Singapore - (Spring 2025) - Day 4
Hong Lim Market Food Hall
This is a very authentic food hall in Chinatown in that it is mostly locals here. There were a lot of people in the morning getting their breakfast here before headed to work. It’s not the easiest place to find. Underneath is a commercial meat and fish market. You head up these unmarked and kind of sketchy looking stairs to access the food hall.
Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee (Hong Lim Market Food Hall)
One of the iconic Singapore dishes is the fried kway teow noodles. There different variations but it is basically this heavy plate of fried noodles. This place has cockles along with different ground meats and sprouts and other goodness. The eggs bind it all into a sticky blob when fried. Part of the appeal seems to be the char you get from a super hot wok as it sears the soy to the noodles. The place opens at 6 AM so people can get a plate before headed to their blue collar jobs.
The Noodle Memories (Hong Lim Market Food Hall)
Around the corner we found another stall serving Malaysian noodles which looked very good. It was a fresh dry noodle bowl topped with fixings and a soft boiled egg. It looked like a dry udon bowl but with Southeastern Asian flavors.
Plus Coffee Joint
We searched for some proper coffee after breakfast in Chinatown. This place was a very modern looking shop that served the coffee in shot and drink glasses.
Sri Mariamman Temple
This towering Hindu temple was across the street from where we were staying so we walked past it constantly. Today we decided to take a peek inside. It apparently is the oldest Hindu temple in the city built in the early 1800’s.
Raffles Hotel
Probably the most famous hotel in Singapore, the classic colonial style oozes with the feel of the old days. It is home of the Long Bar where the Singapore Sling was invented. It is nice that the outside areas are open to the public so you can stroll around enjoy the architecture.
Long Bar (Raffles)
This is the famous Long Bar, home of the original Singapore Sling. We actually did not drink here. For one, there was a line, and the second reason was that drinks here were expensive even for Singapore. It was over $30 for a Singapore Sling. I’m not that much into sweet drinks anyway so I just took a few photos and went on my way.
Macallan Room (Raffles)
We did however drink here. Located in Raffles, this is one of two Macallan Rooms in the world. The other being in Hong Kong. We didn’t know this was here and stumbled upon it while exploring the hotel.
In my humble opinion, Macallan is the best scotch. They had a wall display of all the unmixed bottled scotches by year and also a display of the high end releases (I asked and I guess even they don’t have access to the cask strength releases which seemed like the only bottles they didn’t have).
They had a small tasting bar area and we availed ourselves of two different Classic Cut versions from different years. This was a much better stop for me than the Long Bar.
Atlas Bar
We did not drink here either. I wanted to grab a martini here and enjoy the grand art deco styling of the bar but they were very restrictive of the seating if I didn’t have a reservation and I was not willing to wait around. Oh well, I’m always a bit surprised when I’m actually trying to give people money and they refuse it.
Haji Lane & Arab Street Area
We headed over to the Arab/Muslim side of town to stroll through the shops and alleys. This was a very colorful neighbor and not as crazy busy with crowds like Little India.
Taksim
I find that when you are in doubt of what you want to eat while traveling, you can’t go wrong with a kebab.
Sultan Mosque
The Sultan Mosque structure stands out in this neighborhood that is bereft of any tall buildings. The outside is pretty ornate but the inside is pretty sparse but spacious and just serves its role as a place of worship. I personally felt that the bunch of flat screens hanging up kind of ruin the vibe.
Pasha
Singapore being generally a tolerant multi-cultural society, it’s not too hard to find a drink on the Muslim side of town. This place is mostly a restaurant but we were able to stop and just have some refreshments in the afternoon.
Humpback
This was the first bar we hit in the evening. This area on Bukit Pasoh Road south of Chinatown is a small lively area filled with bars and restaurants.
Unfortunately they had no inside seating at the time and it was still a little warm out as the sun hadn’t set yet. We didn’t dawdle too long in downing the cocktails and headed to the bar next door which was open by the time we finished these drinks.
Gibson
The Gibson is part of a bar group that has several bars in the area. The bar was upstairs from Live Twice and they also recently updated their menu at this time. Since they were changing over, they gave us some of the old menu books as souvenirs.
I had to have a Gibson at the Gibson right? I was also told to try the Sweet Potato Blazer since it is one of those lighting on fire drinks. Lot of theatrics went into that drink so I felt I got my moneys worth on that one.
Cat Bite Club
The bartender at the Gibson told us to give the Cat Bite Club a try as a fun place to go. It was a little speakeasy-ish in that you have to go behind the coffee shop counter that is closed at night.
This was a fun little bar. The bartender suggested a coffee based cocktail (Meow Now Brown Cow) that she said was her favorite.
Native
Last bar stop of the night on last night in Singapore. Native is pretty popular but we were able to snag a seat at the end of the bar without having reservations. Their menu seemed to highlight Asian ingredients and incorporated them into classic drinks in order to give them their own twist here.