In case you didn't know, we've been hard at work putting together our 2017 edition of our annual fine dining guide SG Top Tables (out end of October!). Drowning in menus, tasting notes, proofs and survey results from our favorite secret foodies is a great time to look back on important openings and emerging trends in Singapore. Here’s what we saw, and what we think we will see more of in the months to come.

Bars bites will be legit dinner

Watering holes this year have been amping up their bites game, and some of our best taste thrills were delivered not at fine dining establishments but by the bar stools. Neon Pigeon’s new little brother Fat Prince opened with an Old World Istanbul theme and a focus on cocktails and various high-end kebabs. Then, our favorite hotel bar Antidote announced not just a post-Tom head honcho—LA barkeep Gina Kent—but also a chef, Singaporean Tryson Quek, whose high-concept bar bites are pretty toe-curling: try the confit salmon with pickled cucumber—the accompanying ikura in burned butter will have you in ecstasy.

Local chefs will be celebrities

We’ve long bemoaned the relative lack of love for Singaporean chefs, but that all seems to be taking a turn, with homegrown talent achieving new heights, receiving international recognition and getting good breaks here in Singapore. Other than Jason Tan of Corner House, who has had an excellent year, nearly two dozen Singaporean-led restaurants received stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide; Violet Oon and Janice Wong both aligned themselves with two of Singapore’s most prestigious institutions (National Gallery Singapore and National Museum of Singapore, respectively) by opening high-profile restaurants there; Malcolm Lee’s freshly Michelin-starred Candlenut is moving to the glamorous Como development at Dempsey and The Lo & Behold Group announced that it was teaming up with Willin Low for Po, the new restaurant at its exciting December opening, The Warehouse Hotel. Here’s hoping 2017 will see Singaporean chefs being given and seizing more great opportunities and partnerships.

We will renew our vows with Japanese cuisine

Well, we kind of already did this year, which incidentally marked 50 years of Singaporean-Japanese diplomatic relations. Hot on the heels of Japanese enclaves at Suntec City and Marina Square, Japan Food Town launched at Wisma Atria, followed by a much more affordable enclave at Food Republic at Shaw House. More recently, the opening of debatably Singapore’s first live unagi restaurant, Man Man, created lines out the door over at Keong Saik, and Japanese Soba Noodles Tsuta is about to bring Michelin-starred ramen to us before the end of the year. And (shameless plug alert), we partnered with Toreta to soft-launch Bite! Japan a dedicated English-language restaurant site for lovers of Japanese food in Singapore. We always say Singaporeans love Japanese food, but every year we seem to take that love affair to a new level. 2017 is looking to be no different.

Local produce will reach new heights

It’s not anything new to learn that a hip new restaurant in Singapore has a little garden in the back. But the farm-to-table started was scaled to a new level with the arrival of Open Farm Community, which partnered with Edible Gardens to grow herbs and vegetables on their plot in Dempsey Hill. Many local bars and restaurants already work with rooftop hydroponic operations like Comcrop, and Restaurant Ember now proudly serves fish from a serious local kelong. With serious, well-regarded restaurants committing themselves to local produce, expect more places to follow next year.

Classic drinks will become a fetish

The long reign of bespoke cocktails and signature flourishes has been waning for quite some time now, and the sexiness pendulum has swung back to classic cocktails. First there were the multiple bars devoted to fetishizing the G&T and the gin martini—The Rabbit Hole, Cin Cin at Oasia Downtown and, until November 2016, the lobby lounge at the Conrad Continental. Now both Potato Head Folk and Flagship have made much ado about the Old Fashioned. We’ve new bars focusing on highballs (Highball on Kampong Bahru) and boilerplates (Skinny’s), and we expect this hawkeye attention to the same few cocktails will be a preoccupation that will continue in 2017.

More restaurants will commit to healthy eating

When it comes to casual dining and lunches, 2016 has been the year of the bowl: poke bowls, Ninja bowls, whole grain bowls, Spanish-inspired bowls, you name it. In the food events scene, the Brunch Bandits crew have veered sharply into healthy, whole eating territory. Founder Nithiya N. is dishing up organic white quinoa bowls, portobello burgers, veggie laksas and other vegetarian world flavors every weekend until December over at Nong at HortPark in Alexandra. But before we could dismiss all this healthy eating as a hippie-dippie-yuppie thing, Open Door Policy, aka our favorite Tiong Bahru date night spot, boldly unveiled a completely vegan and gluten-free menu. Granted, they're not doing bowls in particular, but they're setting a strong example for other fine dining restaurants with their risky and ambitious menu parameters. Will we see more restaurants taking such a plunge next year? We suspect yes.