I’m not vegetarian. So take it with this Rubik’s cube made of salt. I’d also rather not write down specific restaurants, because I’m not going to update this post. This is just a rough guide, written down for a friend.
1. Indian
This is your best option. Because the Indians are masters of spice and they can make tree branches taste good. Supposedly there’s a difference between North Indian and South Indian, and South Indian is the more vegetarian one. But I don’t know enough to tell them apart. So just go to Little India or Tekka Centre and look at the food. It should be easy enough to tell. Some places sell vegetarian biryani. Give it a try. (Don’t give me that “there’s no vegetarian biryani, it’s pulao” crap, biryani police.)
Bonus: mamak. This is Indian Muslim food. Most stalls open until late, and some are open 24 hours. A good option for breakfast, and your best bet if you’re hungry at 2am. Safe options include roti prata, thosai, chapati. Very oily. Very carb-heavy. Ask for dhal sauce.
2. Chinese
Thanks to the large Buddhist population, this is probably the easiest to find. There’s about 1 stall for every 3-4 kopitiams. Long queues on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month. Look for a lotus sign, or the 斋 or 齋 character… never mind, the lotus is probably easier to remember.
Very much gluten not-free. Because they use gluten to make the vegetarian versions of every meat dish. The good ones are very good. The bad ones are very bad.
3. Western/Mediterranean/Italian
You want comfort food. This is your comfort food. Probably more expensive than other options in this list.
4. Japanese
Shojin ryori is a thing, but I’ve never seen it in Singapore. The good news is Japanese restaurants usually do a good job of marking which dishes are vegetarian on their menus. And kappa maki is also a thing, I guess.
5. Hawker food
All the famous ones you’ve heard of, don’t bother. Desserts are usually safe, though.
But there’s one thing you should try if you can find it: thunder tea. It doesn’t actually contain thunder. They just don’t know how to translate 擂. The default version is vegetarian. The “tea” is quite minty. I don’t like it, but many of my friends do.
6. Korean
Kimchi is not vegetarian.
Kimchi is not vegetarian.
Kimchi is not vegetarian.