20 best dinner and drinks in Singapore

TLDR: if you want one answer and nothing else, go to Akasa in Tanjong Pagar and book the terrace. If you want options, Tanjong Pagar and Marina Bay have the highest density of places that get both halves right, and Atlas Bar and Native are worth the trip even if you’re coming from across the island. Book ahead on weekends. Ask about the kitchen closing time if you plan on staying past 9.

You’ve been there. The meal was good, everyone’s full, and now five people are standing on the pavement outside arguing about where to go for a drink. Someone wants to go home. Someone else suggests a bar that’s a twenty minute walk away. The night kind of dies right there.

That’s the actual problem with best dinner and drinks in Singapore. Plenty of restaurants do food well and treat the bar as decoration. Plenty of bars do drinks well and the kitchen closes at 9. The twenty places below don’t have that problem, starting with the one we’d send you to first.

What actually separates a good spot from a mediocre one

It comes down to the kitchen hours more than anything else. A lot of restaurants in Singapore quietly stop serving food around 9.30pm even though the bar stays open past midnight, so your “dinner and drinks” plan turns into drinks and a rushed last order nobody wanted.

The drinks side gives itself away too. Five safe cocktails on a laminated card means the bar is there to look complete, not because anyone designed it. The places on this list built their drinks list around the food, and you can usually taste that someone thought about it. The room matters as well. Bright lighting that works fine for lunch starts to feel wrong by 9pm when you’re a couple of drinks in and want the lights to come down with the night.

Best areas in Singapore for dinner and drinks

Tanjong Pagar wins this comparison most easily. It sits a short walk from the CBD, so you get the after-work crowd and the people who came on purpose, often in the same block. Akasa, Jigger & Pony, and Native are all here.

Marina Bay is the one to pick if a view matters more than convenience. Rooftop dinners lead naturally into cocktails with the skyline right there, though expect a minimum spend at most of these places, especially on weekends.

Chinatown and Bukit Pasoh hide a few of the better bars behind doors that don’t look like much from the street, Gibson being the obvious example. It’s cheaper than Marina Bay too, generally.

Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay sit close together but feel different. Clarke Quay is loud and built for groups. Robertson Quay is quieter, the kind of place for a slow dinner and drinks that turns into wine by the river.

Dempsey Hill costs you a Grab ride to get there, but you get space and trees instead of city noise in return. Worth it for a date or a slower group dinner. For more on the food side of Tanjong Pagar specifically, what to eat in Tanjong Pagar goes deeper than this list does.

The 20 best dinner and drinks in Singapore

1. Akasa, Tanjong Pagar

Akasa is inside CapitaSky at 79 Robinson Road, a few minutes’ walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT. Chef Akhilesh Pathak runs the kitchen, and the dishes people keep mentioning are the Mutton Awadh Khoya, the AKASA-E-Lobster Masala, and the butter chicken. A la carte mains run $20 to $35, with the lobster dishes closer to $68 to $72, and wine starts at $16 a glass. 

The bar side is just as deliberate: cardamom and chilli-infused gin cocktails instead of a generic gin and tonic, served on a terrace with skyline views that does a lot of work on a date. This is also where we send people asking about happy hour in Singapore, since the Twilight Tapas and Masala Mixology run during that window, and the romantic dinner in Singapore crowd that books the terrace specifically. 

Vegetarian and vegan guests get full menus, not one safe dish at the end. It’s the Indian restaurant Singapore people book when they want the whole evening in one place. Works well for date nights, after-work drinks that turn into a proper meal, or a small group booking.

2. Native, Amoy Street

52A Amoy Street, three floors: restaurant on the ground level, cocktail bar above it, fermentation lab on top. Cocktails run in the mid $20s and lean on foraged or regional ingredients instead of the usual imported spirit brands. Good if you get bored of the same five cocktails everywhere else.

3. Jigger & Pony, Tanjong Pagar

Inside Amara Hotel on Tanjong Pagar Road, and ranked in the World’s 50 Best Bars for years running. Cocktails sit around $25 to $28, the menu rotates seasonally, and the bar bites are built to go with whatever’s on it that season. Save it for an occasion, not a Tuesday after work.

4. Gibson, Bukit Pasoh Road

Second floor of a heritage shophouse at 20 Bukit Pasoh Road, near Outram MRT. Oysters start at $8, the mussel spaghetti is $34, and the signature Gibson cocktail is $25. Dim lighting, small tables, works best with a quieter group of four or fewer.

5. Employees Only, Amoy Street

A New York import on Amoy Street with something rarer than it should be: a kitchen that stays open late. Bone marrow poppers and steak tartare sit around the $20s, cocktails in the mid $20s. Good pick if your night’s going to run long.

6. Nutmeg & Clove, Purvis Street

Eight Purvis Street, near Bras Basah. The cocktails tell a story about Singapore’s spice trade, which sounds gimmicky until you order one. Mid-range pricing, similar to Gibson. Nice for a date that wants a bit of history with its drinks.

7. Lunì Scent Bar & Kitchen, Lavender Street

161 Lavender Street. The cocktails use essential oils and aromatherapy elements, which is either the best thing you’ll try this year or not your thing at all. Mid-range. Worth it if you want to try something genuinely different.

8. Barrel: Story of Hibiki, Cecil Street

A whisky-led izakaya backed by Suntory. Snacks start at $8, the signature beignet is $14, and the wagyu striploin runs $128 if you’re celebrating. Really only makes sense if you’re into whisky.

9. Atlas Bar, Parkview Square

600 North Bridge Road. An Art Deco gin bar with over a thousand bottles and martinis that start around $25, climbing into the hundreds for the rarer pours. This is the priciest spot on the list and one of the only ones worth dressing up for. This is a milestone bar, not really one for an ordinary Tuesday.

10. Southbridge, Boat Quay

A rooftop oyster and gin bar above Boat Quay, with views across to Marina Bay and noticeably fewer crowds than street level. Mid to upper range pricing. Good for a date if you’d rather skip the noise at street level.

11. Artemis Grill & Sky Bar, CapitaGreen

Level 40, 138 Market Street. Mediterranean seafood downstairs, a sky bar for drinks before or after. Upper range pricing, similar to the Marina Bay rooftops but without leaving the CBD. Best for after-work drinks with a view.

12. CÉ LA VI, Marina Bay Sands

The rooftop everyone already knows, on top of Tower 3. Entry can apply if you’re not dining, redeemable against a drink. Upper range. Best for impressing someone, including yourself.

13. Spago, Marina Bay Sands

Wolfgang Puck’s spot on level 57. Spicy tuna tartare cones are the one to order, with an alfresco section overlooking the infinity pool. Upper range. Best for a special-occasion dinner and drinks with a view attached.

14. LAVO, Marina Bay Sands

Italian-American, loud, and home to a meatball roughly the size of your fist. Upper range pricing, group-friendly portions. Best for a celebration with a crowd.

15. Tess, Seah Street

36 Seah Street. Cocktails start at $24 across a menu of 26, with pork jowl linguine and mushroom risotto on the food side. Mid to upper range. Best for a group that can’t agree on one drink each.

16. The Store, Neil Road

11 Neil Road. Small, unpretentious, and home to an 11@11 happy hour running $11 cocktails from 4pm to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday. One of the cheaper options here. Best for an early dinner and drinks  that turns into a longer night without the bill turning into one too.

17. Cygnet Bar, QT Singapore

35 Robinson Road. Happy hour drinks run $10, fries included, daily until around 6pm. Mid-range outside that window. Best for a hotel bar that doesn’t feel like a hotel bar.

18. BOP, Tras Street

76 Tras Street, Jigger & Pony Group’s Korean cocktail dining-bar. Built around how people actually drink in Korea, where food and drinks get equal billing instead of one carrying the other. Mid to upper range. Best for a group that wants K-eats with their cocktails.

19. Side Door

A small, industrial-feeling space from a bartender and chef couple. Creative cocktails, tapas-style food, including a martini-style drink served with an oyster. Mid-range. Best for a date that wants something a bit under the radar.

20. Offtrack

A vinyl-spun bar with a community feel rather than a velvet-rope one. Happy hour runs cocktails around $16, wines around $14, and Sapporo at $12, with garlic noodles on the side. Mid-range. Best for a casual night that doesn’t need to be fancy to be good.

A few practical things before you book

Book ahead for Friday and Saturday, especially in Tanjong Pagar and Marina Bay. Most of these fill up by 7pm on weekends.

Dress codes are mostly smart casual, though Atlas Bar and the Marina Bay Sands rooftops will turn you away in flip-flops or beachwear. Worth checking if you’re coming straight from the office in shorts.

Budget for drinks on top of food. Cocktails across this list run from around $11 during happy hour up to $250 for a novelty pour at Atlas Bar, with most places sitting somewhere around $18 to $28 a drink outside of happy hour. Booking dinner and drinks  inside the 5pm to 8pm happy hour window is the easiest way to bring the total down.

If anyone’s vegetarian or vegan, ask before you book. Akasa runs a full vegetarian menu and a full vegan menu, several dishes deep on each side. A handful of other places on this list have one safe option and not much else. For more specific picks beyond these twenty, our earlier roundup of dinner and drinks spots across Singapore covers a few more.