There’s no better feeling than closing off the year with a bang. And when we say 'bang,' we mean sweeping yet another award on an international level.
On top of the several titles we earned in 2024 – from the many accolades bagged at the World Luxury Restaurant Awards, to having four Singapore bars make it onto the World’s 50 Best Bars list – the Singapore just ranked at number 22 with a score of 4.63 out of 5 in the World's 100 Best Food Cities for 2024/2025, according to TasteAtlas. The top three spots go to Italy’s Naples (5.00), Milan (4.96) and Bologna (4.94) – but you won’t hear us complaining, especially with the abundance of amazing new Italian pizza joints seen in recent times.
This ranking also makes Singapore Asia's fifth best destination for foodies, beating cities like Tokyo (4.60), Bandung (4.54) and Hanoi (4.50) – and it’s easy to see why. Our city is world-renowned for having some of the best hawker fare, with hawker culture even listed in UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list. The city also has one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants, with several more newly minted at this year’s Michelin Guide Singapore.
Narrowing down the best spots within the city could not have been an easy feat. The popular online guide had to evaluate over 17,000 cities based on nearly half a million valid food ratings in its database, and only the cities that stood out with the highest average ratings for its regional and national dishes made the cut.
This begs the question: which popular local dish secured us a spot at #22?
If you guessed Hainanese chicken rice, you aced it – TasteAtlas recommends Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice as the city’s most iconic spot for it. Second place goes to laksa from 328 Katong Laksa, followed by char kway teow from Hill Street Char Kway Teow.
Whew, what a way to end the year. Though we didn’t make it into the top 10 best food cities in the world this time, our relatively high spot on the global leaderboard is still worthy of celebration.
Top 10 best food cities in the world in 2025:
- Naples, Italy (5.00)
- Milan, Italy (4.96)
- Bologna, Italy (4.94)
- Florence, Italy (4.83)
- Mumbai, India (4.81)
- Rome, Italy (4.79)
- Paris, France (4.78)
- Vienna, Austria (4.77)
- Turin, Italy (4.76)
- Osaka, Japan (4.74)
Top 10 best food cities in Asia in 2025:
- Mumbai, India (4.81)
- Osaka, Japan (4.74)
- Jakarta, indonesia (4.69)
- Kyoto, Japan (4.69)
- Singapore (4.63)
- Tokyo, Japan (4.60)
- Bandung, Indonesia (4.54)
- Surabaya, Indonesia (4.53)
- Huế, Vietnam (4.53)
- Hanoi, Vietnam (4.50)
READ MORE
14 Singapore restaurants are among La Liste’s top 1000 restaurants in the world for 2025
The best restaurants for New Year’s Eve dinner in Singapore
This hawker centre is the most Instagrammed in Singapore, according to a recent survey