5 Best Places to Eat on Campus

There’s plenty of dining options in NUS, from canteen and convenience stores, to cafes and food courts. Here’s five places you definitely want to try out.

1 // Best for Splurging: Waacow (UTown)

Found on the first floor of UTown, the award-winning Waacow serves luxurious rice bowls and a few snacks. Its signature dish is the Wagyu Beef Rice Bowl. The beef has a melt-in-the-mouth tenderness, and goes great with the sous vide egg and short-grain rice.

Credit: Waacow (Facebook)

The signature dish is $17.90 for a regular bowl, which may be pricey as a school meal. However, it is very affordable for a taste of Wagyu Beef. Regardless of your budget, we recommend that you try this at least once in your college life.

2 // Best for Saving: Yong Tau Foo (FASS)

For a more budget-friendly option, consider the Yong Tau Foo stall at The Deck. Each ingredient costs only 30 cents, and you can order it in a warm, spicy bowl of laksa soup. The soup comes with a good balance of spices, and you can taste tinges of coconut milk.

Credit: Patriineee (Dayre.me)

You’ll have to brave long queues for this stall during the lunch rush, but it’s well worth the wait.

3 // Best for Sharing: Mala (UTown)

Mala Hotpot is always a great dish to share with friends. There’s three mala hotpot locations in NUS -- at PGPR, FASS and UTown. The UTown Mala is my personal favourite, due to its fresh, flavourful ingredients. It also comes with generous splashing of chili oil.

Credit: NUS

However, while authentic Mala is supposed to be very spicy, the UTown Mala is barely hot. Therefore, if you’re looking for a spice kick, you might want to order it 特辣 (very spicy), or try the other mala locations.

4 // Best for Snacking: Creamy Duck (YIH)

There’s plenty of places to grab waffles at NUS. However, the most value-for-money waffles may be the ones at Yusof Ishak House. Other waffle stalls tend to offer the standard flavours, such as chocolate or blueberry. But Creamy Duck has options such as cinnamon or durian, and even savoury waffles such as ham or tuna. Depending on the option you choose, it will cost you only $1.40 to $2.

The waffles are guaranteed to be crispy and hot, as they are made upon order. The conventional chocolate waffle, my own favourite, comes with generous helpings of chocolate sauce.

5 // Best for Healthy Eating: Platypus Food Bar (FoS)

Platypus Food Bar is a snazzy-looking cafe nestled in a corner of the Faculty of Science. It serves a variety of dishes and drinks, such as nachos, rice bowls, and bubble tea. And if you’re looking to eat healthily, this cafe has a great salad bar.

If you opt for the 1-meat option, the salad costs $5.90. We recommend choosing the savoury and juicy smoked duck breast. You can customize your dressing and ingredients from a wide selection, which are then placed onto a bed of lettuce.

Take Your Pick

We hope you found this shortlist useful for narrowing down NUS’s wide array of dining options. If you have any recommendations for what to eat on campus, please leave a comment below!