Singapore's Best-Loved Businesses Open for Public Vote This August

A City-State Worth Celebrating

There is a particular pleasure in watching a city you know well reveal itself to newcomers. The way a first-time visitor's eyes widen at a hawker centre's organized chaos, or the quiet satisfaction that settles over their face after an exceptional meal in a shophouse dining room. Singapore, for all its glass-and-steel modernity, remains a place where discovery feels intimate, where excellence often hides behind unmarked doors or in unlikely neighborhoods.

This month, that culture of excellence moves center stage. The Best in Singapore Awards 2026 opens for public voting through 31 August, asking residents to identify the businesses that make the city-state an endlessly rewarding place to live, eat, explore, and rest. The program, which evolved from an earlier local-focused initiative, now spans 58 categories, from dining and cocktails to fitness studios, florists, and museum programming. Every nominee was selected by a local editorial team; the final winners, however, will be determined entirely by public vote.

At Global Chic Voyage, we've long admired Singapore's ability to cultivate world-class hospitality without losing its vernacular soul. This awards program reflects that duality, recognizing both Michelin-decorated fine dining and neighborhood bakeries, both five-star heritage hotels and co-living spaces designed for the city's growing population of digital nomads and young professionals.

The Sweep of Categories

The voting spans nearly every facet of urban life. Dining categories include best new restaurant, best burger, best pizza, best Chinese, Indian, and halal establishments. There are nods to Singapore's thriving cocktail culture, with separate categories for new bars, established cocktail bars, and hotel bars. Bakeries, brunch cafes, dessert specialists, and catering services each have their own recognition.

Hospitality receives equally granular attention. Five-star hotels compete alongside newly opened properties, green-certified resorts, and serviced apartments. There are categories for hotel restaurants, hotel buffets, high tea programs, and wedding venues. Even co-living spaces, a relatively recent addition to Singapore's accommodation landscape, have earned a place in the voting.

Beyond food and lodging, the awards acknowledge the city's cultural and wellness infrastructure. Museums, festivals, live music venues, nightclubs, craft workshops, and attractions all appear on the ballot. Fitness enthusiasts can vote for gyms, personal trainers, and class studios. Beauty and lifestyle categories include spas, massage centers, nail salons, florists, jewellery brands, furniture stores, and gift shops.

The breadth is deliberate. Singapore's appeal has never rested on a single strength but on the cumulative effect of countless businesses doing exceptional work within their niches. A city is only as good as its everyday textures, the places you return to without fanfare because they simply make life better.

An Island Escape as Incentive

One voter, selected at random, will receive a three-day, two-night stay at Cempedak Island, a private retreat off Bintan's coast. The prize includes accommodation in either a Seaview or Beach Villa, each featuring a private plunge pool and views over the South China Sea. The island operates as an adults-only sanctuary, accessible by short ferry from Singapore, where bamboo architecture sits lightly within rainforest and the days unfold without agenda.

Cempedak's design philosophy aligns with a broader shift in luxury travel, one that prioritizes slowness, natural materials, and minimal environmental footprint. Guests can kayak, snorkel, hike to viewpoints, practice sunrise yoga, or simply exist without itinerary. Meals lean on local ingredients, prepared in a farm-to-table style that reflects both the island's geography and a commitment to sustainable sourcing.

The prize is valued at approximately 1,290 Singapore dollars and must be redeemed within twelve months, excluding peak periods. Ferry transfers, meals, and additional services are not included, but the accommodation itself offers a compelling reason to participate in the voting process, particularly for those who find the city's pace occasionally exhausting.

Why Public Input Matters

Awards programs can feel insular, the product of committee deliberation or industry networking. This one inverts that model. While the editorial team curated the nominee list, ensuring a baseline of quality and relevance, the final gold and silver designations rest entirely with the public. The structure acknowledges that residents, not critics or tastemakers, are the true arbiters of which businesses have woven themselves into the city's daily fabric.

Voting does not require participation in every category. Residents can skip unfamiliar names and focus on the establishments they know firsthand. The flexibility recognizes that Singapore, despite its compact geography, contains multitudes. A Tiong Bahru local may never have visited a Sentosa resort; an expat in the east may have no opinion on Orchard shopping malls. The awards accommodate that reality, valuing depth of experience over breadth of opinion.

The results, to be announced in September, will offer a snapshot of Singapore's evolving tastes. Which neighborhoods dominate the dining categories? Do heritage hotels still command loyalty, or have newer properties shifted preferences? Are co-living spaces gaining traction beyond their core demographic? The answers will reveal not just which businesses succeeded but which values, Singaporean residents currently prize: innovation or tradition, spectacle or subtlety, global sophistication or local authenticity.

The Texture of Excellence

What strikes us most about this initiative is its implicit argument: that a city's quality of life can be measured by the businesses its residents choose to celebrate. Not the ones with the largest marketing budgets or the most Instagram-friendly interiors, but the ones that earn loyalty through consistency, creativity, and care.

Singapore has always been a city that rewards attention. The best meals often happen in inconspicuous shophouses. The most memorable hotel stays might unfold in a heritage building most tourists walk past. The finest cocktail could be mixed in a bar with no signage, known only to those who bother to look. This awards program, in its way, is an exercise in collective noticing, a chance for residents to acknowledge the businesses that make their city not just livable but genuinely pleasurable.

Voting remains open through the end of the month. Whether or not the island escape materializes, the act of participating feels worthwhile, a small gesture of recognition toward the people and places that make Singapore what it is: a city that, despite its relentless forward momentum, still makes room for the quiet excellence that defines true hospitality.