Built in 1895, The Warehouse Hotel was actually a spice-trade route warehouse, back in the days when this area of Singapore was filled with gangsters and their lackeys. Fast-forward to January 2017, when the loved-up version of this grand building opened as an independent 37-room boutique hotel, featuring a destination restaurant, a glam lobby bar and a cool clientele.

Vibe: Expect a fairly international, sophisticated crowd from Korea, the United States, the Philippines and Europe. Young couples, lots of business creatives, solo business executives and the semi-retired young-at-hearts all find a home here.

THINGS TO DO: IN SINGAPORE

Rooms: Sexy, modern rooms have an industrial feel, with muted tones of taupe and grey mixed with green marble, wooden flooring, black metal framing and original brick masonry. It feels like the slick apartment of your coolest friend. Find lots of attention to detail, right down to the coffee mugs designed by a local ceramic artist. Minibars are filled with Southeast Asian-specific products, such as Vietnamese chocolate and egg-yolk potato chips. The Bang & Olufsen Bluetooth speaker is a nice touch, as are the eco-certified Ashley & Co bath amenities.

F&B: The bar and restaurant at The Warehouse Hotel are big, big draws, for both the visitors and the locals. The 52-seat Pó Restaurant is managed by noted Chef Willin Low, a trailblazer in the homespun Mod-Sin food movement, which takes the flavours and recipes of traditional Singaporean dishes and gives them a modern twist. The name Po is both an homage to popo, the Mandarin word for grandmother, and to the classic spring roll, popiah. The spacious, 70-seat Lobby Bar whips up incredible concoctions using Asian flavors like kaya, kaffir lime, star anise and cinnamon, with all its infusions and essences made in-house. Try the Madame Butterfly.

TASTE TO TRY: RIBS FOR BREAKFAST
HOW-TO: ORDER KOPI COFFEE

Extras: Though small and not really overlooking much except a busy street corner and a gas station, the little infinity pool on the side of the hotel is quite fun. The clear acrylic pool walls will make for more than a few Instagram-worthy moments. Take a sun hat.

Off-Site: The Warehouse is situated on the Singapore River on Robertson Quay, blending in with the Riverwalk restaurants, cafés and shops. It is just a short walk from both Chinatown and the pubbier districts of Clarke Quay and Boat Quay.

Rate: $$
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With everything under one roof so to speak—city, state and country all rolled into one island—Singapore is a very unique Southeast Asian enclave, its history as a trading settlement influencing all aspects of modern life in profoundly original ways. The population comprises Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures—Peranakans descended from people who immigrated to the Malay archipelago between the 15th and 17th centuries—with an icing of English due to the more than 145 years of British rule.

The incredible architecture is a profusion of colourful, mixed-use “shophouses” with retail space on the main floor and residences above, extraordinary Buddhist and Hindu temples, edgy new skyscrapers and colonial-era buildings infused with modern glamour.

Eat constantly. This place is a foodie’s wet dream. The traditional dishes sold in the “hawker stall” food courts lay the foundation for the Modern Singaporean restaurants (Mod-Sin for short) that yield homespun food with a twist. Singaporeans have distinct opinions on where to get the best crab or buns or laksa or chicken rice or coffee or anything. Discussing food is a national pastime.

TASTE TO TRY: TRADITIONAL DISHES

Find the star. You can eat the world’s least-expensive Michelin star meal at Hawker Chan’s Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle, the first hawker stall to be awarded a Michelin star. The signature dish goes for just $2.50.

Roam the streets. Singapore is a series of neighbourhoods. Trendy Tiong Bahru is filled with cool boutiques, design shops, bookstores and small cafés, including your must-do: the Tiong Bahru Bakery. The Katong area is a multicultural community filled with fun concept stores, great restaurants, massage parlours and karaoke joints. Kampong Glam, Chinatown, Little India and Dempsey Hill should also be on your wander list.

HOW-TO: ORDER KOPI COFFEE

Soak up art. National Gallery Singapore exhibits the largest collection of Southeast Asian art in the world in an interconnected complex linking the old Supreme Court and City Hall buildings. Expansive courtrooms, hallways, offices and judges’ chambers were converted into galleries, some documenting Singapore’s history and independence.

Go play in the park. Gardens by the Bay is a nature reserve complete with its own family of free-range otters who you can find sleeping off lunch at the water’s edge. A series of three gardens here is dominated by a grove of “supertree” structures and by two domed conservatories, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest.

Hit the high street. At one time merely fruit trees, nutmeg plantations and pepper farms, Orchard Road is now Singapore’s grand shopping boulevard, home to all your fashion favourites—the higher-end retailers, landmark shopping plazas and more.

WHERE TO STAY: THE ANDAZ
WHERE TO STAY: THE WAREHOUSE

Stop for toast. Weirdly, Singapore is obsessed with toast. Toasted sandwiches are filled with a thick slice of cold butter and a gooey, sweet layer of kaya jam, a coconut jam made from coconut milk and eggs, sugar and pandan leaf. This is then served with a hard-boiled egg.

TASTE TO TRY: RIBS FOR BREAKFAST

Learn new words. Due to the cultural mix, there are four official languages—English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil—but you will also hear many other tongues, including the colloquial “Singlish.”

When You Go. The best time to visit Singapore is from February to October, with May and June being the hottest months. November to January is the wet season. Pack lots of linen—and your flip-flops!

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Singaporeans order their coffee or kopi from the same person every morning at “hawker stalls,” community food courts in neighbourhood food markets. Kopi means coffee in Malay. Traditionally mom and pop businesses, these kopi stalls are everywhere, in hundreds of hawker centres throughout the city, operating from early morning until suppertime, just like the food markets themselves. Your kopi guy may not know your name, but he knows what you’re having and will start making your coffee the minute he sees you—which you take to-go in a plastic bag with a straw, for about $1.25. Yes, everybody walks into their offices with a plastic bag of coffee. And usually, a breakfast bite of some kind, often toast—Singapore is obsessed with toast.

THINGS TO DO: IN SINGAPORE

When it comes to how you take your coffee, the ordering process is a model of efficiency. Unlike Western coffee names, which can get quite long depending on how complicated your coffee ritual, Singaporeans order their coffees by specific names. And here you go:

Kopi = coffee with sweetened condensed milk
Kopi O = coffee with sugar but no milk
Kopi Kosong = coffee with no milk or sugar
Kopi C = coffee with evaporated milk and sugar, most similar to our regular coffee order
Kopi Peng = iced coffee with condensed milk
Kopi Siew Dai = coffee with less condensed milk
Kopi Ga Dai = coffee with extra condensed milk
Kopi O Peng = iced coffee with sugar
Kopi Gu You = coffee with condensed milk, sugar and butter

WHERE TO STAY: IN SINGAPORE

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The first Andaz in southeast Asia, the Andaz Singapore takes over the top 14 floors of a dazzling honeycomb-like skyscraper, with its reception on the 25^th floor. The hotel immerses guests in Singaporean culture, its public areas mirroring Singapore’s intimate laneways, iconic shophouses and quaint customs.

THINGS TO DO: IN SINGAPORE

Vibe: Business creatives, hip couples, Andaz loyalists and smartly dressed families hunker down here. This is a crowd who appreciates the high-style design and is willing to pay a bit more for that. Local art is constantly pointed out by staff, who are proud of this heritage homage. Everywhere, attention to detail is paramount, right down to the hallways: Quaint, old-style Singaporean mailboxes outside the room doors house the doorbell and accept your key card.

Rooms: Starting at 400 square feet, the 342 rooms are big in a town where big isn’t really an option. A sleek and modern design highlighted by ample wood panelling and floor-to-ceiling doors is injected with hits of traditional Singapore, including bright mustard and rust tones, and flat, round light fixtures. The wooden-framed, illuminated bathroom mirror is cheekily shaped like a hand mirror hung on a peg. Find premium linen, soundproof windows, spacious closets, and free minibar snacks and soft drinks. Fancy Christophe Laudamiel bathroom amenities smell divine.

F&B: Six restaurants and three bars meet your dining needs with ease. The big trend in Singaporean cuisine is Mod-Sin, a reworking of Grandma’s home cooking: traditional recipes given a modern twist. You can find it anchoring the menus of some of the city’s top restaurants, including the Andaz. At Alley on 25, the street-dining experience is not just woven into the menu but into the design of the various eateries as well, with a concept that mimics a street market. Poking your head around corners reveals small kitchen stations whipping up rice, noodle and meat dishes or barbecued fare cooked over a charcoal grill—all delicious. Alcohol is expensive in Singapore, so be prepared for the hefty cocktail bill or take advantage of the daily Happy Hour, when wine and beer is marked down.

HAVE RIBS FOR BREAKFAST

Extras: OMG there are teepees on the roof in the garden. The Stork Bar on the 39^th floor rooftop has the most amazing 360-degree views, you will want to squeeze every second out of sunset drinks. The infinity pool has an absolutely incredible view.

Off-Site: In the immediate vicinity, the hotel is a 10-minute walk to a few cultural districts, including Little India and Kampong Glam, with its trendy eateries, hip bars and chic boutiques situated alongside the landmark Sultan Mosque and ubiquitous, cooler-than-they-used-to-be government housing buildings. The hotel’s central location, right on the MRT subway line (Bugis Station), allows for easy access to all parts of town. The Central Business District is a five-minute Metro ride away.

Rate: $$

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This happy life event happened to me at Pó, the restaurant in The Warehouse Hotel Singapore, created in partnership with Mod-Sin pioneer Chef Willin Low. By modernizing traditional grandma-like recipes, Low blends the cultural mish-mash of Singapore’s heritage with the familiarity of comfort food. (Follow him @willcookwilleat.)

THINGS TO DO: IN SINGAPORE

The steaming, spicy bowl of hearty ribs are a case in point. Sure I could have had bacon and eggs, but pork ribs and a head of garlic swimming in a pepper broth with bread crusts and rice on the side to mix in to my liking was a breakfast of champions. When in Rome.

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