Smith Street Taps is the Chinatown Complex hawker stall that has, against all odds, become one of the best craft-beer destinations in Singapore. Twenty-seven taps, all rotating, with the lineup updated daily on the bar's social channels. The format is unique to the city.
Operates as a hawker stall: order at the counter, take your beer to one of the surrounding hawker tables, eat whatever you want from the rest of the complex. The beer programme is unusually serious — most weekdays at least eight of the twenty-seven taps are pouring beers from one of the better Asian craft breweries (Yardley, Heart of Darkness, On Tap, Black Sheep, Brewerkz). On weekends the lineup often includes US or European imports that are difficult to find elsewhere in Singapore.
The flight option — choose any five beers in 100ml glasses for S$25 — is the strongest first order. The bar staff are generally happy to recommend three of those five for you and let you choose the last two; they know the lineup deeply and are not pushing the more expensive options.
Smith Street Taps is the best demonstration in Singapore of the case that a serious beer programme does not need a serious room. Twenty-seven taps in a hawker centre, decent prices, no reservations, no dress code, no fuss. Bring an appetite for both the beer and whatever the neighbours are eating.
Best time to visit: Weekday evenings before 9pm for the quieter version of the room; weekends after 9pm for the busier one. Reservations recommended where the bar accepts them.
What to order
- 01
Rotating Local IPA
- 02
Five-Beer Flight
- 03
Belgian Saison
- 04
US West Coast IPA
- 05
Imperial Stout