SINGAPORE, Dec 29 — For 30 years, it was impossible to miss — or misunderstand. With its blaze-orange façade and uniformed female waitstaff in tight shorts and logo tank tops, Hooters stood as one of Clarke Quay’s most unapologetically male-gaze exports in Singapore.
That chapter will close on January 31, 2026, when the American restaurant shutters its only Singapore outlet, bringing its long — and increasingly anachronistic — run in the city-state to an end.
Singapore media organisation AsiaOne reported that the decision was driven by manpower shortages and low sales, pressures that strained the business as it tried to keep menu prices affordable. The closure also marks Hooters’ complete exit from Singapore.
The outlet, which opened in 1996 at Clarke Quay, was no ordinary franchise. It was the brand’s first international outlet outside North America and its first in Asia — launched at a time when its branding, built squarely around scantily clad waitresses serving wings and beer, raised far fewer eyebrows.
Back then, the formula was simple and shameless: American comfort food, cold drinks, and a dining room staffed exclusively by women dressed to sell more than just chicken wings. For years, it worked. The restaurant became a familiar stop for tourists, expats and after-work crowds along the river.
The food itself leaned heavily into indulgence. Hooters’ wings — ‘naked’ or breaded, tossed in sauce — were served in generous portions meant for sharing, with heat levels ranging from Samurai and Medium to the bravado-testing 911 sauce. Burgers, sandwiches and beers completed the offering.
But tastes — social as much as culinary — have shifted. What once passed as cheeky Americana has, in more recent years, felt out of step with changing conversations around gender, work and representation, particularly in a city that has grown more conscious of how women are presented and employed.
For now, the lights are still on and the wings still flying out of the kitchen. Those inclined to indulge in one final, knowingly ironic visit can do so before the end of January — a last hoot before one of Singapore’s most conspicuous relics of 1990s lad culture quietly exits the riverfront.
