Fiz

A Shophouse on Tanjong Pagar Road That Has Something to Prove

Tanjong Pagar's restaurant row has a particular logic. The shophouse facades are familiar, the five-foot ways predictable, but what happens inside them has shifted considerably over the past decade. The strip and its surrounding streets now house some of Singapore's more serious mid-to-upper-tier dining, and the physical container, narrow ground floors, high ceilings, pre-war bones, has become a kind of shorthand for a certain type of ambition. Fiz is a restaurant at 21 Tanjong Pagar Road beside the Fairfield Methodist Church in Singapore.

The address is not incidental. Tanjong Pagar sits at the edge of the CBD and draws a crowd that is comfortable spending at a $$$ price point without requiring the full ceremony of a hotel restaurant. That demographic expects a room that does something with its space. In shophouse dining, the architecture does half the editorial work: the constraints of the format, the proportions, the street-level openness, the relationship between interior and pavement, force a design response that either commits or hedges. The better Tanjong Pagar operators commit.

What the Room Tells You Before the Food Arrives

Shophouse Malaysian dining in Singapore has historically defaulted to one of two registers: the utilitarian hawker aesthetic, or the aggressively modernised space that distances itself from any cultural reference. Fiz occupies a more considered middle position. The ground-floor unit spans two lots (#01-01/02), which in shophouse terms means a width that allows for genuine spatial variety rather than a single corridor of tables. That extra room matters for how the restaurant feels at capacity, which, given a Google rating of 4.9 across 326 reviews, it likely reaches on most service periods.

Across Singapore's Michelin Plate tier, the design question is increasingly relevant. At the $$$ bracket, diners are choosing between formats: the tasting-menu counter, the European brasserie transplant, the refined kopitiam. Malaysian cuisine at this price point in Singapore carries its own set of expectations. The room needs to signal that the kitchen takes the tradition seriously without turning it into a museum exhibit.

Malaysian Cooking at Michelin Recognition, in Singapore Context

Singapore has a complex relationship with Malaysian food. The two cuisines share deep genealogy, laksa, rendang, nasi lemak, and satay appear across both cities' hawker heritage, but the prestige hierarchy in Singapore has long favoured European fine dining. The French and European Contemporary tier is dense: Les Amis, Odette, and Zén anchor the upper bracket, each carrying three Michelin stars. Below that tier, the $$$ mid-fine-dining space is occupied by strong European and international operators. Malaysian cooking at $$$ with Michelin recognition is a narrower category.

Fiz, under chef Hafizzul Hashim, is recognised in 2024, a marker that places it among kitchens the Guide considers worth attention. For Malaysian cuisine specifically, that recognition in Singapore carries weight. The more obvious reference points for serious Malaysian cooking at scale are across the causeway: Dewakan and Beta in Kuala Lumpur have spent years making the case for Malaysian cuisine as fine-dining-worthy. Fiz is working in a different city, with a different audience expectation, but the broader project is recognisably related.

For comparison within Singapore's own Malaysian dining tier, the reference set spans formats significantly. Hjh Maimunah on Jalan Pisang represents the canonical hawker-Malaysian benchmark, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand and long queues. Kitchenman Nasi Lemak anchors the affordable-specialist end. Fiz prices above both and competes on a different axis: not volume or value, but considered cooking in a room designed for the purpose.

The comparable set and What the Price Point Implies

At $$$, Fiz sits in the same price bracket as Burnt Ends, Jaan by Kirk Westaway, and Iggy's, all Michelin-starred or highly decorated operators. The current price point is about $180 per person before drinks. It is not the budget end of Malaysian dining, nor is it the fully committed tasting-menu format.

That positioning is not a criticism. The tier produces some of the more interesting meals in any city: places working seriously without the tasting-menu constraints that can make starred restaurants feel overly prescribed. At Malaysian cuisine and $$$, the question is whether the kitchen is treating the tradition as a source or as a costume, using it as raw material for genuine development, or dressing familiar dishes in upscale plating. The 4.9 Google score across over 200 reviews, a number that typically reflects diners who sought the restaurant out rather than stumbled into it, suggests the former.

Malaysian Cuisine Beyond Singapore: A Broader Context

For readers tracking Malaysian cooking across multiple cities, the scene extends well beyond Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Azalina's in San Francisco represents the diaspora-Malaysian model, working with the cuisine in a city where it remains peripheral. In Malaysia itself, the regional picture is detailed: Communal Table by Gēn in George Town is working Penang-rooted traditions, while Bee See Heong in Seberang Perai represents the hawker-specialist end. Kuala Lumpur's scene includes both Ah Hei Bak Kut Teh and Akar and Anak Baba as distinct expressions of the tradition. Fiz in Singapore sits inside this wider network as the city's current reference point for Michelin-recognised Malaysian cooking at a mid-fine-dining price.

Planning Your Visit

For more on Singapore's dining, hotel, bar, and experience options, see our full Singapore restaurants guide, our full Singapore hotels guide, our full Singapore bars guide, our full Singapore wineries guide, and our full Singapore experiences guide.