Your ultimate guide to eating and drinking in Singapore's East
Nocturnal creatures in the East: scouting for food when you’re up at unearthly hours (for us regular working folks, eating at 10pm is a rarity) has just become easier. Team Honeycombers is always on the prowl for good food 24/7 – a sacrifice we gladly make – brings you the hottest supper spots in the East (do check out our food guide to West and North Singapore too)
Changi Village
Changi Village Hawker Centre (2 Changi Village Road), honestly, is a no brainer. It’s home to competing famous nasi lemak (coconut infused rice with side dishes) supper stalls International Nasi Lemak and Mizzy’s Corner. The former is famous for their crispy fried chicken and lemongrass-tinged rice while the latter has grainier pandan rice with more fragrant sambal – we’ll let you be the judge of which is better. Get your teh tarik at the Bismillah Sarabat Stall.
Make a beeline for 89.7FM Supper Club (5 Changi Village Road), which is an excellent spot for supper if you’re in a big group and everyone is craving for different stuff. One thing they’ve got is variety (Western cuisine like steak, seafood, and even chicken rice). Looking for a more chillax place? Nestled in peaceful greenery is The Bark Café, which stands beside the Changi Chapel Museum. Head here for a laid back supper with friends over munchies and drinks.
Another spot that offers al fresco late night dining (booze included) is Beach Culture in Pasir Ris Park, which offers a good mix of Western (think Fish & Chips) and Asian (like Sambal Fried Rice) food. As the name implies, it’s near the beach so if you’ve got insomnia, heading there will lull you to sleep better than anything else.
Bedok
Regular member of the supper club would be (rightly) familiar with the many halal restaurants in Simpang Bedok by now. If you have a craving for Chinese food, you’ll find halal dim sum and a variety of zi char (Chinese home-style cuisine) at Tang Tea House (357 Bedok Road).
If you’re looking specifically for the perfect prata (crispy, slightly charred on the outside and soft on the inside) in this part of town, you can’t go wrong with Syed Restaurant (326 Bedok Road). This 24-hour joint also dishes out pretty decent roti john too.
Fengshan Food Centre (85 Bedok North Street 4), or more affectionately known as Bedok 85, is another oldie – but always a goodie – on the supper scene. Must-tries include ba chor mee (minced pork noodles) from Xing Ji, barbequed chicken wings from Chong Pang Huat, sambal stingray from Chan BBQ, and steaming congee from Chai Chee Pork Porridge.
If your idea of supper runs to ice cream, the Siglap branch of Udders opens till 11pm on weekdays and 1am on weekends. Do note that last order for waffles is 30 minutes before closing!
Tianfu Hong Kong Style Steamboat
Tanjong Katong/Kembangan/Ubi
Buffet for supper? Absolutely. If you’re really hungry, head down to Tianfu Hong Kong Style Steamboat – it’s all-you-can-eat for a mere $19.80 (on weekdays). On weekends, it’s $21.80. Even better, there are 11 types of soup to try (the most popular by far is the house special satay soup), so it’s difficult to actually get bored of this place.
Punggol Nasi Lemak (238 Tanjong Katong Road) is another huge crowd puller, even at midnight. Critics have said this family-run chain is overrated, but we think they’ve got the basics (rice, sambal, eggs and ikan bilis) down pat.
A hop away from Kembangan MRT is Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup (467 Changi Road), which strangely, isn’t famous for its black chicken soup. Regulars of this joint (we count ourselves among them) patronize it for its mee sua – thin wheat noodles with pig organs and mushrooms).
All supper lists are replete with prata shop, so it seems apt to end off this supper guide with one. Madinathul Restaurant at 304 Ubi Avenue 1 has won the hearts of members in the supper club with their pratas, briyani, and even the paper thosai.
Katong/Joo Chiat
Fei Fei Wanton Mee (72 Joo Chiat Place) is usually a popular foodie pick when it comes to this genre of noodles with dumplings. Although we admit that the standard has dropped slightly since the patriarch of this institution has passed on, the noodles are still pretty good, with the right level of elasticity. We recommend having your noodles dry and asking for a bowl of soup after you’re done.
For ABC Restaurant (365 Joo Chiat Road), we only have three words – banana honey prata. If’s that’s too dessert-like for you, have their nasi briyani (spiced fluffy basmati rice with curry) first. Speaking of rice, Five Star Chicken Rice along East Coast Road closes at 3am daily, so there’s your chicken rice midnight fix in the lower east side.
Any supper repertoire is incomplete without a bak kut teh (pork ribs in a peppery soup) place. Ours is Sin Heng Claypot Bak Kut Teh at 426 Joo Chiat Road, which has both the herbal and pepper versions. What sets this eatery apart from others is that they serve yummy yam rice (flavoured with yam and dried shrimp) to go with the flavourful broth.
On the same block is Sin Hoi Sai Eating House (187 East Coast Road), a popular zi char restaurant that shuts its doors only at 4am. We like their range of fried noodles, which is more than enough to satisfy those 2am hunger pangs. If it’s dim sum you’re craving for, check out Mongkok Dim Sum a few doors down.