The best healthy restaurants in Singapore

Everything from the food and space, right down to its name, reminds you of your health. The Garden Club shares an entrance with a yoga studio, serves a vegetable-forward menu, and even has a rooftop garden where the crops grown are harvested and used in its food. A Quick Serve menu (from $8) is served during lunch, and you can customise your own bowl with choices like roasted purple carrots, fried brussel sprouts, and garlic mushrooms. Its ala carte menu also features waistline-friendly options like the garden ragu fettuccine ($15) made from Beyond Meat and the miso chicken breast ($17). As night falls, bar bites made with veggies (from $5) and botanical-themed cocktails (from $16) are also available.

Toasts and grain bowls might be on the menu, but what makes Pickleville different from other salad joints is its special pickle bar. More than just the usual kimchi or sauerkraut, it serves over ten different variations (from $2) to choose from, like beet-pickled quail eggs, fermented pineapple salsa, and a whole bunch of pickled vegetables to add some probiotic goodness to your lunch bowls. For breakfast, there is sourdough toasts ($2.50) smeared with house-made espresso butter ($1.50) and fermented garlic honey butter ($1.50).

If you're in the heart of the CBD and looking for really healthy food, Shake Farm serves up healthy juices, protein shakes, acai bowls, super toasts, pita pockets and salads you and mix yourself. Healthy eating comes with a cost of course, as salads start from $10 for a regular bowl. Shakes and juices start from $8 but it is packed with natural superfood ingredients like bananas, spinach, almond butter and more. Eating clean? Walk away from the greasy plate of char kway teow and get on the health train at Shake Farm. 

With plant-based trend picking up in the restaurant scene, The Botanic have done right by switching things up a bit and making vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes like ricotta dumplings with pomelo, pickled pumpkin, and pumpkin seed miso ($25) and smoked eggplant with coconut and black bean sauce ($20). But if you love you're meat, don't fuss too much. The plant-based dishes feature alongside free-range, organic meat and seafood offerings as well and dishes like the grilled squid with inked rice ($28) are a standout. Stay for desserts like ginger flower panna cotta ($12) and fruit-based cocktail selection (prices start from $18) that would definitely sweeten the experience at The Botanic.

DoSiRak serves healthy, sub-500 calorie Korean-style lunch bowls in the CBD. Create your lunchbox by choosing a carb, a protein and several veggies. The standard serving packs white rice into the bowl, but add $1 and you get the option of brown rice and buckwheat noodles to add heft to add-ins like beef bulgogi ($9.90), cured salmon ($11.90) and kimchi tofu ($7.90), mixed with DoSiRak’s homemade Korean chilli sauce. All menu offerings are prepared with less oil and use natural ingredients like unrefined brown sugar and fruits.

For healthy and affordable build-your-own bowls in the CBD, hit up Wafuken at either Asia Square Tower 2 or OUE Downtown Gallery. A plain donburi ($4) – choose between furikake Japanese brown rice or white rice – is served with onsen egg, daikon and cucumber pickles and you can choose to add on protein options like sous vide chicken breast ($4) to make a bowl that still comes in at under $10

Opened by health coach Elika Mather, Kitchen by Food Rebel aims to improve the wellbeing of diners through what they eat. Everything in this 40-seater café is made from scratch – including the sauces and salad dressings – and is free from preservatives. You can’t do wrong by ordering one of its signature Buddha bowls: the vegan sweet potato and chickpea one ($19) comes with beetroot hummus, quinoa, and a dollop of tofu and avocado that’s been blended together, finished with tahini dressing. Craving pasta but trying to curb your carbs? Opt for the zoodle bolognese ($18), raw zucchini noodles ladled with hearty meat sauce that’ll leave you satisfied but not stuffed.

By day, Plentyfull serves fresh food lined up in a buffet-style spread on a long counter for the white-collar crowd to build their own bowls. Come dinnertime, the fast-paced grab-and-go menu moves aside for à la carte offerings inspired by seasonal and quality produce from Plentyfull’s in-house farming collective Little Farms. Headed by chef Victor Loy, the restaurant features must-try dishes such as Borrowdale's pork chop ($33), pumpkin pillow gnocchi ($24), and Plentyfull's vegetable dip ($16) – best shared among a big group of friends. 

Ninja Cut offers ten carb-free, protein-rich bowls that’ll fill you up without busting your daily calorie limit. Try What’s Your Beef ($18), a bowl of sliced Australian rib-eye slow-roasted with thyme, grilled corn, sautéed mushrooms, honey-glazed carrots, onsen egg, and golden garlic chips – come prepared, though, as only 30 servings are available each day. But if you’re someone who has a hard time resisting temptation, Ninja Cut might not be the place for you. It serves an extensive all-day brunch menu with more sinful dishes like The Cheeky Cheese ($18), which comes with tender, 24-hour-braised Japanese curry beef cheek and a grilled cheese made with buttery brioche slices. Consider yourself warned.

There may be no shortage of healthy restaurants in this city, but Singapore has nothing quite like this: a one-stop café, health shop and ‘lifestyle-improvement’ space (apparently that’s a thing) overseen by Balanced Living founder Dana Heather. You’ll be amazed by how extensive the menu is, proving that eating clean doesn’t need to be limiting. There are raw food mains like pad thai noodles ($16.50) made with zucchini, and taco boats ($18) packed with guacamole, mango salsa and ‘meatballs’. You can even chow down on burgers and wholemeal pizza without the guilt – or hunger – pangs after. And don’t forget to pop by the retail space on the second floor to stock up on more healthy eating essentials.

Even if you're not on a juice cleanse, there's something life affirming about sucking down a cold cup of nature's sweet nectar after a carb-heavy lunch. Here's a list of where to find some juice.