The MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2026 landed on 4 August, and Indian food came out of it well: Thevar holds Two Stars, while Muthu's Curry, Bismillah Biryani and Lagnaa all carry the Bib Gourmand. We've paired those with the banana-leaf institutions that made Singapore's Indian food scene what it is: The Banana Leaf Apolo (fish head curry since 1974), Samy's Curry at Dempsey, and Chettinad specialist Anjappar. Verified addresses, hours, rest days and real prices, from a $7 masala dosa to a $298++ tasting menu, plus the halal facts most guides get wrong.
The MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2026 landed on 4 August 2026. Thevar holds Two Stars, and Muthu's Curry, Bismillah Biryani and Lagnaa all carry the Bib Gourmand.
> Quick view: top pick Thevar, Two MICHELIN Stars, $298++ tasting menu ($228++ at lunch). The rest starts at a $7 masala dosa, with fish head curry at $25-$35 a shared head. Catch: Samy's shuts Tuesdays, Lagnaa Mondays.
The MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2026, released on 4 August, confirmed Thevar at Two Stars, putting Chef Mano Thevar's restaurant in the same bracket as Cloudstreet, Meta and Saint Pierre, and making it comfortably the most decorated Indian kitchen in the country. The cooking is Indian at its root but built with European technique and a strong pull from the Malay Peninsula. The Chettinad chicken roti, a fluffy flatbread stuffed with slow-cooked, heavily spiced chicken, is the dish everyone tells you to order, and they're right. Two menus: the THEVAR EXPERIENCE MENU at $298++ per guest, and a shorter THEVAR EXECUTIVE MENU at $228++, available at lunch only. Lunch runs Friday and Saturday, dinner Monday to Saturday, and the restaurant asks you to allow 2.5 hours. 16 Mohamed Sultan Road, Singapore 238965; note it moved here, so check your booking address. Reservations on +65 9750 8275 or reservations@thevar.sg. One perk worth knowing if you drink: Thevar runs a 1-for-1 bottle policy, so buy a bottle of wine or champagne from their list and you may bring one of your own. BEST FOR: a milestone dinner, or anyone who wants to see how far modern Indian cooking has come.
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Open since 1969, recognised by the National Heritage Board as an SG Heritage Business, and a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide, Muthu's is where you go when you want fish head curry with an edge. The gravy is noticeably spicier than the Singapore norm and cut through with tamarind, and the fish head is $32++ with a choice of protein (sea bream, sea bass or red snapper), which is a courtesy most rivals don't extend. Around it, the menu holds up on its own: Masala Chicken $16++, Masala Prawns $17++, and Muthu's Chicken Chukka $17++, boneless chicken stir-fried with onions in a fierce house chilli paste. Order it by that name, because the Prawn Chukka Varuval on the same menu is a different and pricier dish. The naans get quietly high praise, particularly the cheese one. The flagship is 138 Race Course Road #01-01, Singapore 218591, open daily 10.30am to 10.30pm, and this is the outlet the Bib Gourmand is attached to. Its own website (muthuscurry.com) lists only this Race Course Road address, so treat any other Muthu's listing you come across with caution. The same site answers two questions diners often ask: it is not halal-certified, though it says its poultry and meat come from a halal supplier and it does serve alcohol, and bringing your own bottle costs $30 per bottle in corkage. Its Oddle delivery store is still live too, listing the fish head at $41.42 delivered. BEST FOR: the sharpest, spiciest fish head curry of the three big names.
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If Muthu's is the Bib Gourmand version, Apolo is the historical one. Founded in 1974 as a humble thosai stall on Cuff Road and on Race Course Road only since 1983, it is now past 50 years old and is the restaurant most often credited with establishing fish head curry as a Singapore dish rather than an import: a South Indian gravy built around a fish head that Chinese and Malay diners took to as readily as Indian ones. The signature arrives in an ornate silver tureen and is still the reason most people come, but the wider menu is genuinely strong, taking in flower crab, mutton briyani, the four-piece assorted naan platter, tandoori chicken, and a full vegetarian meal served the traditional way on banana leaf. 54 Race Course Road, Singapore 218564, open daily 10.30am to 10.30pm, and the long hours make it one of the easier Little India institutions to fit into a plan. +65 6293 8682. BEST FOR: the original, in the room where it happened, and the widest non-curry menu of the classics.
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Samy's is the one people get sentimental about, and the setting is most of the reason: a high-ceilinged colonial-era block at Dempsey with ceiling fans instead of aggressive air-conditioning, where the food comes on banana leaf and the rice keeps arriving. Founded by chef M. Veerasamy in the 1960s (a Tank Road stall first, then Pearl's Hill, and at Dempsey only since the 1970s), it is still family-run and now serving a third generation of regulars. It built its name on an award-winning fish head curry, running roughly $25 to $35+ depending on whether you order small, medium or large, alongside masala chicken, Mysore mutton and fish cutlets. Two sittings a day and one firm rule to plan around: it's closed every Tuesday. Blk 25 Dempsey Road, Singapore 249670; lunch 11am to 3pm, dinner 6pm to 10pm. +65 6472 2080. Worth knowing that Dempsey has almost no MRT access, so factor in a bus or a ride. BEST FOR: a long, unhurried weekend lunch where the room matters as much as the curry.
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Bismillah has one of the most consistent records in the whole MICHELIN Guide Singapore: by its own count a 10-time Bib Gourmand winner from 2016 to 2026, and one of only 17 establishments to have held the award in every single Singapore edition. The draw is dum biryani in the Hyderabadi style, where rice and marinated meat are sealed and slow-cooked together so the grains take on the spice rather than sitting beside it, with a chicken nihari that regulars rate just as highly. It describes itself as 100% Muslim owned and operated. Five outlets now: the original and Bib-listed 50 Dunlop Street, Singapore 209379 (daily 11.30am to 8.30pm); 76 Shenton Way #01-03 (Mon to Fri and Sun, 10.30am to 7.30pm, last orders 7pm); Jurassic Nest Food Hall at Gardens by the Bay (daily 11.30am to 8.45pm); NTU North Spine Plaza and NUS's Stephen Riady Centre (both weekdays till 7.30pm, Sat till 5pm, closed Sun). BEST FOR: the best biryani in Little India, and the most reliably decorated stall on this list.
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Lagnaa is the other Indian restaurant that has held the Bib Gourmand in every Singapore edition since 2016, and it's the most playful place on this list. Two things define it. First, you set your own heat on a scale of 1 to 10, and the leaderboard on Lagnaa's own site tells you exactly what that scale means: 160 people have cleared Level 7, nine have managed Level 8, two have managed Level 9, and nobody has ever finished Level 10. A $25 flight of Curry Shots lets you taste Levels 1 to 6 before you commit, which makes it unusually good for a mixed table where someone can't take chilli and someone else is out to prove something. Second, the upstairs room is a barefoot floor: shoes off, no chairs, cushions on the ground, which children tend to love. The kitchen covers both South and North Indian, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options clearly flagged, so it is the easiest full-service pick on this list for a mixed vegetarian and meat-eating table. Prices run from single meals at $16 (aubergine kathri pachadi with basmati rice) and $21 (chicken koli curry leaf) up to the MICHELIN sets, which start at $54 for two and $100 for four. 6 Upper Dickson Road, Singapore 207466, open 11.30am to 10.30pm, closed Mondays, with 10% service charge on top. Groups of nine or more should WhatsApp +65 9784 4771 rather than book online. Reservation deposits are applied as a discount off your final bill. BEST FOR: groups with wildly different spice tolerances, and anyone who wants dinner to be a bit of an event.
Reservation deposits are applied as a discount off your final bill
Anjappar is the value pick, and the one to know if you specifically want Chettinad, the fiercely peppery, dark-roasted-spice cooking of Tamil Nadu's Chettinad region, which is a genuinely different register from the coconut-and-tamarind South Indian food most Singaporeans default to. Part of a chain with around 50 outlets worldwide, the Singapore kitchen leans non-vegetarian: chicken 65 at $14.50, golden fried prawns at $21, mutton sukka varuval at $16, and dum biryanis from $11 for egg up to $18 for turkey (a $9.90 plain biriyani, just the spiced rice from the mutton pot, is the cheapest line). Tandoori skewers run $14.50 to $32, North Indian curries $17 to $18 and vegetarian mains $11 to $16, while the South Indian crepe section starts at $5 for an uthappam and $7 for a masala dosa. The cheapest full meal is the $12 Anjappar Regular Meal (three vegetables, white rice, chicken, mutton and fish gravies, rasam, curd and pappad), which is one of the cheaper proper sit-down meals in Little India. There is also a $33 medium fish head curry here if you want the dish without joining the queue at one of the three big houses. There's a full vegetarian section too. It is not a halal option, though: its drinks menu lists Tiger, Heineken, Erdinger and Kingfisher beer, and the MUIS halal register holds no certificate for any of its addresses. 76-78 Race Course Road, Singapore 218575, open daily 11am to 11pm, and the late close makes it a reliable dinner option when the older institutions have shut. +65 6296 5545. BEST FOR: Chettinad heat, big portions and a bill that stays reasonable.
Get Deal| Restaurant | MICHELIN 2026 | Signature | Price guide | Area / rest day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thevar | Two Stars | Chettinad chicken roti | $298++ tasting; $228++ lunch | Mohamed Sultan Rd · closed Sun |
| Muthu's Curry | Bib Gourmand | Fish head curry | $32++ fish head; mains $16–17++ | Race Course Rd · open daily |
| The Banana Leaf Apolo | Not listed | Fish head curry (since 1974) | à la carte | Race Course Rd · open daily |
| Samy's Curry | Not listed | Banana-leaf fish head curry | ~$25–$35+ by size | Dempsey · closed Tue |
| Bismillah Biryani | Bib Gourmand | Dum biryani | à la carte | Dunlop St + 4 more · daily |
| Lagnaa | Bib Gourmand | Chilli levels 1–10 | single meals from $16 | Upper Dickson Rd · closed Mon |
| Anjappar | Not listed | Chettinad biryani | biryani $11–18; dosa from $7 | Race Course Rd · open daily |
Komala Vilas at 76-78 Serangoon Road, the pure vegetarian restaurant founded in 1947 and a fixture of every Little India guide including earlier versions of this one, has been shut since 19 January 2026. The notice on its shutters read "temporarily closed for renovation" and gave no reopening date. By late March 2026 no renovation work had been observed at the unit, its sister shop Komala Vilas Sweets & Savouries on Upper Dickson Road was listed as permanently closed, and the outlet at 291 Serangoon Road had been taken over by another Indian vegetarian restaurant, Vasanta Bhavan. As of September 2026 there has been no reopening announcement, so we have removed it from the numbered picks rather than send anyone to a closed shutter. Fennel by Komala Vilas at 413 River Valley Road, run by the same family, still appears to be trading.
Two corrections that travel with it. The "oldest" title people attach to Komala Vilas actually belongs to Ananda Bhavan, established in 1924, which entered the Singapore Book of Records in 2024 as the oldest Indian vegetarian restaurant in the country. And for a vegetarian meal you can act on today, Lagnaa flags vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes clearly (single meals from $16), Anjappar keeps a full vegetarian section (uthappam from $5, masala dosa $7, mains $11 to $16), and The Banana Leaf Apolo serves a full vegetarian meal on banana leaf.
Thevar is the only Indian restaurant in Singapore with a MICHELIN star (Two Stars). The Indian and South Asian Bib Gourmand names are Muthu's Curry, Bismillah Biryani, Lagnaa, Delhi Lahori and Rajarani Thosai, the last of them new this year.
Rajarani Thosai is a mother-and-son stall making thosai and appam from scratch with close to twenty fillings, including a crisp cereal version and a cheese, egg and butter combination. It's at Tampines Round Market & Food Centre #01-33, 137 Tampines Street 11, and it opens 7am to 1.30pm, closed Wednesdays. It's a morning stall in the east rather than a Little India restaurant, so it sits outside the picks above, but if you're anywhere near Tampines before lunch, it's the freshest thing on the 2026 list.
Most of Singapore's best Indian food is concentrated in one place, but not all of it, and if you're not heading to Little India, these are the alternatives that are actually worth the trip.
Open latest: Anjappar, but not the Race Course Road branch. Its Changi Airport Terminal 1 counter is open 24 hours, and Syed Alwi Road serves till 11.59pm; Race Course Road itself closes at 11pm. Open earliest among the picks: Muthu's, Apolo and Bismillah's Shenton Way counter, all from 10.30am.
Thevar. Chef Mano Thevar's modern Indian restaurant at 16 Mohamed Sultan Road holds Two MICHELIN Stars and is the only Indian restaurant in Singapore with a star of any grade. The MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2026 was released on 4 August 2026 across a selection of 307 establishments, and Thevar is one of just nine restaurants at the Two-Star level, sitting alongside Cloudstreet, Jaan by Kirk Westaway, Meta, Saint Pierre, Shoukouwa, Sushi Sakuta, Seroja (promoted to Two Stars this year) and the two-star debutant 1887 by André. Above them, Les Amis, Odette and Zén all retained Three Stars. On the Bib Gourmand side, 97 establishments in total for 2026, the Indian and South Asian names include Muthu's Curry, Bismillah Biryani, Lagnaa and Delhi Lahori, plus a brand-new entry, Rajarani Thosai at Tampines Round Market & Food Centre. Lagnaa and Bismillah Biryani are notable for a different reason: both are among the 17 places that have retained the Bib Gourmand in every Singapore edition since the guide launched in 2016.
It depends which school you belong to, because the dish has three distinct homes. The Banana Leaf Apolo (54 Race Course Road; founded 1974 on Cuff Road, on this street since 1983) is the pioneer, and the restaurant most credited with turning fish head curry into a Singapore dish rather than an imported one. Muthu's Curry (138 Race Course Road, opened 1969) is the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand version and the spicier, more tamarind-forward rendition; it is $32++ and you pick your fish from sea bream, sea bass or red snapper. Samy's Curry at Dempsey is the third pillar, serving on banana leaf in a breezy colonial-era block since the 1970s (the business itself dates to the 1960s), with the fish head running roughly $25 to $35+ depending on size. If you only have one meal, Muthu's is the safest introduction; if you want the historical one, go to Apolo; if you want the setting, go to Samy's, but note Samy's is closed on Tuesdays. Anjappar on Race Course Road also serves a medium fish head curry at $33 if the queue at the big three puts you off.
None of the seven picks holds a MUIS halal certificate, and that includes the two most often described as halal. Bismillah Biryani describes itself as 100% Muslim owned and operated and runs five outlets: the original at 50 Dunlop Street (daily 11.30am to 8.30pm), 76 Shenton Way #01-03, the Jurassic Nest Food Hall at Gardens by the Bay, NTU's North Spine Plaza and the Stephen Riady Centre at NUS. Its Bib Gourmand is attached to Dunlop Street. Muslim-owned is not the same as certified, though, and a search of the MUIS halal register on 17 September 2026 returned no certificate under its name. Anjappar, which some guides (including an earlier version of this one) call halal-certified, is not: the register holds nothing for any of its addresses, and its drinks menu sells Tiger, Heineken and Kingfisher beer. Muthu's Curry is upfront about it in its own FAQ: not halal-certified, poultry and meat bought from a halal supplier, and alcohol served. If certification is the requirement, the register does list Indian restaurants a short walk away, including Sakunthala's Food Palace at 66 Race Course Road (certificate EERT20220000675), Sakunthala's Restaurant at 149/151 Dunlop Street (EERT20220000676) and Nandhana's at 104 Syed Alwi Road (EERT20240000392). Certificates expire and get renewed, so look for the one displayed in-store.
The honest starting point is a correction. Komala Vilas at 76-78 Serangoon Road, the pure vegetarian restaurant founded in 1947 and the answer most guides still give, has been shut since 19 January 2026 under a notice reading "temporarily closed for renovation", with no reopening date given. By late March 2026 no renovation work had been observed, its sister shop Komala Vilas Sweets & Savouries on Upper Dickson Road was listed as permanently closed, and as of September 2026 there has been no reopening announcement, so do not plan a meal around it. (Fennel by Komala Vilas at 413 River Valley Road, run by the same family, still appears to be trading.) Note too that the "oldest" title belongs to Ananda Bhavan, established in 1924, which entered the Singapore Book of Records in 2024 as the oldest Indian vegetarian restaurant in the country. Among the picks on this list, Lagnaa is the strongest vegetarian option, flagging vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes clearly and starting single meals at $16 with the aubergine kathri pachadi. Anjappar, though best known for Chettinad meat dishes, keeps a full vegetarian section with masala dosa from $7, uthappam from $5 and vegetarian mains $11 to $16. The Banana Leaf Apolo serves a full vegetarian meal the traditional way on banana leaf. And the 2026 Bib Gourmand newcomer Rajarani Thosai in Tampines makes thosai and appam from scratch with close to twenty fillings, 7am to 1.30pm, closed Wednesdays.
The range on this list is unusually wide. At the everyday end, Anjappar's masala dosa is $7, its Regular Meal set is $12 and its dum biryanis run $11 to $18, while Lagnaa's single meals start at $16, so a full meal in Little India for under $25 is entirely normal. In the middle sit the fish head curry houses: Muthu's fish head is $32++ and its mains $16 to $17++, and Samy's fish head runs roughly $25 to $35+ by size, but these are shared dishes, so a table of four splits the cost. At the top, Thevar is a tasting-menu restaurant at $298++ for the Experience Menu, or $228++ for the Executive Menu at lunch. A banana leaf set, meanwhile, is the South Indian format you'll meet at Apolo and Samy's: rice served directly on a fresh banana leaf with a rotating spread of vegetable sides, rasam, curry and pickle, usually with free-flow refills of the rice and sides. Eating with your right hand is traditional; cutlery is always available. When you're done, fold the leaf towards yourself. Folding it away is, by custom, the gesture used at funerals.
Singapore's Indian food has its own accent, and the dish to understand first is fish head curry. It is a Singapore creation rather than something imported from India, a South Indian-style gravy built around a fish head, which is why the three big houses here (Muthu's Curry, The Banana Leaf Apolo and Samy's Curry) are all built on it. After that, the order of priority goes: biryani, best represented by Bismillah's Hyderabadi-style dum biryani, where rice and marinated meat are sealed and slow-cooked together so the grains take on the spice; dosa and thosai, the crisp fermented rice-and-lentil crepes eaten at breakfast, $7 at Anjappar, and the reason Rajarani Thosai took a Bib Gourmand in 2026; and Chettinad, the fiercely peppery, dark-roasted-spice cooking of Tamil Nadu that Anjappar specialises in and that Thevar reinterprets at Two-Star level. If you only have one meal and want the format that explains the rest, order a banana leaf set at Apolo or Samy's. Almost all of this sits in Little India, within about ten minutes' walk of Race Course Road.
There is exactly one round-the-clock option among the names here, and it is not in Little India: Anjappar's counter at Changi Airport Terminal 1 (#03-20, 80 Airport Boulevard) is open 24 hours. After that the latest kitchens are Anjappar's Syed Alwi Road branch at 102 Syed Alwi Road, which serves until 11.59pm, then Anjappar Race Course Road and Anjappar at Westgate, both until 11pm. The Little India institutions close earlier than people expect: Muthu's Curry, The Banana Leaf Apolo and Lagnaa all stop at 10.30pm, Samy's Curry at Dempsey stops at 10pm and is shut on Tuesdays, and Bismillah Biryani's Dunlop Street original closes at 8.30pm, the earliest last orders on this list. Going the other way, the earliest openings among the picks are Muthu's and Apolo at 10.30am, matched by Bismillah's Shenton Way counter, which starts at 10.30am on weekdays and Sundays. Earlier than that you are into hawker hours: Rajarani Thosai in Tampines opens at 7am but shuts at 1.30pm, so it is a breakfast plan only. If you want a proper sit-down Indian meal after midnight in Singapore, the airport is the answer.
