Food Gems Along Keong Saik

Start the day right by breaking your fast like a local. A traditional eatery along Keong Saik Road. Tong Ah Eating House serves up the classic Singaporean breakfast, which comprises of kaya toast, soft boiled eggs and a strong cup of kopi.

Tong Ah Eating House.
35 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089142.
Tel: +65 6223 5083  Daily: 07:00-22:00

If you need a pick-me-up, follow the aroma of freshly brewed coffee beans into The Populus Coffee & Food Café. The specialty coffeehouse uses blends from local roaster Two Degrees North Coffee, so expect flavours such as natural Ethiopia Dumer filter coffee and Mörk Cold Chocolate. The café sells specialty coffee beans, too, so take a pack home if you’d like.

With mahogany floors complementing blue-tiled walls, The LoKal is a stunning space reminiscent of the laid-back cafés in Australia. An open kitchen puts the chefs in the spotlight, as they use homemade ingredients to create mouth-watering comfort food. Try The LoKal’s kaya (a traditional jam made from coconut and eggs) toast and homemade vanilla yoghurt for Singaporean flavours with a twist.

Despite the area’s gentrified present, Kok Sen Restaurant retains its old-school charm. With mismatched tables and stools in its dining space, this authentic hawker-styled eatery serves zi char that occupies a spot on the Michelin Guide Singapore's Bib Gourmand. Do as the locals do and order the prawn hor fun, a signature of the restaurant that graces almost every table. Charred ribbons of the flat rice noodles and plump, palm-sized prawns are drenched in an umami-rich gravy that you will be licking clean.

At Man Man Japanese Unagi Restaurant, Singapore’s first unagi (freshwater eel) specialty restaurant, you’ll work up an appetite as you watch chefs lovingly baste and grill strips of the fish right in front of you. The daily queue speaks for itself—you’ll find a stream of diners at the entrance even before the restaurant, a Bib Gourmand winner in the Michelin Guide Singapore, opens for lunch.

Boasting a Michelin star in both 2017 and 2018, Meta serves up innovative fine dining dishes that marry Asian flavours with French flair. Chef Sun Kim, an alumni of Tetsuya’s in Sydney and Waku Ghin in Singapore, deploys seasonal ingredients in his ever-changing degustation menus—think octopus slick with XO sauce and scallop sashimi in a dressing of basil and yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit).

Flames run in the veins of this Australian barbeque restaurant that occupied the tenth spot on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2017 list, and has a 2018 Michelin Star to its name. Unlike American barbeque, Burnt Ends deals in subtler, more complex flavours, like a hangar steak with burnt onion sauce, and smoked quail’s egg that’s crowned with caviar. Its menu changes daily, but if you do spy the Sanger on the board, go for it—The dish consists of luscious pulled pork and tangy coleslaw, sandwiched between brioche buns.