How Singapore turned its airport into a dining destination

SINGAPORE – In most countries, few people travel to the airport for the fun of it. Airport fare, after all, does not have the best reputation: soggy sandwiches and bland bowls of noodles forced down your throat at criminal prices.

But for fans like Ms Lyanna Wong, who lives in Simei, the food at Changi Airport is far from a grim necessity. Ranked as the top airport for foodies in a 2025 survey by Australian digital agency SEO For Restaurants – based on restaurant ratings, variety of establishments and average food prices – this liminal space has become a destination for locals. 

The 38-year-old homemaker takes her three children, aged four to nine, to the airport at least once a week. “My kids love Crown Prince Kitchenette at Terminal 3. They ask to go there nearly every weekend, and have declared it the ‘best restaurant ever’,” she says.

“It’s just an easy, familiar place for us. These restaurants are kid-friendly and have a variety of options that suit my children’s tastes.”

Another frequent visitor, Ms Ng Leng Leng, makes the journey down from Seletar thrice a month, drawn by the good food and Jewel Changi Airport’s calming ambience.

“The dining options are representative of Singapore’s food culture and adequately provide transit or business visitors, who have no time to venture out, with a taste of Singapore,” says the 46-year-old, who works in insurance.

All this is by design. Mrs Chandra Mahtani, senior vice-president of airside concessions at Changi Airport Group (CAG), says: “We have about 70 million people who pass through the airport yearly, and they’re very diversified in terms of nationality and age group. They look for different things. So, what we need, and have always planned to do, is to ensure that we have an expansive range of food and beverage options to suit every one of our passengers.”

That means a robust mix of international options at Terminals 1 and 3, where footfall skews cosmopolitan – British sandwich chain Pret A Manger and Australia’s Hudsons Coffee, for instance.

Terminal 2, where most India-based carriers operate out of, has more Indian options such as Chutney Mary.

CAG describes itself as a hands-on landlord which pays rapt attention to detail, such as placing only family-friendly grab-and-go stalls like The Hainan Story Bakery next to a playground. And when it appoints a foodcourt operator, it does not just wash its hands off the project after awarding the tender. 

Mrs Mahtani says: “We get our hands dirty. We work with them very closely on the look, the feel, the materials they use, how they lay out the food stalls, how many seats, where the seating is placed, how the passengers are going to flow through and the portion sizes.” 

It also keeps an eye on the pricing of meals, ensuring there are $2 coffee options for those who want an affordable drink. While there are no price caps on food, costs have to be comparable with similar options in Orchard Road. 

Jewel, with its easy access to the terminals and wide gastronomic portfolio, is meant to complement this diversity. 

Ms Faith Tan, head of leasing at Jewel Changi Airport Development, says: “Jewel has the luxury of more spacious units, giving us the opportunity to introduce more immersive destination dining concepts, as well as experiential retail stores with more interactive spaces for customer engagement and longer dwell time.”

As more than half of Jewel’s monthly visitors are local residents, the pressure is on Ms Tan’s team to keep offerings exciting and distinctive, “so there is always a reason to visit, again and again”.

She says the mall carves out space for fledgling local brands to test new concepts and build visibility alongside international establishments such as US’ Shake Shack, China’s Hakka Yu and South Korea’s Gwangjang Gaon. 

“This presents an ideal stage for showcasing local offerings to a global audience,” she adds. 

Call of the east

Indeed, it is why local brands like The 1872 Clipper Tea Co have set up shop there. 

“Jewel, being a gateway for travellers, gives us the perfect stage to share our uniquely Singaporean tea blends – like Teh Tarik teabags or our tea drinks. It’s about creating moments of discovery for people passing through, and reminding locals of the richness of home-grown flavour,” says a spokesperson for the brand, which opened its latest outlet at Jewel in mid-June. 

It keeps pricing consistent with other outlets at locations such as Ion Orchard, but amps up the Singaporean flair with Jewel-exclusive drinks like Kaya Matcha Latte and Singapore Sling Iced Tea. 

Local cinema-themed restaurant Korean Culture, meanwhile, feels that Terminal 3’s lively environment aligns with its operational capabilities and brand positioning. 

“We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the strong local support at the airport, with many Singaporeans making a special trip to dine with us. The mix of regular local patrons and curious international travellers has created a dynamic and vibrant dining atmosphere,” says its executive director Shawn Lim, 45. 

The perk of tapping the airport’s global audience is also why international entrants pick Changi as their first port of call in Singapore. 

For example, Pret A Manger, which can be found only at Terminals 2 and 3, does not plan to expand its operations in Singapore for now. “Pret A Manger functions well in the airport environment and will continue to do so,” says Mr Tyrone Reid, 52, group chief executive of MMI & Emirates Leisure Retail (ELR), the operator that manages brands such as Pret A Manger and The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck. 

ELR has also teamed up with Singaporean coffee chain Kopifellas to launch KopiKakis at Terminal 1. To cater to a wider clientele, the offerings here are Muslim-friendly and include location specials such as oat milk kopi.

Over at Jewel, Ms Emily Yii, co-founder of Kantin – Singapore’s first and only Bornean restaurant – was drawn to the natural light of the mall’s top floor, which fits perfectly with her eatery’s rainforest identity. 

“From the outset, we have applied the same procedures and frameworks that we developed in our inaugural restaurant to ensure consistency. Of course, there are tweaks to be made when launching in a new market, but our teams on both sides have been able to adapt and refine processes as we go along,” says the 36-year-old, who hails from Sarawak. The Jewel restaurant is Kantin’s first overseas outlet. 

But operating here also means having to adhere to a specific set of rules – no lit candles, in Kantin’s case.

Changi Airport’s location on the eastern tip of Singapore and round-the-clock footfall also necessitate longer commute times for some employees and extended hours, with many eateries opening from morning till 10pm and beyond. 

For Harry’s, a bar chain with three 24-hour outlets across Terminals 1, 2 and 3, this means it is harder to hire staff to man the airport joints, “unless we luck out and manage to find candidates who live in the east”, quips its marketing head Stephanie Howe. In contrast, most of its other more centrally located watering holes run from afternoon to late night. 

Then there is the logistical hurdle to consider. “There are more stringent operational protocols, including security clearances for staff, access timings for deliveries and compliance with airport-specific regulations. Logistics planning needs to be tighter, especially since deliveries are less frequent and must be pre-cleared. Staff scheduling also requires more coordination due to restricted access and security zones,” says Ms Howe, 36. 

Plus, not all units have an exhaust system, which limits the amount of heavy cooking these eateries – typically kiosks – can do. 

Local chicken rice chain Chatterbox has therefore streamlined its menu to work within the confines of its space.

You will not find wok-reliant dishes such as beef hor fun and char kway teow at its Terminal 1 express offshoot, but Changi exclusives such as kaya butter toast ($4.50) and chicken and egg congee ($9) have been added to the slate, which also features old favourites like laksa ($12.50) and chicken rice (from $13.80).

“Chatterbox Express is essentially a more curated quick-service concept tailored for convenience. And because you see the most traffic during breakfast at the airport, we’ve introduced something new here,” says Mr Wayne Teoh, 44, general manager of Chatterbox Express.

Future plans 

Newer terminals, however, have found ways around these limitations. CAG managed to add exhaust facilities to some kiosks in Terminal 2, which was renovated during the Covid-19 pandemic and reopened in 2023. 

“This was one thing we wanted to test for Terminal 5: do exhaust systems make a difference? And we found that they do,” says Mrs Mahtani. 

“At Old Chang Kee, for example, exhaust facilities mean you get hot curry puffs. You don’t get curry puffs that they just bring in from the central kitchen and leave around for the next few hours.” 

While the team has to work within existing spatial parameters at the current terminals, Terminal 5 – a greenfield site which will be built up by the mid-2030s – presents a blank slate with untold possibilities such as large-scale restaurants of over 100 sq m or even 200 sq m in size. 

Mrs Mahtani says the team is using the current terminals as a test bed for some concepts, in the hope of putting together an unprecedented range of offerings for the new terminal

In the meantime, diners can look forward to an expanding pool of options at the airport. Here are some new experiences that landed in 2025. 

Claypot Daddy 

Where: 03-11 Changi Airport Terminal 2, 60 Airport Boulevard
Open: 10.30am to 10pm daily 
Info:

claypotdaddy.com.sg

Singaporean restaurateur Shawn Lim’s new restaurant Claypot Daddy may be situated at the airport, but he is adamant that sky-high prices have no place on his menu. 

“As this is currently our only Claypot Daddy outlet, we’ve been mindful to keep prices affordable,” says the 45-year-old, who is also executive director of restaurant brands Penang Culture and Korean Culture. 

The halal-certified restaurant offers an $11.90 lunch set on weekdays that includes a main such as beanpaste chicken, curry chicken or scallion and ginger fish; soup of the day; and steamed white rice. 

Regular offerings are capped at $18.90 for the treasures pot, filled with premium ingredients like prawns and scallops. Other highlights include Daddy’s signature mala stir fry pot ($13.90), gongbao chicken ($8.90), fish curry ($14.90) and claypot braised eggplant ($8.90). 

Gwangjang Gaon 

Where: 02-243 Jewel Changi Airport, 78 Airport Boulevard
Open: 11am to 10pm daily
Info: @gwangjanggaon.sg on Instagram 

Launched in July, Gwangjang Gaon’s Jewel restaurant is the brand’s first outpost outside South Korea, where it is better known as Naru Gaon or Gwangjangdong Gaon.

Known for its classic Korean dishes and celebrity clientele – actress Han So-hee and actor Lee Jung-jae have dined at its outlets – it serves dishes such as Bossam ($43.90), or boiled pork wraps plated with kimchi, cabbage and an array of condiments, as well as Bibimbap ($22.90). 

Other highlights include Deulgireum Makguksu ($21.90) – cold buckwheat noodles drizzled with perilla oil – and Gaon Galbi ($69.90) – sous vide beef short ribs. 

Fresh produce is delivered multiple times a week, with Korean speciality herbs and ingredients flown in on dedicated days. “Our priority is always to serve dishes that are as fresh and flavourful as possible,” says restaurant director Lawson Chan, 50.  

The 1872 Clipper Tea Co

Where: 02-237 Jewel Changi Airport
Open: 10am to 10pm daily 
Info:

clippertea.com.sg

 

The 1872 Clipper Tea Co wants to be more than just a pit stop on the way to your boarding gate. In addition to white-blue boxes and tins prepped for gifting, customers can sit and sip on cups of speciality tea. 

The local company’s new Jewel cafe, which opened in June, brews single-origin teas from Sri Lanka, served straight (from $4.90) or in latte form (from $5.90), as well as matcha (from $5.90), hojicha (from $5.90) and caffeine free-blends (from $5.50). 

Infusions like Milk Moon ($8.90), fusing light jasmine green tea and osmanthus with cold milk foam, and Earl Grey Creme ($7.50), made of black tea, milk and caramelised cookies, are also available. 

Jewel Food Trail 

Where: The trail starts at Gift by Changi Airport, 04-233 Jewel Changi Airport
Open: Noon to 8pm daily 
Info:

go.hiddenxp.com/jewel

Cannot decide where to eat? Go on a food trail instead. The Official Jewel Food Trail, developed by local social enterprise Hidden Singapore, runs until Oct 26. 

Guided by a WhatsApp chatbot, participants go on a food quest around Jewel, deciphering riddles and unlocking edible prizes along the way. Fun facts and historical details are also sprinkled throughout the game, in keeping with the company’s aim to help participants see Singapore in a new light. 

“We designed the food trail with both audiences in mind: something a visitor can fully enjoy and little ‘Easter eggs’ that locals will appreciate,” says Hidden Singapore co-founder Lim Yee Hung. 

“We looked for stops that could spark nostalgia, surprise or both – from traditional bites that locals grew up with to modern twists that reflect how Singapore’s palate has evolved. Each stop was chosen not just for taste, but also for the story behind it.” 

Each game takes about 1½ to two hours and costs $60 for a single player, though participants are also welcome to team up.