Where to eat SINGAPORE 🇸🇬 Zürich: Singapore Raffles Restaurant

Singapore Raffles Restaurant

Badenerstrasse 530, Zürich

Published October 1, 2025 · by Amanda Rivkin Häsler

What we ordered: For two people, one chicken satay appetizer, one kari kambing (spicy lamb curry) with a side of white rice and one sing chau maifan (rice noodle with shrimp, chicken and vegetable or Singapore noodles). To drink, we ordered two Singapore slings and a large bottle of sparkling water.

Cost: 110 CHF / €117 / $138

It makes a lot of sense that one could find really great Singaporean food in Zürich given the international reach of Switzerland's financial capital and its interconnectedness with other hubs of global finance. In fact, we ended up at Singapore Raffles Restaurant because the other Singaporean restaurant, Sentosa, just down the street, by a few blocks on the other side of the stadium, was closed the day we wanted to go for lunch for a private party. While we have no idea whose party, it is easy to imagine it could have been the Credit Suisse class of '87 reunion or something of the sort.

On the truly sweaty, humid August Saturday, we went for lunch, even the weather was giving Singapore. With a lovely outdoor seating area tucked back from the street and even more private for the vegetation, it was truly easy to imagine going not just to another corner of the world but back in time a bit to the earlier better days of globalization, when the world was connecting in new ways and the so-called information super highway was being born, caution of all kind thrown to the wind. A bit like babes in the woods, one can say.

Singapore Raffles Restaurant is of course, named for something else that has become a bit of an anachronism in this brave new twenty-first-century world, and that is the über palatial colonial era hotel of the Brits in Singapore. It still stands and serves up its signature cocktail, the Singapore sling.

Naturally we ordered two along with a bottle of sparkling water to start. Luckily, the Singapore slings of Singapore Raffles Restaurant in Zürich did not contain knock-you-to-the-floor levels of alcohol, like the original on offer at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore proper. Georg, aka "Mr. Swiss Global Dining" was recently in Singapore for work and spent a fair number of the nights he was there at the Raffles. He said other than the alcoholic content not being as great, the taste was the same in the Zürich version, down to the fresh pineapple wedge on the rim.

To eat, we ordered two classics of the fusion that is Singaporean food, a lamb curry called kari kambing that draws from the flavor palettes of two countries in the neighborhood, namely the curries of India and the rendang of Indonesia, and the famous Singaporean noodles, which were actually invented in Hong Kong. The server talked us into some chicken satay as well for an appetizer. 

The satay, delicately marinated in a ton of curry to turn it bright yellow and grilled at schnitzel width on little skewers was served with a classic homemade peanut sauce and a bit of more fresh pineapple as a garnish. It was tasty, especially the peanut sauce, one of the all-time great sauces in the world.

The sing chau maifan or Singapore noodles came next in an enormous portion. Consisting of vermicelli rice-style noodles tossed with a bit of cabbage and green onions in addition to carrot and egg, this version came with chicken and good-sized whole shrimp with a lot of curry tossed in the wok with a bit of oil. Georg immediately said we could have shared just that one dish and called it a day. 

There are but only a few signature noodle dishes in Asia that are competitive. Off the top of my head, I can think of but a few dishes that can rival really stellar Singapore noodles: Malaysia's char kway teow (also popular in Singapore) and Thailand's pad see ew. The Singapore noodles at the Singapore Raffles Restaurant is tops, a fine rendering of one of the best noodle dishes the east can offer.

While there was a bit of time until the kari kambing materialized, there was plenty of Singapore noodles that Georg helped himself. When his food came, he found the motivation suddenly for more. While the lamb was quite tender, I did not find it as flavorful or as packed with a punch as the best curries or rendangs of southeast Asia. Singaporean food is often less spicy than its counterparts, likely the Anglo influence. Georg seemed mightily content though and devoured it all until he was the lone member of the clean plate club as the portion on the Singapore noodles was simply staggering.

With friendly service and good food at decent price points for the portion size, Singapore Raffles Restaurant is a hit. They appeared to have a section of the restaurant dedicated to either a buffet or self-service and take out. The website also said something about karaoke, likely in the evening.

Visit on a super warm day and there is no reason to not feel wholly transported to Singapore, even if you are sitting thousands of miles away in a little Alpine nation that likes to think of itself as "Singapore on the rocks."

How to get to Singapore from Switzerland: 

By air, the only nonstop flights between Zürich and Singapore are on Singapore Airlines and Swiss Air and clock in at just over 12 hours. If you opt out of flying direct, many more routes open on Etihad, Finnair, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines through Abu Dhabi, Helsinki, Doha and Istanbul. These routes are all over 14 hours on the shorter end and just over 17 hours at most.

From Geneva, there are no nonstop routes but more options open up with Air France, China Eastern, KLM and Lufthansa in addition to the aforementioned Etihad and Qatar Airways routes. These new routes include transfers in Paris, Shanghai, Amsterdam and Munich.

How many Singaporeans are in Switzerland: Over 1,200

Distance between Bern and Singapore: 10,328 km

Distance from Singapore Raffles Restaurant to Singapore: 10,309 km

Learn how to make Singapore's national dish, chilli crab, and about its origins.

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