Not a tenant list. The geography, the underground link, the food halls, and an honest answer on whether Singapore is good value.
Prices and opening times checked with the operatorLast checked 2 Aug 2026
Which one, and what for
Orchard Road is one long street, and that is what visitors get wrong
Three stations on one road, and four stretches that want different things from you.
Orchard Road is a single road with three MRT stations on it. West to east: Orchard, then Somerset, then Dhoby Ghaut.
- Orchard
- North South Line, Thomson-East Coast Line
- Somerset
- North South Line
- Dhoby Ghaut
- Interchange: North South, North East, Circle
- All three
- On the North South Line, one short ride apart
That is the skeleton, and everything else hangs off it. A list of malls and brands is the wrong thing to memorise, because tenants churn constantly and it goes stale within a year. What you need is the shape of the street.
West to east, and what each segment is for
The Tanglin end
Tanglin Mall at 163 Tanglin Road is a neighbourhood mall for the families who live nearby: supermarket, pharmacy, children's clothes, a decent bakery. Pleasant to sit down in, poor for anything you flew here to buy.
The Orchard station core
Why people come. Within four minutes of the station you have ION Orchard, Wisma Atria, Ngee Ann City with Takashimaya inside it, TANGS at Tang Plaza, Shaw House with Isetan Scotts, and Paragon. The luxury flagships and the department stores are all here, and this is the only stretch where the underground network is properly useful.
The Somerset stretch
313@Somerset sits on top of Somerset station and runs to high street brands, orchardgateway wraps around it, and Orchard Central is next along. Prices drop, the crowd gets younger, the food gets more casual, and the buildings connect to each other better than the Orchard end manages.
The Dhoby Ghaut end
Plaza Singapura at 68 Orchard Road marks it: a mainstream family mall on a major interchange, across the road from the Istana and walkable to the museum district. If you want the National Gallery, that is the end you want, not the shopping end.
Which malls are worth entering, and which are interchangeable
Pick two or three for an afternoon and let the rest go.
Blunt version. Four buildings justify going inside on their own merits. The rest are the same mall with different flooring.
ION Orchard
The one to enter if you enter only one. It is built over Orchard station and the architecture is worth the visit even if you buy nothing.
- Address
- 2 Orchard Turn
- Hours
- 10am to 10pm daily
- Nearest MRT
- Orchard — the mall is built over the station
- Visitor Centre
- Singapore Visitor Centre, Basement 1 concierge
- Food hall
- Food Opera, #B4-03/04
- ION Sky
- Levels 55 and 56, noon to 4pm daily
The catchION Sky, on levels 55 and 56, opens only from noon to 4pm, so it belongs in a shopping afternoon rather than an evening.
Ngee Ann City
Worth it for two tenants rather than the mall.
- Address
- 391A Orchard Road
- Takashimaya
- 10am to 9.30pm daily
- Food floor
- Takashimaya, Basement 2
- Bookshop
- Books Kinokuniya, level 4
Takashimaya is the largest department store on the road and its Basement 2 food floor is the best single food destination in the area. Books Kinokuniya on level 4 is one of the best bookshops in Southeast Asia and a good hour on a wet afternoon.
TANGS at Tang Plaza
The local institution — a Singaporean department store rather than an imported one.
- Address
- 310 Orchard Road
- Hours
- 10am to 9.30pm daily
- Nearest MRT
- Orchard, Exit 1 — indoors via ION Basement 2 and the Scotts underpass
The catchIt shuts at 9.30pm while the malls around it run to 10pm, so go in early and leave the late malls for the end of the evening.
Paragon
The quiet luxury mall: high-end fashion below, medical suites above, and the calmest crowd on the road on a Saturday.
- Address
- 290 Orchard Road
- Hours
- 10am to 10pm daily
- Nearest MRT
- Orchard, Exit A, about a 5 minute walk
The catchPeople assume it is connected underground and it is not. Its own directions say to leave Orchard station by Exit A and walk about five minutes, at street level.
313@Somerset
Earns its place for high street rather than luxury, and it is the only mall here open until 11pm on Friday and Saturday.
- Address
- 313 Orchard Road
- Hours
- Mon to Thu 10am to 10pm, Fri and Sat 10am to 11pm, Sun 10am to 10pm
- Nearest MRT
- Somerset — the mall sits on top of the station
- Food hall
- Food Republic, fifth floor
Everything else, including buildings with famous names, is a mid-market mall with the same twelve chains.
The underground link, and exactly where the chain breaks
Much of Orchard Road can be walked in air conditioning, below ground, and almost no visitor knows the route.
In this climate it is the difference between a good afternoon and a soaked shirt. There are two separate underground clusters, and they do not join up.
Start below Orchard station
Wisma Atria is linked straight into Orchard station and into its neighbours through the basement network.
Exit 5 into ION Orchard, Basement 2
The Orchard station cluster runs west from here.
Through the Paterson link and Wheelock Place
Still indoors, still below ground.
Take the Scotts Road and Scotts Square underpass
You come up inside Shaw House, where Isetan Scotts is.
The Somerset cluster
orchardgateway has direct access to Somerset station across two basement floors, and connects to 313@Somerset and Orchard Central through inter-mall doorways on several levels as well as the street-level Discovery Walk. It also owns the two crossings of Orchard Road that matter here: a glass overhead bridge, known as the Tube, and an underpass.
The eastern island
Plaza Singapura has a direct Basement 2 connection into Dhoby Ghaut interchange and links internally to The Atrium@Orchard, so the eastern end has its own small indoor island.
Where people actually eat here
Two food economies run in parallel. At street level and upstairs are restaurants aimed at people with a shopping bag and a booking. In the basements and on the food-hall floors is what the office workers and shop staff eat. The second is better value and, most days, better food.
Food Opera, ION Orchard
About 19,000 square feet and 27 stalls, run by the same group as Food Republic and deliberately not a generic food court: the tenants are established hawker names, including an East Coast Lagoon prawn noodle stall and a Hokkien mee and char kway teow stall.
Takashimaya food floor, Ngee Ann City
The other serious one, and a different proposition: a Japanese department store food hall of prepared food, bakeries, confectionery and counters rather than a seated hawker layout. The best place on the road to assemble a picnic or buy something to take home.
Food Republic outlets along Orchard Road
| Outlet | Where | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Wisma Atria | Level 4, four floors above the street | Singapore's first Food Republic, opened 2005 |
| Shaw House | Basement | More than twenty stalls, including a Penang section |
| 313@Somerset | Fifth floor | 30 stalls and a thousand seats |
Chatterbox
Hilton Singapore Orchard, 333 Orchard Road, #05-03. Serves the chicken rice it built its name on, until 10.30pm on weekdays and 11pm at weekends.
Lawry's The Prime Rib
Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Road, for the American steakhouse version of an evening.
Is Singapore actually good value for what you came to buy?
Honest answer: for luxury goods and electronics, usually no, and you should not plan a trip around the saving.
Singapore is a low-tariff, high-rent market. The absence of import duty on most consumer goods is real, but Orchard Road rents are among the highest in Asia and that lands in the shelf price. Luxury houses set their prices regionally rather than from what a shop costs to run, and duty-free is not the same thing as a discount.
- GST
- 9%
- 9% since
- 1 January 2024, up from 8%
- In the price?
- Yes — GST is inside the displayed price
- Refund minimum
- $100 including GST
Spend at least $100 including GST
At a participating retailer. You must be 16 or over and not a citizen or permanent resident.
Show your physical passport at the till
So the shop can capture it digitally. Photocopies and phone photos are not accepted.
Claim at an eTRS kiosk
At Changi or Seletar airport. The full conditions are in the questions below.
The Great Singapore Sale: it is over, and this is what replaced it
If anyone tells you to time your trip for the Great Singapore Sale from June to August, that advice is dead. It stopped running as an organised annual sale.
Great Singapore Sale
The Singapore Retailers Association no longer runs a national sale season, and nothing has taken the place of one. The islandwide event it puts on now is the Singapore Retail Festival.
Singapore Retail Festival
An annual islandwide event built around experiences rather than blanket discounting: festival grounds, pop-ups, livestream shopping and a digital campaign.
- 2026 edition
- 4 to 26 July 2026
- Festival grounds
- Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza, 4 to 19 July 2026
Malls elsewhere worth the trip, and why
Two malls get folded into Orchard Road guides constantly and neither is on Orchard Road. Being straight about that saves a wasted afternoon.
Suntec City
Go for the Fountain of Wealth, recognised by Guinness in 1998 as the world's largest fountain, its bronze ring built on the Hindu mandala. Touch-water sessions are when the water is lowered and you can put your hand in it.
- Address
- 3 Temasek Boulevard
- Hours
- 10am to 10pm daily
- District
- Marina Centre, about twenty minutes away by train
- Nearest MRT
- Esplanade Exit A, about 3 minutes
- Touch water
- 10am to noon, 2pm to 4pm, 6pm to 7.30pm daily
The catchAs shopping alone it is not better than Orchard Road.
Big DUCK Tours runs its amphibious road-and-water tours from Suntec. Underground access is good: three minutes from Esplanade Exit A, five from Promenade Exit C, or eight to ten minutes from City Hall through City Link Mall and Esplanade Exchange.
VivoCity
The real reason to go is that it is the mainland gateway to Sentosa, so you will pass through it anyway if the island is on your list. Its waterfront promenade and rooftop are genuinely pleasant, which is rare for a mall.
- Address
- 1 HarbourFront Walk
- Hours
- 10am to 10pm daily
- Nearest MRT
- HarbourFront, next door
- Size
- About 140,000 square metres — Singapore's largest mall
- Opened
- 2006, designed by Toyo Ito
The catchOtherwise it is a very large collection of the shops you already walked past on Orchard Road.
Opening hours, checked
Hours below are as published by each operator on 2 August 2026. Shops and restaurants inside a mall keep their own hours and often differ from the building.
Orchard Road and nearby malls, opening hours as published by each operator
| Place | Address | Opening hours |
|---|---|---|
| ION Orchard | 2 Orchard Turn | 10am to 10pm daily |
| Paragon | 290 Orchard Road | 10am to 10pm daily |
| Takashimaya Department Store | 391A Orchard Road | 10am to 9.30pm daily |
| TANGS at Tang Plaza | 310 Orchard Road | 10am to 9.30pm daily |
| Isetan Scotts, Shaw House | 350 Orchard Road | 10am to 9pm daily |
| Isetan Wisma Atria | 435 Orchard Road | 10am to 10pm daily |
| 313@Somerset | 313 Orchard Road | Mon to Thu 10am to 10pm, Fri and Sat 10am to 11pm, Sun 10am to 10pm |
| orchardgateway | 277 Orchard Road | 10.30am to 10.30pm daily |
| Mandarin Gallery | 333A Orchard Road | 11am to 10pm daily |
| Plaza Singapura | 68 Orchard Road | 10am to 10pm daily |
| Tanglin Mall | 163 Tanglin Road | 10am to 10pm daily |
| ION Sky, levels 55 and 56 | 2 Orchard Turn | Noon to 4pm daily |
| Suntec City | 3 Temasek Boulevard | 10am to 10pm daily |
| VivoCity | 1 HarbourFront Walk | 10am to 10pm daily |
What a local knows
The closing times on Orchard Road are staggered, and nobody tells visitors. The malls shut at 10pm, but the department stores inside and beside them shut earlier: Isetan Scotts at 9pm, TANGS and Takashimaya both at 9.30pm. So the common evening plan, dinner first and then a look at the department stores, fails. Do the department stores before 9pm and use the last hour for the malls and the food halls, which are still trading. ION Sky is the extreme case of the same trap: it looks like an observation deck you can visit after dinner, but it opens only from noon to 4pm, so it has to be built into a shopping afternoon or dropped.
Questions people actually ask
Can you really walk Orchard Road underground and stay in air conditioning?
Partly, and only in two separate stretches. Around Orchard station you can get from the platform through ION Orchard's Basement 2, the Paterson link and Wheelock Place, then along the Scotts Road underpass into Shaw House, and separately across to Tang Plaza. Around Somerset station, orchardgateway connects into the station across two basement floors and links to 313@Somerset and Orchard Central, with a glass bridge and an underpass crossing Orchard Road. The two stretches do not join. The gap past Ngee Ann City and Mandarin Gallery is above ground. Take the train one stop between Orchard and Somerset to skip it.
Is the Great Singapore Sale still on?
No. The Singapore Retailers Association stopped running it as an organised annual sale and replaced it with the Singapore Retail Festival, which is built around pop-ups, livestreams and in-store activations rather than blanket discounting. The 2026 edition ran from 4 to 26 July 2026, with festival grounds at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza. Do not schedule a trip around a June to August sale window.
How does the GST refund work, and is it worth the effort?
GST is 9% and is already inside the price you see. To claim it back you must be 16 or over and neither a Singapore citizen nor a permanent resident, spend at least $100 including GST at a participating retailer, and present your physical passport at the till so the shop can capture it digitally. You then claim at an eTRS kiosk at Changi or Seletar airport, leaving with the goods within two months of purchase and within 12 hours of approval. A handling fee is deducted, so you get back less than 9%. It is worth doing on a large purchase and not worth the queue on a small one.
Which mall should I go to if I only have two hours?
ION Orchard. It sits directly on top of Orchard station, so you lose no time getting there, the building itself is worth seeing, the Singapore Visitor Centre is at the Basement 1 concierge, and Food Opera at #B4-03/04 gives you a proper hawker-style meal without leaving. If you want a bookshop instead, cross to Ngee Ann City for Books Kinokuniya on level 4.
Are Suntec City and VivoCity part of Orchard Road?
No. Suntec City is at 3 Temasek Boulevard in the Marina Centre area, and VivoCity is at 1 HarbourFront Walk at the southern end of the island. Both are worth a trip for a specific reason rather than for shopping: Suntec for the Fountain of Wealth and its touch-water sessions, VivoCity because it is the mainland gateway to Sentosa and has a genuinely good waterfront promenade. Their shop mix largely repeats what is on Orchard Road.
When do the shops actually close?
Most malls on Orchard Road close at 10pm, and 313@Somerset stays open to 11pm on Friday and Saturday. The department stores close earlier: Isetan Scotts at 9pm, and both Takashimaya and TANGS at 9.30pm. ION Sky is the tightest window of all, open only from noon to 4pm.
Read next
Where these prices and times come from
Every price, opening time and closure here comes from the operator's own website, not from a booking site. Follow any link to check it yourself.
- IRAS, Historical GST rates checked 2026-08-02
- IRAS, Tourist Refund Scheme checked 2026-08-02
- ION Orchard checked 2026-08-02
- ION Orchard, Visitor Information checked 2026-08-02
- ION Orchard dining directory checked 2026-08-02
- Food Republic checked 2026-08-02
- ION Orchard, ION Sky checked 2026-08-02
- Paragon checked 2026-08-02
- Paragon, Getting Here checked 2026-08-02
- Takashimaya Singapore checked 2026-08-02
- Takashimaya floor guide checked 2026-08-02
- Books Kinokuniya Singapore checked 2026-08-02
- TANGS Singapore checked 2026-08-02
- Isetan Singapore, How to get there checked 2026-08-02
- Wisma Atria, About Us checked 2026-08-02
- Food Republic checked 2026-08-02
- 313@somerset checked 2026-08-02
- Food Republic checked 2026-08-02
- orchardgateway checked 2026-08-02
- orchardgateway, About Us checked 2026-08-02
- Mandarin Gallery checked 2026-08-02
- Lawry's The Prime Rib Singapore checked 2026-08-02
- Chatterbox checked 2026-08-02
- CapitaLand, Plaza Singapura checked 2026-08-02
- Tanglin Mall checked 2026-08-02
- Suntec City checked 2026-08-02
- Suntec City, Getting Here checked 2026-08-02
- Suntec City, Fountain of Wealth checked 2026-08-02
- VivoCity checked 2026-08-02
- VivoCity, About Us checked 2026-08-02
- Singapore Retail Festival checked 2026-08-02
- Singapore Retail Festival, About checked 2026-08-02
- Singapore Retailers Association checked 2026-08-02
- Sim Lim Square checked 2026-08-02