Singapore is a phenomenal city with a food scene just as rich as the rest of its unique culture, blending Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Peranakan influences.
From the major Hawker Center to the thriving food markets, a food tour is the perfect way to explore the city’s authentic flavors and history. Avoid the tourist traps and savor the full-flavor, mouthwatering dishes with an expert local guide who will show you the very best the metropolis has to offer.
To make things easy for you, I’ve gone ahead and detailed the 7 top Singapore food tours that are well worth your time and money. Let’s jump right in!
Be sure to see our reviews of Singapore City Tours and Singapore Bike Tours.
Best Food Tours in Singapore
Singapore Private Food and Culture Tour | Small-Group Food Tour With Hawker Center: Eat Like A Local | Singapore Bike and Bites Food Tour | |
---|---|---|---|
Location: | Hotel pickup and drop-off included | 7-Eleven, 213 E Coast Rd, No.213, Singapore 428912 | Let's Go Tour Singapore, Block 462 Crawford Ln, #01-57 |
Start: | Between 10:00 & 4:00 PM | 9:00 AM | 2:00 PM |
Duration: | 4 hours | 6 hours | 3 hours |
Includes: | English-speaking local guide, 9 to 10 local ethnic food dishes and drinks, public transport (MRT & bus), round-trip transport | Food (more than 10 dishes): kaya toast, Bak Chang, Kuehs, Laksa, Hokkien Mee, Rojak, Popiah etc, guide, breakfast, lunch, snacks | 3 hour bike tour, bottled water, poncho, food tasting, licensed local guide |
Quick Answer: The 7 Best Rated Singapore Food Tours For 2024
- Singapore Private Food and Culture Tour
- Small-Group Food Tour With Hawker Center: Eat Like A Local
- Singapore Bike and Bites Food Tour
- Singapore Walking Food Tour With Secret Food Tours
- 3 Ethnic Neighborhoods & UNESCO Street Food / Cultural Experience
- Singapore Street Food Tour with a Local: A Feast for Foodies 100% Personalized
- Cultural & Food Experience of Chinese, Indian & Malay Quarters
Singapore Food Tour Reviews
1. Singapore Private Food and Culture Tour
- Duration: 4 hours
- Departure: Hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Departure Time: Between 10:00 & 4:00 PM
- Includes: English-speaking local guide, 9 to 10 local ethnic food dishes and drinks, public transport (MRT & bus), round-trip transport, all taxes, fees, and handling charges
Singapore is an incredibly diverse and fast-growing country, so you can expect its culinary scene to be the same way. Melding tradition with modern techniques and surprising ingredients, it’s difficult to fully grasp the concept without some kind of guidance.
What better way to jump right in than with a professional local guide on the Singapore Private Food and Culture Tour? This is a 4-hour tour, though you do get some say in the start time that works best for you and your schedule.
Not to mention, it includes convenient hotel pickup and drop-off, so you don’t have to worry about booking separate transportation or using local transport to get to a meetup point.
I should note that once you are with your guide though, a lot of the transport will involve taking the MRT and bus, though the guide will help show you how to use it easily.
This tour will take you through Chinatown, Little India, Kampong Glam, and other districts, with a focus on each’s culture – more specifically, its cuisine. We learned about how it used to be a British colonial port, where immigrants from China, India, the Malay Archipelago, and beyond arrived.
During this era, many migrants brought their culinary traditions, from Indian curries to British coffee and scones. Today, it’s a dynamic blend of old and new, local and global, trying street food, artisan cafes, bars, and many other types of experiences.
I will say that if you’re solely interested in food, you may like some of the other options in this guide better. However, if you ask me, I’d say if you’re at all interested in the culture and history of Singapore, this tour does a fantastic job of intertwining it with the local cuisine.
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
2. Small-Group Food Tour With Hawker Center: Eat Like A Local
- Duration: 6 hours
- Departure: 7-Eleven, 213 E Coast Rd, No.213, Singapore 428912
- Departure Time: 9:00 AM
- Includes: Food (more than 10 dishes): kaya toast, Bak Chang, Kuehs, Laksa, Hokkien Mee, Rojak, Popiah etc, tea and coffee as specified, professional guide, transportation, breakfast, lunch, snacks
Next up, we have the Small-Group Food Tour with Hawker Center: Eat Like a Local Experience, which is the longest tour on this guide. They fit in a ton of learning and tasting on this one, remaining in-depth yet well-paced, so no one is rushed or bored.
You can expect to cover 4 main geographic areas of Singapore, offering a nice variety of different ethnic backgrounds and traditions. We started off our tour by meeting our guide at 7-Eleven in the morning, which was easy to get to from our hotel.
Keep in mind that while this isn’t a completely private tour, your tour is capped at just 8 participants for an intimate, more personalized experience. You’re not just checking boxes off a list, but rather, engaging in conversations, and learning about the cultural significance of dishes and places.
I hadn’t really mastered the local bus system yet, and was grateful that our guide showed us how to use them and was patient with us, which was such an invaluable tool to have for the rest of our time in Singapore!
Our first stop was at Katong-Joo Chiat, where we learned about the Chinese arrival, with its special Peranakan culture, where many traditional Singaporean dishes were born!
We couldn’t miss visiting the Old Airport Road Hawker Center, where we learned about these concepts where street vendors (or “hawkers”) sold inexpensive meals from pushcarts who eventually came together into pre-designated areas to ensure cleanliness and safety while still keeping that street-food feel.
We then went to Kampong Glam – the center of the Malay local community – seeing the amazing Sultan’s Mosque and trying local foods before going to Little India to try their popular “Dosa” dish, Masala Milk, and even see the Little India Arcade.
This was a fantastic day that taught me so much about each culture and how they’ve come together with Singapore traditions to form a beautiful melding of history and cultures.
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
3. Singapore Bike and Bites Food Tour
- Duration: 3 hours
- Departure: Let’s Go Tour Singapore, Block 462 Crawford Ln, #01-57, Singapore 190462
- Departure Time: 2:00 PM
- Includes: Bottled water, poncho, food tasting, licensed local guide
Are you on the hunt for a more laidback tour experience where you can get some fresh air, top-tier sightseeing, and exercise, all in one? If so, then the Singapore Bike and Bites Food Tour is your best bet!
Lasting 3 hours, it’s a fantastic intro to Singapore and with an expert local guide there to share their knowledge with you, you can count on a fun and educational experience.
Lasting 3 hours and starting at 2:00 pm, it’s a nice way to get in a bit of exercise and some tasty food instead of lunch – especially if you have dinner plans later in the evening.
While walking tours are fantastic, it can get a bit humid at this time of day, (why you’ll almost always see walking tours in the morning or night) which makes the bike tours ideal with a good amount of breeze.
If you want to experience the city at a street level and really maximize your time exploring and tasting, it’s hard to compete with this one. Meet up with your guide and the rest of your group, where you’ll be provided with bottled water, bikes that fit you properly, and a poncho (if weather requires it).
He was super friendly and led us to 3 different neighborhoods: Chinatown, Little India, and the Kampong Glam district. I’d say that thanks to the pacing and safety of the tour, it’s perfect for all age groups, as you have cycle paths and even a cycle lane inside the shopping mall!
In each area, we took at stop or two to sample different traditional dishes, letting us cover much more ground than we would have been able to on foot. We visited some food stalls that frankly are easily missed on vehicle tours, so it really is the best of both worlds here.
With our guide’s insider knowledge and priority on our safety and wellbeing, I can confidently recommend this tour to anyone!
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
4. Singapore Walking Food Tour With Secret Food Tours
- Duration: 3 hours
- Departure: Bee Cheng Hiang (69 Pagoda Street), Singapore 059228
- Departure Time: 11:00 AM
- Includes: Guide, tour, good tasting, soft drinks
If you have a packed itinerary but would like to experience a dedicated culinary tour that takes you off the beaten path, give this one a look.
The Singapore Walking Food Tour with Secret Food Tours involves a passionate local guide to lead you and your group to some of the best hidden gems that even some locals don’t know about!
With an emphasis on authentic, lesser-known spots, you can expect to discover traditional hawker stalls, family-run eateries, and plenty of sightseeing.
Lasting 3 hours with various start times available, it’s quite easy to fit into busy schedules and mealtimes. It’s a tour that focuses not only on food but on the local culture and history, which are deeply intertwined.
After all, the history and the different people who arrived to the country gave rise to modern-day culture and the thriving food scene we were able to enjoy.
After meeting up with our guide and the rest of our group (just limited to 10 participants in total), we started off in Chinatown at the Heritage Centre, which showcases restored shophouses complete with living spaces, furniture, and artifacts of some of the first settlers here.
We got to see the impressive Sri Mariamman Temple, which is the oldest Hindu temple in the city, and in my opinion cannot be missed (along with the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum).
After enjoying some delicious food at the Chinatown Complex, we explored some more local landmarks, with plenty of educational background and time for photos! With 6 different dish samples, you’ll have a nice idea of what locals eat and what their food market experience is like!
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
5. 3 Ethnic Neighborhoods & UNESCO Street Food / Cultural Experience
- Duration: 5.5 hours
- Departure: Hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Departure Time: 9:00 AM
- Includes: Food tasting, bottled water, round-trip transport, beer, MRT and/or public buses, professional guide, soft drinks
While Singapore’s food scene is often synonymous with Michelin-star restaurants and chic cafes, this tour shows you far beyond what initially meets the eye.
The 3 Ethnic Neighborhoods & UNESCO Street Food / Cultural Experience is all about going back to the city’s roots, delivering an insider’s view of street food tradition like no other.
Focusing both on the food and the community, you’ll journey through some of the neighborhoods first-time tourists often skip. I love the fact that while this tour starts in the morning, I actually got to sleep in a bit because I didn’t have to worry about trying to find my way to a meet-up point.
Rather, our guide came to our hotel to pick us up, which was super convenient and helped maximize our time out sightseeing. One tip I will give is to skip breakfast and come hungry, as you’re about to try a ton of delicious dishes and samples!
Our guide was very kind and informative and helped us not only learn about Chinatown, Little India, and Kampong Glam, but Singapore’s overall history.
He even helped teach us how to use the MRT and public buses, which was intimidating at first but we soon mastered public transport, using it throughout our trip. In Chinatown, we learned about the immigrants who came in search of opportunities while trying some delicious food at a hawker center.
Next up was Kampong Glam, where we learned about the Malay royalty who actually used to rule Singapore, checking out the impressive Sultan Mosque that still holds importance today.
The food stalls are abundant and I loved the different desserts we tried here before going to Little India. Once there, we soaked up the vibrant markets, incense shops, Hindu temples, and tried plenty of tasty dishes, too.
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
6. Singapore Street Food Tour with a Local: A Feast for Foodies 100% Personalized
- Duration: 3 hours
- Departure: Between 8:00 AM & 5:00 PM
- Departure Time: Nanyang Old Coffee, 268 South Bridge Rd, Singapore 058817
- Includes: Private and personalized experience, local guide, 6 to 8 tastings
If you ever wished that you had a local friend who happened to know about Singapore’s street food scene front and back, this next tour is for you. The Singapore Street Food Tour with a Local: A Feast for Foodies 100% Personalized is one of the best food tours I’ve gone on in any country.
In just 3 hours, you’ll get to experience local life in Singapore, trying a ton of delicious food that most tourists miss out on. You do have various start times to choose from, and you can work with your guide beforehand to figure out a time that works best for you and your party.
I felt that the 3-hour-long tour length was just right for an introduction to a more “authentic” Singapore, covering a nice balance of food, architecture, and history. However, you don’t have to risk going on a tour that covers things you’re not interested in or you’ve already seen.
That’s because this tour is completely personalized and customizable to you and your party’s specific interests! Upon booking, you do a questionnaire and based on your answers, they actually match you with a local guide who’s an expert in what you’ve selected.
It’s super cool, and should you want to make any changes while actually on the tour, you can do that thanks to its flexibility! We got to see all kinds of cool street food spots, like the famed Chinatown Food Complex, as well as partake in around 8 different street food tastings.
This felt like a very relaxed setting which can be difficult to achieve in busy areas (especially in new cities). If you want to really experience more of local life in Singapore, this tour cannot be missed.
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
7. Cultural & Food Experience of Chinese, Indian & Malay Quarters
- Duration: 5.5 hours
- Departure: Hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Departure Time: 9:00 AM
- Includes: Soft drinks, dinner, snacks, alcoholic beverages, lunch
Last but certainly not least, is the Cultural & Food Experience of Chinese, Indian & Malay Quarters tour, which is one of the most comprehensive out there. It’s a longer adventure but incredibly well-organized, with expert local guides there to lead the way and answer any questions you may have.
If it’s your first time in Singapore, this is a fantastic introduction to the local culture, history, and of course, plenty of delicious eats! We did get some say in when the tour started, ensuring that it worked well for our group and the rest of the day’s plans.
Our tour began with a convenient hotel pickup so we didn’t have to worry about figuring out local transport or walk to get to a meet-up point. Our guide was very hospitable, making sure to answer any of our questions and pacing the tour nicely to ensure we never felt rushed nor that we were lagging.
Our guide did a great job of bringing history to life, sharing stories about the different immigrants who arrived in Singapore, from the British colonial times, to the Chinese, Indians, and Malay.
We started exploring Chinatown, where we learned about its origins, early Chinese struggles, as well as stories of triumph. It was quite sobering, and we also tried plenty of local popular Chinese street food dishes.
After that was Little India, where I picked up some beautiful gifts at a traditional clothing store and incense shop before we tried some North Indian and Pakistani food while learning about how the original Little India was right on the waterfront!
We couldn’t forget Kampong Glam (the Malay Quarter), which is lined with charming little streets from hundreds of years back, learning about the former Malay royals and street markets. Don’t miss out on the desserts here!
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
Foods Tasted
Tour Guides
Value
The Singapore Private Food and Culture Tour is our Editors Choice for the best Singapore food tour