From the Michelin Guide to La Liste and the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, food guides have long been a barometer for culinary excellence. In recent years, however, two new guides have emerged as significant players in the dining scene – the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide and Trip.Gourmet’s Awards.
Singapore recently hosted the first-ever overseas award ceremony for the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide 2025 at Marina Bay Sands, where 16 local restaurants were recognised – the most ever for the city-state. Five new entrants, including Cassia, Jade Palace Seafood Restaurant, Peach Blossoms, Seroja and Waku Ghin, joined the list with a one-diamond rating. Peach Blossoms, located at PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay, also bagged the coveted 2025 Annual Dish Award for its Crispy Scales Fillet of Marble Goby in Spicy Pineapple Sauce.
Beyond the restaurant recognitions, two chefs from Singapore received individual honours in the 2025 Chef Awards: Sebastien Lepinoy of Les Amis, a three-diamond restaurant, was awarded the Master Chef Award, while Toraik Chua of Zén clinched the Young Chef Award.
Meanwhile, Trip.Gourmet’s Gourmet Awards, unveiled in August 2024, spotlighted the growing prominence of food tourism as a major travel motivator. The new guide covers four thematic categories – Fine Dining, Local Restaurants, Light Bites, and Restaurants for Views & Experiences – and integrates directly with Trip.Best lists on Trip.com, allowing travellers to seamlessly discover top dining spots across 300 cities. With a focus on travel attributes and user preferences, the platform emphasises how food can transform a journey, with top categories ranging from farm-to-table concepts in Bali to buffet spreads in Dubai and seafood feasts in Singapore.
Odette, Zen and Waku Ghin continue to hold their spots as top fine-dining destinations, each securing the Black Diamond rating in both the Trip.Gourmet and Black Pearl rankings. Their ability to consistently deliver exceptional dining experiences has solidified their reputation, not just locally but globally.
Ultimately, while guides proliferate and trends evolve, the hallmark of success remains consistency. As new dining hotspots emerge, it is the enduring excellence of restaurants like Odette, Waku Ghin and Les Amis that keeps them at the forefront of the global culinary map.
Featured image: Courtesy of Citigate Dewe Rogerson
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