The best sustainable dining restaurants in Singapore

Contemporary Australian restaurant Salted & Hung's new menu shows that sustainable dining can be delicious too. Chef Drew Nocente conceptualised the new creations with the philosophy of minimal waste. You'll see in the dishes that every part of the animal is used – from the bone to the innards.

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Beef fat is as 'crumbs' for its Mac & 3 Cheese ($18), alternative cuts like lamb neck and belly are used for the lamb char siew ($48) and the chilli and quail ($22) features a deboned stuffed quail that comes with a house-made sausage stuffing and a gravy that is made from the quail bones and stock. 

lamb char siew, radish & scallions ($48), utilising alternative cuts like the lamb neck and belly, marinated in a mix of soy and spices, and cooked over the josper grill to a smoky char. 

ishes—from the meat to innards, skin to bone, and brings out the best flavours through various techniques like smoking, curing, pickling and grilling.

Take a trip to the Singapore countryside (that's Kranji for you) for a quick respite from the city. To complete the rustic experience, dine at Bollywood Veggies, an organic farm with its own eatery within the lush greenery. Poison Ivy Bistro offers delicious curries, meat dishes and homemade cakes. A must-try at Poison Ivy is the Nasi Lemak Platter ($18) which is enough to feed two people. The platter is chock-full with side dishes like fried chicken wings, omelette, ikan bilis and peanuts, sambal kangkong and more. 

Chinese restaurants are a dime a dozen in Singapore but we've yet to come across one like Yellow Pot. Not only do they tread a fine line between modernity and tradition, but they also take sustainable dining really seriously by working with local suppliers and are also trying to achieve a closed-loop and zero waste management system by practising composting and more. 

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Start with the hot and sour soup ($12) and roast duck ($32) with a twist – and no, by that we don't mean incorporating European techniques or ingredients. Yellow Pot prides itself in creating its sauces from scratch in house. The soup is prepared with a housemade hot bean paste made from fermented bean paste and chillis while the duck is marinated for two days with fermented bean curd, herbs and spices before it's roasted in a traditional Apollo oven till its skin is shatteringly crisp. Other must-tries include the braised sweet and sour eggplant ($14) and stir-fried mee sua ($18) that has plenty of wok hei goodness and fresh seafood.      

At The Summerhouse in the vast Seletar Aerospace Park, most of the vegetables and meat are sourced from a farming collective of Singaporean and Malaysian growers and producers. They also work with a local kelong (an offshore platform used for fishing) for the supply of seafood. The edible garden on the ground floor of The Summerhouse produces the herbs you get in the dishes.  

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Although they stick to the farm-to-table mantra at The Summerhouse, you'll be surprised to see that the menu is all about comfort food that is indulgent and rich in flavour. Start with the silky smooth smoked potato puree ($14) and the Australian avocado with ikura and sous vide egg ($14) before digging into the heartier dishes like the pickled and slow-cooked lamb shoulder ($34) and smoked butter poached red snapper fillet ($42). 

What is Singapore cuisine? That's a question chef-owner Han Li Guang – who quit his high-flying desk job in the banking industry to become a chef – has struggled to answer since he first launched Restaurant Labyrinth.

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Old iterations of the menu saw him reinterpreting classic local dishes, coming up with creations like chilli crab ice cream and chendol xiao long bao. But over the past year, Han Li Guang has been discovering more of what Singapore has to offer through its farm and local producers. The result is a new menu comprised mostly of locally-sourced ingredients. An exquisite clam tart is made using clams from Ah Hua Kelong, layered with housemade XO sambal and Chinese spinach in a tart of deep-fried wonton skin and the Labyrinth rojak comprises of 12 different herbs from Edible Garden City tossed in a natural stingless bee honey and served with a cempedak and jackfruit sorbet. Inspired by the flavours he grew up with – his grandmother's cooking, favourite hawker dishes and the abundance of underappreciated ingredients – he's created a homage to his Singapore we can all be proud of. 

You’d expect an establishment that’s selling buzzwords like ‘organic’, ‘low carbon footprint’ and ‘hand-picked herbs’ to be all judgmental, but Spa Esprit’s Open Farm Community (OFC), doesn’t at all try to make you feel like they’re perched over you on some moral high ground. Yes, the Edible Gardens crew has turned the surrounding grounds into plots for greens like lemon balm, rosemary and dill for the kitchen but the menu packs some culinary muscle.

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A rustic greenhouse building at the end of the plot serves as a dining room and open kitchen. Seeing farmers hunched over and fiddling with plants outside just adds to the Aussie vineyard-like experience. The menu and chirpy staff don’t bully you to eat your greens. With dishes like fried cauliflower wings ($16), crispy frog legs ($17), laksa pappardelle ($28), it's all about comfort eating.

A lifestyle restaurant located on the mezzanine level of Grand Hyatt Singapore, this semi-casual space showcases nine unique dining concepts (thus the name). On top of this, much of the seafood served is from sustainable sources that have been certified by agencies like the Marine Stewardship Council and Friends of The Sea The hotel is also moving towards towards using pasture-fed hormone-free beef for their food.

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When it comes to blowout brunches, Mezza9 is a good place to start. Where to start? Check out the nine dining concepts, namely the western grill and rotisserie, sushi and sashimi bar, yakitori grill, the steam basket, the European deli, Thai deli and crustacean bar, the patisserie, the martini and cigar bar and a gourmet boutique – in a contemporary environment for lunch, dinner and Sunday Brunch.

Like its CapitaGreen perch, Artemis Grill is all about good and conscious living. Fresh produce and seafood are sustainably sourced, meats are grass-fed and kept hormone-free and a good portion of the menu is kept gluten-free. 

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Dig in straight into the Mediterranean-accented signature plates (all sustainably sourced!) like the Iberico pork presa with Padron peppers ($40), milk-fed Dutch veal chop ($60) and Alaskan king crab salad ($28). 

Bay Hotel's all-day dining restaurant specialises in Indonesian cuisine that changes seasonally. Though it operates mainly as a buffet restaurant, you can also order off the a la carte menu. On top of that, the berbs and spices like kaffir lime, pandan leaves, galangal and chillies can be found in the hotel's own garden, so you’re getting organically-grown produce on your plate.

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The restaurant buffet comes with a live BBQ on certain days where you can get fresh grilled seafood and meats. Other than that some of the highlights of the restaurant include the chicken in kalio curry ($12.50), tahu telor ($7.90), sate lilit ($7.90) and their selection of Indonesian desserts.