Chinatown Desserts in Singapore: 8 Shops and Stalls

Rise Bakehouse bakes cakes in local flavours at 273 and 275 South Bridge Road, one of three branches. Whole cakes include a kaya pistachio cake from S$68 and orh nee yam and kopi tiramisu cakes from S$65, and teacakes start at S$8.20. Its website calls it a concept by Street Food Collective, a live company on ACRA registered at the same address, and SFA licenses the shop to a related company. Its Chinatown listing shows 4.6 from 1,282 Google reviews. It says it is not halal certified but uses no pork, lard or alcohol. The shop closes every Tuesday, and orders are non-refundable, with store credit at its discretion.

Old Amoy Chendol is a hawker stall at #02-008 in Chinatown Complex Food Centre that specialises in chendol, the shaved-ice dessert with coconut milk, gula melaka and green rice-flour jelly. It has no website, so we have no prices or policies from the stall itself; Daniel Food Diary's guide to Chinatown Complex gives its hours as 10:30am to 6pm daily. SFA lists it as a licensed hawker stall, and we could not match it to an ACRA record under its stall name. Its main Google listing shows 4.6 from 981 reviews, the largest number for a hawker stall in this guide.

115 Tang Shui is a hawker stall at #02-206 in Chinatown Complex Food Centre serving sweet soups. It has no website, so its prices and hours come from food guides rather than the stall itself: Eatbook's round-up of traditional Chinese desserts names its bobo chacha and sesame paste and gives its hours as 7:30am to 4:30pm, Thursday to Sunday only, so plan a weekday-morning or weekend visit. SFA lists it as a licensed hawker stall, and we could not match it to an ACRA record under its stall name. Its Google listing shows 4.7 from 95 reviews, the highest rating of the hawker stalls in this guide. Eatbook says it is not halal certified.

Mei Heong Yuen Dessert is a Singapore dessert chain run by Vons Food Pte Ltd, registered on ACRA in 2003, whose flagship sits at 63-67 Temple Street. SFA lists the shop as a licensed restaurant. Its menu covers snow ice in flavours such as mango, durian and soursop, mango with pomelo and sago, egg pudding, cheng tng, mango rolls and the four nut pastes: almond, walnut, sesame and peanut. Its website prints no prices. The Temple Street shop opens from noon to 9.30pm, Tuesday to Sunday, and a second Chinatown outlet at Chinatown Point opens daily until 10pm. Its Temple Street listing has the most Google reviews here, 4.1 from 2,942. We found no written policy, and its online-order link did not load.

Tong Heng has sold Cantonese pastries on South Bridge Road since 1935, according to its website, and is best known for its egg tarts. A box of six egg tarts costs S$14.40, six coconut tarts S$15.60, and six charcoal egg tarts with sea salt kaya S$19.20. The shop at 285 South Bridge Road opens from 9am to 7pm every day, and SFA lists it as a licensed takeaway, registered on ACRA as a business since 1975. Its Google listing shows 4.1 from 1,064 reviews. It also has a branch at Jurong Point. Its terms are strict: all sales are final, and a damaged delivery must be reported to the driver before they leave. It says it is not halal certified.

Jin Yu Man Tang serves Hong Kong-style desserts at 291 South Bridge Road, its second branch after the original at East Coast. It has no website, so we have no prices or written policies from the business itself. Eatbook's round-up of traditional Chinese desserts names its ginger milk pudding as the dish to order and gives its hours as 11:30am to 10:30pm from Sunday to Thursday and until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays, which makes it one of the later dessert stops in Chinatown. SFA lists the shop as a licensed restaurant run by Champion Management Pte Ltd, a live company on ACRA. Its Chinatown listing shows 4.3 from 767 Google reviews.

Er Gu Tang Shui is a hawker stall at #02-224 in Chinatown Complex Food Centre that has served sweet soups since 1955, according to its website. The menu covers sesame, peanut and almond pastes, ginkgo barley, red and green bean soups and herbal jelly, listed at S$2.10 a bowl, though the page looks several years old, so expect the price at the stall to differ. SFA lists the stall as a licensed hawker stall. We could not match it to an ACRA record under its stall name. Its Google listing shows 3.7 from 71 reviews, the lowest rating here. There is nothing to order online and no written policy.