Good suggestion.
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Spent a few hours yesterday on an organized Chinatown food tour. Did two hawker centers – the big on behind the Chinatown Visitor Center, and Maxwell Street. Basically the guide got stuff while we all waited at our table so I’m fuzzy which stall it all came from, but the best things were the chicken rice at Chinatown, and the carrot cake and the roasted duck/pork belly combo from Hock Soon at Maxwell, which had long lines by the way. The carrot cake is the white part of the stuff on the green plate in the photo, and the meat is next to the green plate in the other photo. Sorry the pix aren’t great – I’ll try to do better later.
Hope to get to Ocean for fish head later today.
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Love the food there, but the disposable styrofoam plates and plastic forks/spoons annoy the hell out of me (and many other Singaporeans, too). 
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Made it to Ocean Fish Head Curry last evening. Main location in Toa Payoh. Since I was eating it alone I ordered half a fish head; you can see it there in the photo. It was excellent fresh and sweet fish. The gravy was lively in flavor, a bit sweet of course, and spicy but not too spicy. I polished it off. My sweetie of course would have nothing to do with it so she made do with some nothing special but OK chicken and spinach from the buffet. Well worth the trip out there. I would, however, comment for others that this location is away from the CBD and is basically in an enormous high-rise housing estate. Few non-singaporeans show up there, so they were somewhat mystified to see us, obvious westerners. Not much in the way of other stalls either, at least Sunday evening. Now I’d like to try one in a more Indian place to see how the curry differs – maybe Banana Leaf Apollo??
We leave today so will have to save other possibilities for our next trip, which may be as early as next November.
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Great! Best fish head curry in Singapore, IMHO. It’s Singapore-Chinese-style curry - lighter, with coconut milk for added richness in the gravy.
Banana Leaf Apolo (sic) is a good representation of Singapore-Indian-style fish head curry. It’ll have a heavier scent from the use of fenugreek, cardamom and other Indian dried spices, some tamarind will be added for the sourish tinge, and it does not have any coconut milk in its rendition of the fish-head curry. This is, in a way, quite representative of Tamil-style cooking, which does not utilise coconut milk, unlike their fellow South Indians - the Keralans.
Personally, I prefer Samy’s in Dempsey Hill for my fish-head curry. It’s still family-run:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/samys-curry-dempsey-hill-father-daughter-family-business-10185796
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Hi Peter. Thanks again for the Ocean rec. The store was a bit away from the central area, but well worth the half hour bus ride. Our fellow diners seemed like genuine locals, added points for authenticity. Will definitely hit Ocean up again on future visits.
Here’s ours.
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Glad you enjoyed it. Ocean also has a branch in town near Amoy Street Food Centre which, in itself, is also a destination dining spot if you’re looking for Singapore hawker fare.
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On the way out yesterday we stopped at the small food court on the upper level in Terminal one. Had a combo of regular chicken (rice) and BBQ chicken, upsized slightly for two. Cost about SGD 11. Very tasty for airport food, but of course Changi is well-known for good food. All very Singaporean and well organized – you order from a nice bright screen and pay with your phone if that’s what you want to do.
Would have gone to the branch at Amoy Street Food Centre but we had to go on Sunday and it’s unfortunately closed on Sunday.
Now in Bali (Sanur Beach area) for a couple of days. We’ll see what we find.
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Thanks to everyone posting in this thread! Trip is still 2+ months away, but already getting very excited. Seems like we won’t be hungry 
thanks for this! we have five days in singapore in the beginning of feb. Our eating pattern is coffee for breakfast, skip lunch and a full dinner but we break the pattern in great food cities (hong kong for instance). I’m guessing we’ll struggle to limit ourselves to three meals in singapore.
we have some time in bangkok too, now thinking we should have made some time for penang!
best,
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My trip is just a few weeks away and I’m extremely excited.
One question I have is this:
What are the best places (perhaps including places that have already been mentioned) to have dinner (i.e. a meal after 6 PM). It seems like a lot of the awesome places I’m reading about are primarily breakfast/lunch, and close early.
Thanks in advance!
PENANG
Are you looking for dining precincts? Two streets filled with street food stand out: Kimberley Street (Lebuh Kimberley) and Chulia Street (Lebuh Chulia).
Avoid Gurney Drive’s hawker centre at all costs! What used to be the go-to place for Penang hawker food as recently as the 1980s, it has now deteriorated to be a touristy, rip-off place. My cousin visiting from Melbourne went there with her family two weeks ago, and they were appalled by the atrocious standards of hawker food there.
Pulau Tikus Market has night food stalls on Jalan Pasar (Market Street).
If you are in the Weld Quay area, Jetty Food Centre has some really good food stalls - the wantan noodle stall there was Anthony Bourdain’s first stop on his visit to Penang a few years back. The Thai food stall and char koay teow are also very good.
If you want proper restaurants, Tek Sen is good for Penang-Chinese fare. It’s extremely popular so book ahead.
Kebaya at Seven Terraces is another popular spot, more for fine dining on Nyonya cuisine.
For a more casual Nyonya restaurant, try Jason’s Nyonya House on King Street.
SINGAPORE
__Makansutra Gluttons Bay__has some really good options albeit higher prices.
Lau Pa Sat on Teluk Ayer Street is the go-to place for satays. You can find other S’pore street foods there.
Chinatown Food Street is another go-to place for hawker fare in quite a comfortable setting.
Truth be told, when I’m back in Singapore, we normally go to specific eateries or stalls which are a bit out of the city, and not really worth your while to trek all the way there just for a specific dish.
But do let me know if you are looking for any particular dish, or just need to know about anything more specific.
I think I was just having the (probably crazily irrational) fear that no good places will be open for us to have dinner. Was more worried about Penang than Singapore.
We are likely to be very happy with very casual places for the most part, so good to know that there are lots of good food street areas.
I’m sending my personal mobile/WhatsApp number to you via PM. Please feel free to contact me at any time whilst you are in Penang, in case somewhere you wanted to be is closed - I can always recommend you the next best option nearest to where you are in the city. 
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