If there’s anything worth celebrating, it’s the fact that 2021 is nearly over and we can have New Year’s Eve dinners in groups of five! Wondering where to celebrate New Year’s Eve? Here are some Singapore restaurants for welcoming in 2022; plus, read on for some interesting trivia about traditions from around the world.
Mandarin Oriental, Singapore – three restaurant choices for New Year’s Eve
Begin the new year in style with an exquisite meal at one of the three dining venues at Mandarin Oriental, Singapore. If you’re looking for a Singapore restaurant with impeccable Cantonese fine dining, you can’t go wrong with the gorgeous Cherry Garden. The six-course set dinner menu ($158++) will take you on a culinary journey, introducing you to regional classics like Cantonese-style steamed cod fillet, pan-fried A4 Miyazaki wagyu beef sirloin with homemade cherry sauce and others. In the mood for Italian instead? Dolce Vita is offering a five-course dinner ($328++) with elevated Italian mainstays like lobster risotto with bottarga, champagne and spinach coulis. The menu also highlights prime cuts such as seared wagyu tenderloin with creamy potatoes and chestnut.
For a more laid-back New Year’s Eve dinner, park yourself at Melt Café. The dinner ($238++) will feature a broad range of options including a salad bar, seafood on ice and a sushi bar. There’ll also be a range of traditional Asian specialties, European favourites and traditional roasts at live stations.
5 Raffles Avenue, Marina Square
6885 3500 | mosin-dining@mohg.com
Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel – a New Year’s Eve dinner favourite
Ring in 2022 with a special New Year’s Eve dinner at Marriott Cafe. The spread includes appetisers such as a seafood platter; duck foie gras terrine with chutney; and lobster bisque. For mains, highlights include grilled Angus rib-eye steak with gorgonzola, truffle, smoked mashed potato and chimichurri; there’s also a mushroom risotto with black truffle and Parmigiano-Reggiano. End your meal with a serving of maple dark chocolate pot de crème with a seasonal berry compote and almond nougatine, or the festive warm orange pumpkin strudel with Madagascar vanilla sauce and ice-cream.
If you prefer Chinese fare, check out the New Year’s Eve dinner at the award-winning Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant. Expect signature dishes like pan-fried Boston lobster with a Japanese mustard soy sauce, and braised crab meat with golden superior stock and chrysanthemum bean curd.
320 Orchard Road
marriott.com
The Sampan – for celebrating NYE beside the Singapore River
Located in the heart of Boat Quay, this three-storey restaurant offers Pan-Asian cuisine with an eclectic drinks menu that showcases fresh and bright flavours of Asia. Choose to sit indoors or opt for the alfresco dining area to soak in the lively waterfront atmosphere.
63 Boat Quay
6732 1698 | info@thesampan.sg
thesampan.sg
LeVeL33 – Singapore restaurants for New Year’s Eve
Looking for Singapore restaurants with stellar views? Take in sky-high views with a refreshing pint (or three!) and delicious grub at Level33, the world’s highest urban microbrewery. On New Year’s Eve, the restaurant bar is serving a four-course meal. A glass of champagne or the exclusive Brut Beer is included in your dinner.
For a more complete celebration, go all out with the New Year’s Eve Chef’s Selection menu. Arrive as early as 5pm and leave it to the chefs to make your dining experience an unforgettable one!
8 Marina Boulevard, #33-01 Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 1
6834 3133 | reservations@level33.com.sg
Looking for more Singapore restaurants for New Year’s Eve dinner? Read our best restaurants guide.
New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world!
Superstitions are a part of many New Year’s traditions. MELINDA MURPHY runs her eye over a few interesting ones from across the globe.
Austria
At midnight, all the radio and television stations operated by the state broadcast the sound of the bell of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, followed by “The Blue Danube”. People across the country turn out into the streets to dance the waltz.
Belarus
Single women looking for lasting love sit in a circle, each with a pile of corn in front of them. A rooster is placed in the circle’s centre, and the woman whose grain heap it pecks first is believed to be the one who’ll get married first.
Brazil
If you head to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for New Year’s Eve, be sure to wear white. Here, people offer white flowers as gifts to Yamanja, the Afro-Brazilian queen of the sea. The floral gifts are placed on the water, some even in special boats, hoping the queen will bring them energy and strength.
Colombia
Love to travel? So do Colombians. To be sure their year will be filled with plenty of travel opportunities, they walk around the block with an empty suitcase.
Denmark
People in Denmark save their broken dishes and throw them at the homes of their friends and family as a gesture of good luck. You can also just opt to leave a heap of broken china on doorsteps if you’d prefer.
Ecuador
Some Ecuadorians make scarecrow-like effigies called los anos viejos (“the old years”) of people they dislike or of notable people from last year. Dolls and masks line the streets in the weeks leading up to the holiday. In Quito, the capital, a New Year’s Eve parade at night culminates with the effigies being tossed onto giant bonfires. Also, women and kids dress up as viudas, or widows of the dolls; some dress as Baby New Year. Together, they use just about everything imaginable to block streets, even highways, until you pay a toll of money or candy.
El Salvador
People here are said to crack an egg in a glass at midnight and leave it on their windowsill. Fortunes are predicted based on what shape the egg takes by morning.
Estonia
You’d better have a big appetite if you plan to spend NYE here, where one tradition involves eating seven, nine or twelve times on the day; these are all lucky numbers in Estonia. For every meal consumed, you apparently gain the strength of that many men for the following year! Don’t worry, though; some food should be left behind for the spirits of ancestors who visit on the day.
Finland
The Finns melt lead in a tin pan on the stove and throw it quickly into a bucket of cold water. The resulting blob is analysed and all sorts of predictions made. What kind of shadows does it cast by candlelight? It’s loads of fun and never taken too seriously.
France
The New Year’s holiday period goes to 6 January and ends with a celebration of the Epiphany. A special kind of cake called la galette des rois (“King’s Pie”) is served; it consists of two flat sheets of puff pastry filled with almond paste. The cake contains a feve, or small china doll. Whoever finds the doll gets to wear a paper crown and also choose a partner.
Germany
Like in Finland, some Germans make predictions using molten lead. It’s also considered good luck to touch a chimney sweep or rub some ash on your forehead.
Greece
The Greeks have all sorts of New Year’s Eve traditions. During the family dinner, the hostess puts some jewellery on a plate and serves it as a sign of the coming year’s prosperity. Dinner plates aren’t washed because Saint Vassilis (Greek Santa Claus) is expecting food when he visits. At midnight, lights are turned off and on again; this represents the new light of the new year. A vasilopita (also a “King’s Pie”!) is then served. Inside? A foil-wrapped coin. Whoever finds it has luck for the year ahead.
The Philippines
There are many New Year’s superstitions in the Philippines. One involves opening all the doors, windows and cabinets in the house to let the bad energy out and the good energy in, all while making noise to keep the evil spirits away.
Romania
New Year’s Eve belongs to the animals. Truly. Farmers try to hear their animals talk and, if they do, they’ll have good luck for the coming year. People also don bear costumes (often made out of real bear fur) and dance to keep evil at bay.
Russia
Some Russians write down a wish on a piece of paper, burn it, throw it into a champagne glass and drink it before midnight turns to 12.01am.
Scotland
Immediately after the clock strikes midnight, the “first-footing” begins. For good luck in the new year, a dark-haired male needs to be the first person to cross your threshold after midnight. Sometimes, the first-footer bring gifts such as coal or whiskey, too. My friend’s dad was dark-haired and spent the wee hours of every New Year’s Day first-footing house after house!
South Africa
In Johannesburg, locals who live in the city’s Hillbrow neighbourhood toss old furniture out the windows, or off their balconies. The idea is to get rid of stuff from the old year and embrace what the new year has to offer. Only problem? People have gotten hurt with this one, so beware!
Spain
As the clock strikes midnight, Spanish people have been knownw to eat twelve white grapes, one for each chime of the clock. This tradition has its origins in 1909; back then, grape growers thought of it as a way to cut down on the year’s production surplus.
Turkey
Some folks in Turkey are said to grab a handful of pomegranate seeds and throw them from their balconies. The more the seeds burst, the more plentiful the year ahead is supposed to be.
Aside from all these weird and wonderful practices, my favourite are all the superstitions about underwear! In Turkey, red is the magic colour for fertility and passion. Columbia and Venezuela? Yellow lingerie brings happiness and peace. Puerto Ricans don white undies for fertility and health. Some Argentinians wear brand new pink underwear to attract love.
For more helpful stories for Singapore life, head to our Living in Singapore section.
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