LOCAL CUSTOMS · SINGAPORE
How happy hour works in Singapore
The national 1-for-1 culture, concentrated in the CBD and the quays, with ++ on the bill and a hard stop on public drinking.
The rule
Inside a licensed bar, 1-for-1 and half-price are both ordinary. The menu price is usually before 10% service and 9% GST, written “++”. Public drinking, on the street or in a park, stops at 10:30 p.m. The bar’s licence, not the board outside, decides whether the room may pour until midnight. You must be 18.
The custom
Raffles Place and the quays fill at 6 and thin after 8, when people go home or on to dinner. Orchard and the hotel bars run a more visitor-shaped version of the same window. A hawker beer is not this list. If the board says 1-for-1, order two or split one; the saving is the second glass.