Singapore After Midnight, Beyond the Bars

A few places in Singapore stay open all night without a bar in sight. If you're out late and hungry, we'd go to Joji's Diner on Upper Serangoon Road. It's open 24 hours, takes no reservations and seats you on arrival, and the menu runs to chicken and waffles and milkshakes at any hour. The cost is the ride out to Serangoon, and the crowd is a gamble, since at that hour the booths can be packed with partygoers or dead quiet. For something to do rather than eat, the board-game rooms, the airport windows and the spa below stay up too.

Stargazing and stand-up first

If you'd like the night to start earlier, the Science Centre opens its observatory on Fridays from 7.30pm to 10pm, with a live digital planetarium show in the Omni-Theatre and then a stargazing session. It's ticketed, and children under 12 need an adult with a ticket.

In town, The Lemon Stand, a stand-up club on Queen Street, runs shows from Tuesday to Saturday, with doors at 7pm, shows from 8pm and the room closing at midnight, so it works as an opener.

Games until closing

King and the Pawn, a board game cafe and bar at 17 Purvis Street, has more than 350 games, and staff will recommend one and teach it. It stays open until 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays, with a board game cover from S$10 a person.

For a room that never closes, ME Games on Tanjong Pagar Road has private rooms for board games, mahjong and consoles, staffed from noon to 11pm and self-service from 11pm until noon the next day. It's from S$6 an hour per person, and popular games need reserving ahead.

Serangoon's all-night tables

Serangoon has two kitchens that keep going through the night. Joji's is modelled on the classic American diner, with red vinyl booths, and it serves waffles with fried chicken and hot honey and milkshakes round the clock. In Serangoon Gardens, RK Eating House at 1 Kensington Park Road is a prata and curry shop, prata being the crisp pancake you tear up and dip. It's usually open round the clock and busy late on Friday nights, though hours at a shop like this can change, so check before a special trip.

Satay, shopping and a spa

Lau Pa Sat, the hawker centre at 18 Raffles Quay, runs Satay Street on Boon Tat Street until 3am, from 7pm on weekdays and 3pm at weekends, with nine satay carts. Over in Little India, Mustafa Centre at 145 Syed Alwi Road says it's open 24 hours, every day, and we'd budget an hour for its aisles.

For somewhere to rest rather than eat, G.Spa on Guillemard Road is a spa that never closes. One S$88 pass covers hot and cold pools, a sauna, a steam room and dining for up to 24 hours, with no booking needed, and the snack bar never shuts. Mountbatten MRT Exit A is a seven-minute walk.

Planes and the bay

The viewing galleries at Changi Airport stay open 24 hours in Terminals 1, 3 and 4, on level 3, level 4 and level 2M respectively. You can sit and watch the aircraft and the airport's ground operations on the tarmac. Near the city, Bay East Garden at Gardens by the Bay is open 24 hours, while the rest of the outdoor gardens close at 2am.

Getting home and more supper

Plan the ride home before you settle in. Trains run until almost midnight, and from midnight to 5.59am a taxi adds a 50% surcharge to the metered fare, so a late night usually ends in a taxi or private-hire car. The getting around questions have the last-train times.

Two other guides follow the late kitchens: Jalan Besar: Hardware and Late Dim Sum for supper on steamer baskets, and Geylang from Morning Market to Late Supper for zi char along Geylang Road.

If a drink is what you want after all, Ann Siang After Dark, from the Gallery Roof has the bars. Late hours shift, so check each venue's page before you set out.