Best barbecue restaurants in Singapore

Red Eye Smokehouse is an homage to the messy, hog-loving joints that co-owner Jan Yeo fed on during a two-year stint in Kansas City. After many months of patient experimentation, Yeo smoulders mesquite and hickory pellets overnight in a US-imported smoker to perfume the dry rub on racks of St Louis-style pork ribs ($7/100g), beef short ribs ($11/100g), chunks of chopped pork ($12/100g) and joints of Sriracha wings ($8/six). You'll find us returning for those fat-mottled, 365-day grain-fed slabs of American Angus brisket ($15/100g), slathered in a lug of prickly chipotle, a side of sweet potato fries ($8), and a craft brew ($17/pint). Like most legit American barbecue joints, this one encourages you to get up and order your meats from the heated display case, which the team will weigh, cut and dish on a tray for you to dig into. 

After a shaky start that crowded out the smoked items on the menu with too many sides and impenetrable sandwich rolls, Meat Smith is finally taken seriously for what it came to do: cook meat well. Inside those hulking fog lockers in the open kitchen, the meat, uhh, smiths Andrew Baldus and Alysia Chan have added more cuts of chicken, pork and beef, crusted with powdered herbs and spices or house-stirred barbecue sauces. The 365-day grain-fed Angus brisket ($28/180g) is the tender must-try, and we're also partial to the rack of paprika-spiked pork spare ribs ($25) served with cucumber and carrot pickles. Because so much of barbecue fare is about dining in a raucous group, order a platter that comes with a spread of the different meats on offer ($95/two, $160/three to four, $270/four to six diners), or call two days ahead to reserve a suckling pig and three sides ($300) that can feed a tribe of eight.

This Robertson Quay restaurant is a collaborative effort between Smokehouse BBQ Bali's Elliott Decker and Club Street Social's Min Chan that sees the former’s expertise in Texas-style low-and-slow in full tilt. And when the meats, cooked overnight, sell out by 8.30pm on a Saturday night, you know you need to hoe down early to grab your own slabs of the good stuff. Order at the counter, where the punchy, well-seasoned, wood-smoked brisket ($16/100g), pulled pork ($10/100g), spare ribs ($9/100g), chicken ($8/100g) and surprisingly juicy turkey ($10/100g) are pulled out from a hot box then cut and priced by weight. A 600-gram platter ($76) is enough to feed three comfortably (though it’s recommended for two), and it includes a pick of two sides – options include tangy kale salad ($9-$18), potato salad ($7), mac ’n’ cheese ($9) and cornbread ($4). 

Looking at Dave Pynt’s kit in this Keong Saik joint, you're clued in on just how the chef/co-owner is super serious about stoking fire. Named for the lovely charred bits that blacken the edges of fired meats, this modern Australian restaurant earned a notch on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list just a year or so into operations, while its lunch and dinner reservations fill up weeks in advance. Still, if you're dedicated enough, you'll find your patience rewarded not only with a daily menu of appetisers, meat and fish that emerge in puffs of smoke from the huge custom-made wood-powered oven, but also with a show of sizzle and sear as the meats are raised or lowered using the elaborate winches over hot, hot heat. 

Angled as a fun take on the traditional steakhouse, Sugarhall dishes out some of the most reasonably priced charcoal-kindled steaks in the city. Irish John Stone tenderloins ($58) and rib-eyes ($48) do add up on the bill, but at 240 grams a serving, they’ll fill the tummy. Otherwise, ordering the wildly flavourful Australian hanger ($30/240g) isn't such a terrible compromise, either. To complement the rum-themed bar, head chef Polo Seah and his team man a charcoal grill, whose smokey influences also show up in plates such as the tiger prawns ($18), beef tongue-studded Brussels sprouts ($14) and grilled cauliflower with burnt butter ($12) to match Sugarhall’s 100-and-growing collection of rare and big-name rums. 

This daily barbecue by the Grand Hyatt Singapore's pool fires all-you-can-eat meat and seafood, including grass-fed flat iron steak, prawns and Cajun-spiced fish over charcoal. The buffet prices (Mon-Thu & Sun $88/adult, $48/child; Fri & Sat $98/adult, $59/child) includes free flow beers, wines, margaritas and sodas, and the spread on Friday and Saturday grows to include fresh oysters and veggies cooked on a Mongolian grill. 

Italian-themed LaBrezza at The St Regis Singapore capitalises on its waterfront location to put out a Mediterranean-style seafood barbecue every Friday evening. Find space for cold cuts, Italian cheeses, burrata and mozzarella amid a bounty of lobster, beef striploin, lamb rack and pork ribs grilled up as part of the buffet spread ($88/adult, $59/child). Top-up options for prosecco ($123/adult), Franciacorta sparkling ($143/adult), and red and white wines, beers and sodas are also available.