Suggestions from a previous post
 

I've slightly edited an old post that I made in (hope its ok that its not a brand new post): http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum88/HTML/000124.html

seafood - Jumbo, Long Beach, or Seafood International on East Coast. Must trys are chili crab or pepper crab (the latter is much spicier), drunken shrimp. Order the fried bread 'man tou' to dip in the sauce of the chili crab (Seafood International doesn't have man tou). Forget the spelling, but there is also another seafood restaurant on the East Coast, Singa Inn that has a kind of amaturish show featuring SE Asian dances, during dinner, but you can pose for pictures with the dancers.

local (SE Asian) food - a hawker center. First timers may prefer Newton Circus or Lau Pa Sat, both outdoors, but the latter has a roof. Walk around and pick what you like; ignore the pleas to sit until you are ready. Also the Satay Club at Clarke Quay, which consists of many different vendors of satay meats outdoors. As these are all outdoors, the weather is usually too muggy for me to enjoy during summer but now is a good time, so I may just go to one of these also when I'm there next week. Shopping center food courts are indoor versions of hawker centers with air conditioning.

Chinese - many places; there are several Crystal Jade restaurants (I've been to 3) around the city for dim sum or dinner; also recommend Li Bai in the Sheraton for dinner, but pricey. Pricey reminds me of Lei (spelling? pronounced Lee) Garden in Chijmes, good food but expensive. Chijmes also has several other restaurants if you want to look around -- at least one has ostrich meat.

Indian - not my favorite type of food but you can try the one in Holiday Inn, or Raffles, or Bukhara, a buffet one in Clarke Quay. Several also in Boat Quay.

In all places, try fruit juices you cannot get, or hard to find, in the US: calamansi, lime, guava, watermelon, soursop.

Its amazing that almost all restaurants and eating places are crowded at dinner time.

as a singaporean here are my recommendations =)

about the hawker centers.. newton and lau pa sat aren't actually remarkable quality-wise, they're just the more tourist-oriented and expensive ones. if you are, for some reason, in the suburbs, the hawker centers there are just as good if not better, and more in tune with the singaporean lifestyle.

fine dining wise, there are a few places that i would say are fabulous but might not be really new or exceptional for you guys who are possibly used to these cuisines. i'm a singaporean college student with limited exposure to authentic french cuisine, for example, so im not a good judge =)

french: au jardin les amis, within the botanical gardens, has won zillions of awards and the setting is fabulous.
japanese: nadaman, at the shangri-la hotel
chinese: many! lei garden, li bai, club chinois (fusion chinese), tung lok (sharks fin) etc.
indian: i'm told rang mahal at the pan pacific is really awesome.
others: shrooms at chijmes, indochine in china square, lemongrass at the heeren shops, mezza9 at the crowne plaza, intermezzo at one raffles link etc are all great either from personal experience or from word-of-mouth.

enjoy

The chili crab and the pepper crab at anyone of the restaurants at the UDMC Seafood Centre (block 1202 East Coast Parkway) are great.

Li Bai is awesome.

For lunch in Arabtown, try Zam Zams, 699 North Bridge Street. Try the Murtabak.
It is fried flat bread stuffed w/ either minced mutton, shredded chicken or sardines along w/onions,eggs and spices. All three were good.

We loved all the hawker centres and ate at one every day we were there.

Our flight out was at 7:45am. I got up early, went to one of the 24 hour hawker centres (I forget which) and ordered food to go (termed "take away") for our plane trip home. Worked out great and YUMMY!!

Also, the lunch buffet at the Kings Hotel is a nice way to sample a variety of local foods in a more refined atmosphere than the hawker centers.

Inkoherent:

Thanks for your info. If you are in Singapore from October 6-8, I would love to treat you to a good meal at a place you recommend. Thus far, I've only eaten at Lau Pa Sat -- and I always enjoyed it. I'll be in Singapore for a mileage run.

thanks for the offer premex, but i will be back in chicago then (ironically) and have a great time in SIN =)

We ate there last December and it was remarkable. Setting, service, and food were all astonishingly good. We weren't expecting it to be as good as it was.

.

I love the lamb (mutton) murtabaks at Zam Zam. (I like watching them being made there in the front of the shop on the street level.)

Not that far away is a wonderful vegetarian Indian restaurant:

Komala Vilas 76-78 Serangoon Rd, Singapore 217981 Ph 62936980

that another FT'er introduced me to, and that I strongly recommend. Everything is good; downstairs (street level) is for dishes associated with breads (nan, poori) and upstairs is for dishes associated with rice, as near as I could figure.


I also have a favorite Indian (North) restaurant; Maharajah 41 Boat Quay (down towards the UOB Plaza). I've been going there for ~ 6 years and enjoy their breads, and esp. Chicken Tikka Masala.


There is a good Vietnamese restaurant, Mai Vietnamese Cuisine, #02-01 (MLP) 6837 2040, located in the Marina Square Leisureplex complex. It is adjacent to the cinema, past the main food court. It is very reasonable, more expensive than the food court but less expensive than a restaurant. You order your food at the entrance/counter and then it is brought to your table. The spring rolls, Saigon Pancake, and noodle soups are all excellent.

I also like Mos Spicy Cheeseburger (Mos Burgers). http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by transpac (edited 07-22-2003).]

Having lived in Singapore for 12 years, here is what I have to offer in terms of my favorite local food.

Best non-East Coast seafood, on the corner of Aljunied and Geylang Road, open air tables line the shops after they close along Geylang Road. The place gets real packed on weekend nights and the food is very reasonably priced. We had dinner for 4 once and ordered lobster salad, kangkung belachan, black pepper crab, chili crab, crayfish, fried rice, drunken prawn and some desert and it was only $130 Sing dollars, a real bargain!

2 Late Night Eats!
East Coast Road after you past Siglap Center, you will see a 24 hour Malay coffee shop. They have the best mee goreng, wrapped in egg, omelete style, when you order it and you break the egg open, the piping hot noodles is there for your enjoyment all at a cost of $3.

Somewhere in Bedok http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif in one of the HDB complex lies a 24 hour noodle shop that serves minced pork noodles. Went there at 2am one day and had to wait 20 mins before my order was served to our tables. They offer $2, ,$3 and $4 sizes, take my advice, order the $4 bowl you will not regret it.

That's all. I have not been home for 2 years now so I have to really catch up the next time I go there!

Mark - Just curious if the Indian "vegetarian" restaurant you mentioned above is the same one that we visited during the Jan 03 SIN run with SanDiego1K ?

I certainly enjoyed it, just not certain that I recall the name/address....Since I'm headed to SIN for a short MR in October, I thought I'd check...

Thanks in advance, and Best wishes, Dave

Dave, yes the vegetarian restaurant we went to in January was Komal Vilas! YHM