7 romantic restaurants in Singapore for the best date night
Planning a date night in Singapore can leave you with more than a few dilemmas. There are so many romantic restaurants in Singapore that deciding which one to go to is five times more complicated than deciding what to wear.
Do you go to Marina Bay Sands for pre-dinner drinks in the open-air rooftop bar before taking a table and dining with the lights of the Marina Bay skyline twinkling in the background? You could, but you could also go to any one of the other 100 or so romantic restaurants in Singapore, and believe it, there are some pretty amazing ones, so it's a difficult question to answer.
If you're budget conscious, there are a few places you may want to avoid, but don't worry. Have a browse through this list of the most romantic restaurants in Singapore, and not only will you find ones that will impress your guest on date night, but you'll also find some that you don't need to have the income of a millionaire to eat at.
One thing not to do on your date night, especially if you've been on a shopping spree on Orchard Road, is to turn up with bags. Stow them away somewhere safe, like in a Singapore luggage storage facility, and you'll be able to make a swanky entrance at whichever romantic restaurant you've chosen for your date night.
Halia Restaurant
Halia Restaurant in the Singapore Botanic Gardens is one of the most popular spots in the city for a romantic dinner, and it certainly deserves its romantic reputation. A more intimate dining experience is hard to find.
Book a table at Halia, where making a reservation is recommended, and you'll be having your date night on a bamboo-covered porch among the lush greenery of the ginger garden of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
You don't need to get dressed up to the nines to dine here as most folks take the opportunity to enjoy an after-dinner stroll through the gardens, and that's not something you can do in a tuxedo or stilettos. The food menu at Halia caters to just about every dietary need, and there's plenty of choice for meat lovers and vegetarians alike, so it's a real crowd-pleaser.
Our recommendation
The slow-cooked lamb rack sharing plate that's served with black pepper sauce and buttered vegetables, or for vegetarians, the puff pastry parcel stuffed with butternut squash, spinach, and feta.
Location
1 Cluny Road, Ginger Garden, Singapore Botanic Gardens
Price level
$$ to $$$
Ocean Restaurant
Have a date night at the Ocean, and you won't be dining under the stars but underwater. The tables of the Ocean Restaurant in Singapore are in an aquarium tunnel, so while you peruse the menu, there'll be sharks, mantas, and all manner of fish perusing you.
There's only one way to describe this romantic restaurant, and that's otherworldly. From the marine life to the wave-themed décor to the food menu, this restaurant is one of a kind with a focus on sustainable French cuisine. Think modern European restaurant with a fishy twist, and you'll be on the right track.
Here they offer a choice between two tasting menus. One with six courses and the other with eight with additional charges for wine pairing. Be prepared to feel a little guilty while eating as just about everything on the menu is seafood based apart from one beef dish and the dessert.
Our recommendation
Either one of the tasting menus, so long as you or your date don't have a seafood allergy.
Location
Equarius Hotel, 8 Sentosa Gateway
Price level
$$$$$
Dusk Restaurant and Bar
There's nothing quite like having a romantic meal while watching the sunset, and you can do just that while also having one of those date night intimate conversations at the Dusk Restaurant. It's one of the most romantic restaurants in Singapore. Located 100 meters up a hillside and overlooking the harbor area, the best way to get there is to ride the cable car up. That's an unusual and very romantic way to start a date.
This fine dining restaurant offers a limited menu of Nordic-Asian dishes of Michelin-star quality prepared by a Danish chef. For a more romantic date night, you might want to have drinks while watching the sun set, then choose your meal from their late-night menu. It's not huge, but they serve until one in the morning, so if the sundowners and intimate conversations went on for too long, you don't need to send your date home hungry. This is not a low-priced establishment, so make the most of every moment to make sure you get your money's worth or save it for one of those extra special occasions.
Our recommendation
The prawn capellini or the dusk to dawn seafood sharing platter.
Location
Mount Faber Station, 109 Mount Faber Road
Price level
$$$$$
Olivia Restaurant
One of the best romantic restaurants in Singapore is the Olivia because, as far as date night restaurants are concerned, it leaves nothing to be desired. The dining room has a super modern style, with no candles, that's a little eclectic and bordering on the gaudy, but that's not bad.
The Olivia doesn't focus on Thai fine dining, Japanese cuisine, or Italian food, nor is it a sushi bar. This restaurant is totally Spanish-oriented and a replica of what you'd find on the streets of Barcelona.
At the Olivia, they have a delicious assortment of traditional tapas such as pimientos padron, olives, and croquettes. The entrees are based on contemporary European cuisine and feature plates like steak tartare and black cod, as well as typical Spanish dishes like seafood fideua, plus some decadent desserts wicked enough to tempt the devil himself.
Our recommendation
Keep it Spanish, so start by sharing a portion of pimientos padron with your dinner date and follow that with shellfish fideua.
Location
55 Keong Saik Road
Price level
$$$
Restaurant Gaig
The Olivia isn't the only Spanish restaurant in Singapore. The Restaurant Gaig may be in Chinatown, but their food menu is one hundred percent Catalan. Its chic and ultra-modern white and dark wood interior is ideal for when you want somewhere nice but prefer to see who you're eating with rather than sit in a dimly lit dining room where you can't see your date on the other side of the table.
At Gaig, you can forget about getting bog-standard tapas or paella. Here it's all modern European cuisine that's definitely next level. You can expect to find things on the menu like salt-cured foie gras, cured anchovies on toast, and cockles in white wine, and they're just the starters.
The dining concepts used at Gaig are first-class traditional ones and used to cook dishes with an innovative flair like sourdough battered hake, beef fricando, which is a type of stew, and braised pork cheeks. To make it even posher and to impress your date, you can get truffle on everything for just a few Singapore dollars more.
Our recommendation
The braised pork cheeks served with potatoes and baby corn. It's an absolute classic and unbelievably delicious food.
Location
16 Stanley Street
Price level
$$$
Corner House
The Corner House is where old and new Singapore come together to create an intimate space for dining without the addition of fairy lights. It is one of the most romantic restaurants in Singapore and occupies an elegant two-story bungalow on the grounds of the botanic gardens. Its Georgian-style dark timber and white facade is as inviting as its deluxe interior, which is decked out in an updated Colonial way.
The Corner House has a formidable gastronomic history, has been awarded a Michelin star, and has been ranked in the top 50 best restaurants in Asia for several years. Go here, and it won't be an ordinary date, and that's for sure.
The executive chef, David Thien, who creates and oversees the menu here, offers a visionary approach to a fusion of French and Asian cuisine. It's a contemporary cuisine that doesn't come cheap, but then neither should the best dinner dates. If you really want to spoil someone, then this is where you should take them.
Take a table anywhere in the indoor seating, and as palm and banana tree fronds brush against the balcony balustrades, you can dine on the exquisite dishes of the chef's four, five, or six-course tasting menu created from fresh seasonal produce.
You will need to reserve in advance and pay a deposit to get a table, so it's bad luck if you get stood up. You don't get your deposit back if you cancel your reservation, so keep a last-minute backup number on your phone in case of emergencies. Who said an intimate dinner companion had to be the one you originally planned?
Our recommendation
The four-course tasting menu simply because it's the most economic of the lot, so if the worst happens and your date doesn't appear, you won't have to fork out too much
Location
1 Cluny Road
Price level
$$$$ to $$$$$
LAVO
There's no nationality more romantic than the Italians, and if you want to impress your date with a touch of extra special amore, then you need to book a table at LAVO. LAVO is the rooftop restaurant and bar at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. What's so special about this romantic restaurant? It would probably be easier to say what isn't so special because this place has it all.
At LAVO, you can chat while relaxing over some pre-dinner drinks lounging on the sky-high terrace in comfortable armchairs as you watch the sunset over the Singapore skyline. That's got to be a good start to a date, if ever there was one. It will only get better, though.
The views of Marina Bay waterfront and the Singapore sunset are only minor features of this incredibly romantic restaurant. LAVO is as plush inside as it is out, and they prefer it if you go dressed to the nines, not to match the décor but to help maintain the sophisticated image they've worked hard to attain. In other words, if you're going to have a date night here, get your good gear on.
As well as being a superb rooftop lounge, LAVO is, in essence, an Italian restaurant with a few additional American vibes. What you'll find on their menu are typical pizza and pasta dishes pimped up with a good dose of black truffle.
The good news is, even though this seems to be an exclusive dining place, the prices are well within the ordinarily affordable region, unless you decide to go for a seafood plateau grande or a bone-in rib eye, the prices of which will make your eyes water. Stick to ordering dishes like carbonara, seafood alfredo, or one of the brick oven-baked pizzas without black truffle, and you'll have a great date night without suffering any financial stress.
Our recommendation
If you really want to treat your date to a special dinner, go for the Wagyu beef carpaccio, followed by the king crab piccata with sauteed spinach and then a slice of LAVA's 20-layer chocolate cake to finish. This Italian restaurant uses all seasonal produce apart from in their chocolate cake, but once you dive into a chunk of that, you won't be worried too much.
Location
Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Tower 1
Price level
$$
Conclusion
There's no denying that most of the best romantic restaurants in Singapore cater to quite an elite and wealthy clientele. You don't have to go with the flow and pay through the nose for your date night though. There's nothing wrong with having a drink, or three, in one of Singapore's rooftop bars before enjoying some of the amazing street food in Singapore. That can turn out to be a lot more fun than eating traditional dishes in a formal dining room, and it'll be such a relaxed date night that you'll end up getting to know your date better.
