear the reason and didn’t ask. I was having too much fun to care at that point.

Some people think that beef rendang is a Malay dish, but it was actually brought to Singapore from the Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia.

What is Malay food?

Malay food has similar spices to those found in Peranakan food: lemongrass, galangal, chilies, tamarind, and shrimp paste. From the Malaysian cookbooks I own, I also noticed that a lot of dishes have cinnamon, cloves, and star anise in them as well.

If you’re in Singapore, two delicious “Malay” dishes that you should try:

• Satay (meat on a stick dipped in peanut sauce)
• Nasi lemak (a dish of coconut rice, sambal, anchovies, roasted peanuts, and cucumber). Whenever I ate the dish, it also came with fish or chicken wings. I had it several times for breakfast and a couple of times for lunch. Nasi lemak was one of my top five favorite dishes I had in Singapore and Malaysia. Make sure to try it.

Little India

The last stop of the Hello Singapore Food Tour was in Little India. This is another lively part of Singapore with beautiful shophouse architecture and a lot of Indian food.

Little India was just a short walk from Kampong Glam. What stood out for me were the crowded sidewalks and shopping arcades filled with Indian shops selling jewelry, saris, and flower garlands. I’ll also never forget the super colorful shophouses, probably the most colorful in all of Singapore.

History of Little India

Little India was originally inhabited by Europeans due to its proximity to a racecourse. But as time went on, cattle raising and trading started up in the area, and Indians from southern India made up most of the workforce in this industry and thus, started settling down in what is now Little India. Around the 1900s, the area became predominantly Indian.

Our visit to Little India was quite rushed, but at that point, I was pretty tired having just arrived two nights ago so I was happy to call it a day.

Food Stop #10: Dosa

Our first stop in Little India was to try the southern Indian dish, dosa.

Dosa is like a crepe pancake stuffed with curried potato. We had some dipping sauces: coconut, sambal, and a spicy sauce. I think the one we had was paper dosa. It was delicious.

Indian Cuisine in Singapore and Malaysia

I think I ate as much Indian food as I did Chinese Singaporean and Malay food during my month in the region. It’s ubiquitous.

In India, you’re supposed to eat with your right hand. Your left hand is considered unclean. We ate the murtabak with forks, but used our hands for the dosa.

When I ate at other Indian restaurants in Singapore and Malaysia, I saw people sometimes using their hands and other times forks. When I went back to Little India on another day, I ate a rice, egg, and biryani dish with my hands because that’s what everyone else was doing and I also didn’t see any forks. I looked like a complete idiot trying to eat hot rice and chicken with one hand. Eating elegantly with your hands is harder than it looks. 

Food Stop #11: Indian Sweets

Our last stop was for some Indian sweets at a small shop in a shopping arcade.

Behind a glass case was an assortment of Indian sweets of varying colors. It was hard to choose, they all looked so tempting and mesmerizing. We all pretty much just chose something randomly based on how it looked. The feedback from my tour mates was that some were better than others.

We were supposed to also have Indian Masala, but we didn’t and there was no mention of why. At that point of the day, I was too hot, full, and tired to care what I ate and didn’t eat on the tour. The tour also moved really fast, so I didn’t have much time to stop and think. I was having such a good time as well.

Would I recommend Hello Singapore Food Tour?

Yes, I would 100% recommend Hello Singapore Food Tour! It is the BEST thing I did on my Singapore itinerary.

We ate lots of different varieties of food but I didn’t feel uncomfortably full. I also learned a lot about Singaporean food.

The food tour was not cheap, but considering how many different neighborhoods we visited, how much food we ate, and the small size of our group, the tour was worth it.

On our food tour, we stopped at 4 locations:

• Katong
• Airport Road
• Kampong Glam
• Little India

In 5.5 hours, we ate…

• 5 dishes (kaya toast, laksa , rojak, murtabak, dosa),
• 4 sweets or snack food (bak chang, onde-onde, 7-layer kueh, Indian sweet),
• 2 drinks (kopi and teh tarik

The pace was also very good! I think it was planned out well so that we had a decent amount of stops to eat and rest between walking in the humidity of Singapore. I have a bad knee and plantar fasciitis, but I had no trouble keeping up with the tour.

I’ve been on food tours in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Japan. Hello Singapore is one of my top 3 favorite food tours EVER. The other two tours were in Oaxaca and Vietnam. The food tour in Quito, Ecuador is my 4th favorite.

Overall, I recommend Hello Singapore Food tour.

How to Book Your Food Tour

You can book your tour and read more reviews at Viator.

Tours only take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. You can cancel 7 days before the tour.

I generally like to book tours with Viator or Get Your Guide in case the tour company doesn’t show up or doesn’t communicate the meeting time. If I’m not satisfied, I also can write a negative review on the Viator or Get Your Guide website.

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