Michelin Arrives in Singapore and Gives Stars to Two Hawker Stalls

The first Michelin Guide Singapore was released on 21 July 2016. It awarded stars to 29 establishments, and two of them made news around the world: for the first time in the guide’s history, a star went to street-food stalls.

The two stalls

Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle, on Crawford Lane, serves bak chor mee, a bowl of noodles tossed with vinegar, chilli, minced pork, liver and dumplings, from about four Singapore dollars. Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, run by Chan Hon Meng in the Chinatown Complex food centre, sold its soy-braised chicken with rice from two dollars, which made it the least expensive Michelin-starred meal anywhere. Both had long queues before the guide. Afterwards the wait ran to hours.

The decision was debated. Some saw it as a gesture designed to win over a city that takes its hawker food seriously, others as overdue recognition that skill is not a matter of table linen. Either way, it changed how the guide was perceived in Asia and prepared the ground for its later editions in Bangkok and elsewhere.

The top of the list

Only one restaurant received three stars: Joël Robuchon Restaurant at Resorts World Sentosa. Six received two stars: Restaurant André, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Les Amis, Odette, Shoukouwa and Shisen Hanten. Odette, Julien Royer’s restaurant at the National Gallery, had been open for less than a year.

The one-star list showed the range of the city’s cooking. It included Candlenut, the first Peranakan restaurant to be starred, The Song of India, the Fujian restaurant Putien, the Cantonese kitchens of Lei Garden and Crystal Jade, and sushi counters such as Shinji by Kanesaka and Sushi Ichi. A further 34 addresses, many of them hawker stalls, received the Bib Gourmand for good cooking at moderate prices. In all the guide listed about 200 establishments in more than 35 styles of cuisine.

What came after

The first list did not last long in that form. Both Robuchon restaurants closed in 2018, and Restaurant André closed the same year when André Chiang returned his stars. The soya sauce chicken stall expanded into a chain and lost its star in 2021; Tai Hwa has kept its own. At the top, Odette and Les Amis rose to three stars in 2019, and Odette went on to lead Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Ten years later, the 2026 edition brought André Chiang back into the guide.