Blog 4

SINGAPORE – Few people would describe Singapore these days as a city that never sleeps. Perhaps, having just turned 61 and lumbering past middle age, it has outgrown the all-night benders of youth.

Its infrastructure has followed suit. SMRT's Night Rider bus clocked in its last shift in 2022, and liquor licensing hours were shortened in 2013 to curb disorder, though they have been tentatively extended to 4am again in nightlife hot spots Boat Quay and Clarke Quay as part of a year-long trial.

The crowds, too, have ebbed, which in turn has forced several restaurants to turn in earlier.

Long-time supper stalwart Nana Original Thai Food, which once ran 24/7 outlets in Clementi and Kallang, now closes between 9.30pm and 4am, in part because footfall has dropped by around half.

But darkness has yet to fully descend on this city. A few eateries around the island still keep the lights on round the clock and, together, they offer up a respectable range of late-night nosh. Pancakes at 3am, anyone?

This reporter drops in for a midnight bite, and to find out why these restaurants bother to stay open in those quiet hours before dawn.