The best kueh shops in Singapore

Nick Soon and Karen Kuah fills translucent kueh skin beyond the traditional turnip filling; they also make soon kueh with beetroot, bak kwa, and spicy shrimp. Each piece come painstakingly handmade – and is available for both dine-in and takeaway. 

Go crazy with the  selection of old-school Nyonya kueh and traditional treats at Tiong Bahru Gallicier. From ondeh-ondeh (glutinous rice balls with gula melaka filling) to lemper udang (a savoury sticky rice roll filled with spicy dried shrimp), you can also add on to the basket with classic pandan cake, assorted chiffon cakes, tarts, cookies and pastries.

People come to this small shop on Arab Street for its lemper – a sticky glutinous rice snack from Indonesia that is wrapped in banana leaf and filled with an assortment of meat fillings. Bestsellers include its signature spicy chicken lemper as well as the beef rendang lemper. If you're ordering online, you can check out the mixed platters which include an assortment of lemper and other sweet and savoury traditional snacks. 

For young hawker Elizabeth Chan, she presses ang ku kueh into shapes of teddy bears and koi fishes at Kueh Ho Jiak, using sweet potato to create adorable variants of the traditional treat. “We hope to pass down the heritage of kueh by appealing to the younger generation and making them more playful”, she shares. At the stall, you'll find colourful balls of ondeh ondeh ($3), rice kueh in a rare hue of orange ($3), and even ang ku kueh with unique fillings of cempedek ($2) and spicy shrimp ($2). Got a special celebration? Kueh Ho Jiak also does kueh dessert tables and other custom-shaped treats. 

Keeping it old-school, Ji Xiang Confectionary has been making tradional handmade ang ku kueh since 1988. What started out as a small-scale hawker selling two flavours, peanut and sweet bean paste, has since grown to a confectionary with two outlets in Singapore. Stick to the classics like peanut and salted bean filling for $1 per piece. For bolder flavours, go for the local favourites of durian and sweet yam. 

Though this bakery cafe may not be the first place you look when going on a kueh hunt, the super-sized kueh salat cake ($5/slice, $60/whole cake) is worth making the trip to Paragon for. Made with fresh coconut milk, butterfly pea extract and pandan juice, it's a definite standout in the bakery. Go on, buy the whole cake.

While you'll find a small but satisfactory range of kueh – both sweet and savoury – at this little shop in Jurong, what they do best is the most iconic Singapore kueh, ang ku kueh. Shaped like a tortoise shell with intricate markings, it's hard not to notice the colourful kueh on display. On top of the classic flavours like peanut, red bean and green bean, it gets creative as well with fillings like durian, coconut, sweet corn, coffee, green tea and more. Best part? Each piece costs $1 or less.

If you're craving for some local kueh, you can always depend on a Bengawan Solo store for supplies. With locations all over the island and a huge selection of reasonably priced kueh, it's no wonder why they have been in the kueh business for so long. Take your pick from kueh salat, lapis sagu, kueh dadar, kueh ambon, getuk ubi and more, it's kueh heaven. 

This Peranakan confectionery serves up multi-coloured kuehs such as the rainbow lapis and Pink Fairy, a pastel pink coconut cream atop an azuki bean layer. But hone into the kueh salat – it makes for a rich bite as the creamy kaya custard on top melds with the glutinous rice below. In true Nyonya style, the rice is coloured blue by the blue pea flower, which also lends it a faint fragrance.