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Chendol, tau huay, gelato, egg tarts and the bakeries worth a detour.
Singapore's sweet tooth runs from two-dollar beancurd to plated desserts with wine. Start with the old stalls (chendol, tau huay, nut pastes, putu piring), then hunt down local-flavour ice cream, Cantonese pastries and serious croissants. Most places are walk-in only.
Order: Mango sago with pomelo, steamed milk-egg pudding
Bugis · $ · MRT Bugis (EW12/DT14)
Mon–Thu 12:30–00:00; Fri 12:30–01:00; Sat 13:30–01:00; Sun & PH 13:30–00:00
Cantonese sweets on Liang Seah Street's dessert strip: mango sago with pomelo, durian sago, steamed milk-egg pudding and sweet soups.
Open to midnight most nights and 01:00 on Friday and Saturday, so it suits a post-party sugar fix. Late evenings are the busiest.
Order: Blue Milk ice cream
Tanjong Pagar · $ · MRT Maxwell (TE18)
Sun–Thu 12:00–22:00; Fri–Sat 12:00–23:00
Ice cream made from scratch daily, with dairy pasteurised in-house and no artificial colours. The blue one is pea flower and sea salt.
Get Blue Milk with a Sicilian pistachio scoop. It is a short walk from Maxwell Food Centre, so plan it as your hawker dessert.
Order: Ice cream with waffles
Upper Thomson · $ · MRT Upper Thomson (TE8)
Sun–Thu 11:00–23:00; Fri–Sat 11:00–01:00
A homegrown ice cream shop on a busy eating stretch of Upper Thomson Road, best known for grown-up flavours with a splash of booze.
Have dinner along Upper Thomson Road, then walk over; it stays open to 01:00 at weekends. The MRT station is a few steps away.
Order: Sea salt gula melaka ice cream
Tiong Bahru · $ · MRT Tiong Bahru (EW17)
Tue–Fri 15:00–22:00; Sat–Sun 12:00–22:00; closed Mon
Born in a Toa Payoh HDB block in 2011, now also among Tiong Bahru's art deco flats. Ice cream plus bakes from their own oven.
Order sea salt gula melaka for the local caramel note. On weekdays it opens at 15:00, and it is shut on Mondays.
Order: Plant-based ice cream
Marina Centre · $ · MRT Promenade (CC4/DT15)
Daily 11:00–22:00
Pure veg (source)Vegan (source)
Ice cream and cakes made without any animal products, so the vegans and lactose-avoiders in your group get the whole menu.
A kiosk on Suntec's first floor, handy between sessions at the convention centre. There is a second shop at Forum on Orchard Road.
Order: Croissants, then gelato after 14:00
Pasir Panjang · $$ · MRT Haw Par Villa (CC25)
Wed–Sun 10:00–22:00 (Fri–Sat to 23:00); closed Mon–Tue
A cult patisserie in two shifts: sourdough croissants and cakes until early afternoon, then house-made gelato, parfaits and waffles.
Pastries often sell out, so arrive near 10:00. Walk-ins only; shut Monday and Tuesday. About five minutes from Haw Par Villa MRT.
Order: Kouign-amann, butter croissant
Farrer Road · $ · MRT Farrer Road (CC20)
Sun–Tue 07:30–16:00; Wed–Sat 07:30–17:00
Since 2016, a heartland bakery in the Empress Road estate turning out French-style pastries, cruffins and burnt cheesecake.
Come early for the kouign-amann. Short on time? Its café inside National Gallery Singapore opens daily 09:00–19:00.
Order: Hojicha soft serve, matcha cake
Bras Basah · $$ · MRT City Hall (EW13/NS25)
Sun–Fri 11:00–20:30; Sat 12:00–21:30
A Singapore tea house built around Japanese matcha and hojicha: whisked drinks, soft serve and cakes. This is its flagship.
Pick hojicha if matcha tastes too grassy for you. It closes early, at 20:30 on most days, so make it an afternoon stop.
Order: Russian honey cake, croissants
Kampong Glam · $$ · MRT Bugis (EW12/DT14)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A bakery on the pedestrian street that leads to Sultan Mosque: croissants, sourdough, Russian honey cake and burnt cheesecake.
Whole cakes need three days' notice, so order early if you are celebrating. Haji Lane is two streets away for the walk after.
Order: Single-origin chocolate gelato
Buona Vista · $$ · MRT Buona Vista (EW21/CC22)
Daily 10:00–21:00
A bean-to-bar chocolate maker with a café beside the roasters. Eat single-origin gelato and taste bars made a few metres away.
Order the gelato tasting, then buy an ondeh ondeh bar for later. Last orders 20:40; walk-ins only.
Order: Matcha affogato
Tiong Bahru · $ · MRT Havelock (TE16)
Daily 09:30–21:30
Singapore's own matcha label, serving Japanese tea as drinks, soft serve and affogato from its flagship in the Tiong Bahru estate.
Order the matcha affogato, poured over soft serve, then walk it off around the estate's 1930s art deco flats.
Order: Wife cake, walnut lotus puff
Chinatown · $ · MRT Chinatown (NE4/DT19)
Daily 09:30–20:00
A mooncake bakery that has worked from Sago Street since 1935, still using its old wooden moulds and lotus paste made from lotus seed.
Mooncakes are seasonal, but wife cakes, lotus puffs and tau sar piah sell all year, in old-school brown paper bags.
Order: Putu piring with gula melaka
Geylang · $ · MRT Paya Lebar (EW8/CC9)
Daily 11:30–21:30
Soft rice-flour cakes steamed to order around molten gula melaka and topped with lightly salted coconut. A family business since 1985.
Eat them hot, within minutes; they stiffen as they cool. Start with gula melaka, then try the durian or chocolate filling.
Order: Croissants
Civic District · $$ · MRT City Hall (EW13/NS25)
Daily 11:00–21:00, or until sold out
A local croissant bakery in the basement of Raffles City, right on top of City Hall MRT. A sweet stop on the walk to Suntec.
It opens at 11:00 and stops when the trays are empty, so go before the lunch crowd. Tiong Bahru Bakery is on the same floor.
Order: Roasted pistachio gelato
Boat Quay · $ · MRT Clarke Quay (NE5)
Sun–Thu 12:00–22:00; Fri–Sat 12:00–22:30
Gelato and sorbet in a shophouse near Boat Quay, with a rotating line-up that leans on nuts, tea and chocolate.
Roasted pistachio is the one to try. Take a cone after dinner at Boat Quay and walk it along the river.
Order: Original soya beancurd
Chinatown · $ · MRT Maxwell (TE18)
Hours unknown, check before you go
The creamy, panna-cotta-soft style of beancurd that set off island-wide queues in the late 2000s, served at Maxwell.
Have the original first, then a cup with a topping such as grass jelly or red bean. The ideal finish after chicken rice here.
Order: Entremets, mixed nut tart
Marina Centre · $$ · MRT Promenade (CC4/DT15)
Daily 09:00–20:00
Singaporean pastry chef Gwen Lim's patisserie, open since 2012: glossy entremets and nut tarts, with a bistro next door for savoury food.
Ten minutes' walk from the Suntec and Marina Bay Sands halls and open from 09:00. A slice and a coffee make a quiet meeting.
Order: Plated desserts
Holland Village · $$$ · MRT Holland Village (CC21)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Since 2007, chef Janice Wong's dessert bar has paired artful plated desserts with wine and cocktails in Holland Village.
Come after dinner, share two desserts and a glass of wine. Opening hours are not posted online, so check before a late visit.
Order: Nonya kueh, pandan chiffon
Civic District · $$ · MRT City Hall (EW13/NS25)
Daily 10:00–21:30
An easy first taste of kueh in the city centre: rainbow lapis sagu, buttery kueh lapis and a tall, springy pandan chiffon.
Fresh kueh is for eating today, so buy a small mix for the hotel. The pandan chiffon is the safe pick for coconut sceptics.
Order: Pandan chiffon, egg rolls
Marina Bay · $$ · MRT Bayfront (CC34/DT16)
Sun–Thu 10:30–22:00; Fri–Sat 10:30–23:00
A pastry chef's take on his family's 1965 confectionery: pandan chiffon, crisp egg rolls and cookies in local flavours.
The closest sweet fix to the conference halls, open till 22:00 or later. Grab a slice of pandan chiffon between sessions.
Order: Walnut paste or mango snow ice
Chinatown · $ · MRT Chinatown (NE4/DT19)
Tue–Sun 12:00–21:30; closed Mon
A Chinatown heritage brand for silky peanut, almond and sesame pastes, plus mounds of feathery snow ice in fruit flavours.
Share a mango snow ice and order a warm paste each. The Temple Street shop is shut on Mondays; the Chinatown Point branch opens daily.
Order: White chrysanthemum gelato in a thyme cone
Katong · $ · MRT Marine Parade (TE26)
Sun–Thu 12:00–22:00; Fri–Sat 12:00–22:30
Gelato built on flowers, herbs and spices, served in a waffle cone baked with thyme. A Michelin Guide pick since 2018.
Try white chrysanthemum or sea-salt hojicha. Katong a trek? There are shops at Craig Road near Duxton, Holland Village and Jewel.
Order: Chendol
Chinatown · $ · MRT Chinatown (NE4/DT19)
Hours unknown, check before you go
Pandan jelly, red beans and coconut milk under shaved ice, soaked in dark gula melaka. Singapore's classic answer to the afternoon heat.
Stir it right to the bottom before the first spoonful. It is upstairs in Chinatown Complex, so pair it with a hawker lunch.
Order: Tau huay (soy beancurd)
Rochor · $ · MRT Rochor (DT13)
Sun–Thu 10:30–23:30; Fri–Sat 10:30–00:30
Smooth soy beancurd in light syrup from a family business started in 1955. Served warm or cold, and open past midnight at weekends.
Dunk a you tiao in soy milk while the beancurd cools. A good last stop after Bugis or Little India.
Order: Diamond-shaped egg tarts
Chinatown · $ · MRT Maxwell (TE18)
Hours unknown, check before you go
A Cantonese pastry house about a century old, best known for wobbly egg tarts cut into diamonds and a coconut tart with its own fans.
Eat one warm at the counter and take a box for later. They are best the same day, so buy on your way back to the hotel.
Order: Gulab jamun and barfi
Little India · $ · MRT Little India (NE7/DT12)
Daily 09:30–21:00
A counter of North Indian mithai inside Little India Arcade: syrupy gulab jamun, barfi and jalebi, by the piece or by the box.
Buy one of each to taste, then a box for the office. Milk sweets want the fridge, so eat them within a day or two.
Order: Durian
Outram · $$ · MRT Outram Park (EW16/NE3/TE17)
Hours unknown, check before you go
An air-conditioned durian shop where staff crack the fruit, explain the varieties and sell durian desserts and pulp.
Early October is past the main season, so ask what is in. Durian is banned on the MRT and in most hotels; eat it here.
Unofficial · not affiliated with TOKEN2049. Hours and prices change; check before you go.