10 Best Restaurants in Geylang and Joo Chiat

With an interior decorated with Nonya artifacts, the restaurant/shophouse has won accolades for its genuine cuisine. Among its popular dishes are sayoh lodeh (vegetable curry), Nonya assam curry fish and sambal sotong (squid cooked in spicy sauce).

In stark comparison to Lau Pa Sat, the Old Airport Road Food Center is not particularly pretty, a little outside the city center and not that well-frequented by tourists. Yet, this 30-year-old food center is widely considered by locals to be the best hawker center in Singapore, both in terms of value, and more importantly: taste.

Specialties here include satay noodles, char kway teow (noodle dish), and rojak (an Indonesian fruit/vegetable salad). Prices are consistent with the rest of Singapore’s hawker centres, with a basic noodle soup costing less than S$5 – though you can pay more like $S10 for larger meat-based dishes.

An extremely popular location by the beach, this food village is designed with a tropical feel with boardwalks and beach umbrella tables.

It’s a fantastic place to chill out with a beer and watch the beach activities. Satay, laksa, rojak and oyster omelet are some of the popular dishes here.

Well-patronized by the locals, 328 Katong Laksa is arguably one of the forerunners for this hearty noodle-in-thick spicy gravy dish. No chopsticks are required as the noodles have been shortened to eat with a Chinese soup spoon.

The dish comes topped with fragrant laksa herbs and a sweet chilli paste. Be prepared to wait for a table during peak times. 

Sin Heng Claypot Bak Koot is 24-hour no-frills restaurant whose specialty is pork ribs simmered for a long time in a peppery herbal broth in a clay pot.

Not to be missed also are the innards, pork leg and pig’s tail in a clay pot. Non-pork favorites include sweet & sour sliced fish, clay pot prawn with vermicelli, and chicken wings with prawn paste. Be prepared to wait for a table at peak times and at weekends. 

One of the top local favorites with several branches, Boon Tong Kee serves marvelous chicken rice – tenderly poached white chicken placed on rice cooked in a chicken broth with ginger and garlic and accompanied by cucumber slices, chilli-lime sauce, pureed ginger and thick black soy sauce.

JUMBO Seafood - East Coast is an enormous one-stop center on the East Coast Parkway with several restaurants specializing in Singapore-style seafood by the beachfront.

Must-try dishes are the Chili crab, Singapore’s unofficial ‘national dish’ – crabs cooked in a fiery chilli-spiked sauce which is usually mopped up with Chinese buns and the black pepper crab. They usually open from 5pm onwards.

Home-style Nonya cooking is the hallmark here. Feast on ayam buah keluak (chicken cooked with nuts in a rich gravy), chap chye (braised mixed vegetables), babi pongteh (pork in fermented soya bean gravy), itek tim (duck and salted vegetable soup) and many more.