2026 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Dining

Dining out is probably one of the biggest spending categories for many Singaporeans — so it’s a good thing that there’s no shortage of credit cards offering bonus miles for restaurants and eateries.

In this post, we’ll look at the best cards to use for dining in Singapore. If you’re dining overseas, refer to my post on the best cards for overseas spending instead.

What MCC does dining code as?

Here are the most commonly used MCCs for restaurants and eateries. 

MCCs may not always be straightforward. For example, a hotel restaurant might code as a hotel, or as a restaurant, depending on whether it bills through the hotel’s system or its own. 

Fortunately, it’s possible to check the MCC before spending through any of the methods below.

The exact MCC only matters if you’re paying with a card that uses a whitelist policy. If you’re using a card with a blacklist policy, things are much simpler.

In the next section, I’ll cover both whitelist and blacklist options for dining.

What cards should I use for dining?

The best card to use for dining depends on whether you’re making payment in-store at a terminal, or whether the restaurant employs QR code ordering and payment (which is basically an online spending situation).

In-store payment

🍽️ Best Cards for Dining In-Store Payment
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Amaze x Citi Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per s. month. SGD transactions incur a 1% fee Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month Review
Maybank XL Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd	Min. S$500, max S$1K per c. month Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Dining as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	4 mpd	Max S$750 per c. month. Must choose Dining as bonus category Review
UOB Preferred Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$600 per c. month. Must use mobile contactless Review
UOB Visa Signature Apply	4 mpd	Min. S$1K, max S$1.2K in SGD per s. month. Must use contactless Review
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	2.4 mpd	No cap. Min. S$1K spend on SIA Group in m. year Review
C. Month= Calendar Month | S. Month= Statement Month | M. Year= Membership Year

For in-store payments at restaurants, the simplest solutions would be to use blacklist cards like the UOB Preferred Visa, UOB Visa Signature or Amaze x Citi Rewards Card, all of which would earn 4 mpd.

However, given how flexible these bonus caps are, it might be a better idea to conserve them for other transactions, and instead use cards which explicitly whitelist the dining category. 

In that case, 4 mpd options include the Maybank XL Rewards and HSBC Revolution, or the UOB Lady’s Card and UOB Lady’s Solitaire, provided you choose Dining as the quarterly bonus category. 

If you’re a very big spender, you might consider the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, which offers an uncapped 2.4 mpd provided cardholders spend at least S$1,000 on Singapore Airlines, Scoot or KrisShop in a membership year.

Payment via QR code

🍽️ Best Cards for Dining Payment via QR code
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Citi Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per s. month Review
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month Review
Maybank XL Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd	Min. S$500, max S$1K per c. month Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month. Must choose Dining as bonus category Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	4 mpd	Max S$750 per c. month. Must choose Dining as bonus category Review
UOB Preferred Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$600 per c. month Review
StanChart Journey Card Apply	3 mpd	Max S$1K per s. month. SGD only Review
KrisFlyer UOB Card Apply	2.4 mpd	No cap. Min. S$1K spend on SIA Group in m. year Review
C. Month= Calendar Month | S. Month= Statement Month | M. Year= Membership Year

Many restaurants now use QR-code menus, and some require customers to pay via their phones before submitting orders. 

This is conceptually similar to food delivery, and the main difference for blacklist cards is that you can’t use the UOB Visa Signature anymore, as it does not offer bonuses for online spend (unless that spending is in FCY, in which case the FCY bonus kicks in).

Instead, you can use the DBS Woman’s World Card, which earns 4 mpd on all online transactions capped at S$1,000 per calendar month. Also, there’s no need to pair the Citi Rewards Card with Amaze, because the transaction is already online.

For whitelist cards, the rest of the options are largely similar, though there’s now an additional option in the form of the StanChart Journey Card, which earns 3 mpd on local online dining capped at S$1,000 per statement month.

What about MCC coverage?

🍽️ Dining MCC Coverage
MCC	UOB PV Online	Revo	XL	Journey Online	Lady’s Dining	KF UOB
5811	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
5812	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
5813	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌*	✅
5814	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
5441	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
5462	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
5499	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌
*MCC 5813 is covered under the Entertainment category

If you’re spending with a whitelist card, it’s crucial to check how the card defines Dining, because different cards cover different MCCs. 

For example, the HSBC Revolution does not award bonuses for MCC 5814, which is a potential gotcha. Even if you don’t care for McDonald’s, Burger King or other junk food, 5814 can pop up in unexpected places because Visa and Mastercard have historically offered preferential rates for this MCC. 

That created an incentive for restaurants to push for this classification, even if what they’re offering is the furthest thing from fast food. MCC 5814 has been reported at Shin Katsu, PS Cafe, Beyond the Dough, Tipo Pasta, MODU High, Sushisamba, Cafe Nesuto, and bakeries like Noci Bakehouse and Paris Baguette. It’s also used by GrabFood in Singapore.

Another MCC to be careful of is MCC 5499, which is used by Bengawan Solo (certain outlets), Nespresso, Cheers, 7-Eleven, Farm Frozen, and GrabFood in Malaysia. This MCC is excluded by the HSBC Revolution and Maybank XL Rewards. 

You might be surprised to see the UOB Preferred Visa in the table above — isn’t it a blacklist card? It is, but only if you’re paying in person. If you’re paying online (e.g. QR code ordering), then it switches to whitelist mode, where only certain MCCs earn 4 mpd.

What if I want to pay with Kris+?

S$5 for new Kris+ users

Get S$5 when you sign up with code W644363 and make your first transaction

Kris+ is a great way of racking up additional miles on dining with a few hundred partners, each offering an extra 1-9 mpd, on top of what you earn from your credit cards.

In general, Kris+ preserves the MCC of the merchant, so if you’re at a restaurant, you should use the same card you’d otherwise use for dining.

For a guide to the best cards to pair with Kris+, refer to the article below.

What’s the best card to use for Kris+?

Other options for dining

Here are two more cards that are worth a mention when we talk about dining, though I decided not to feature them in the tables above because their appeal is rather niche. 

StanChart Beyond Card

Apply

The StanChart Beyond Card offers cardholders an uncapped 8 mpd on overseas dining, with no minimum spend necessary.

This sounds incredible, but the catch is that it’s for Priority Private customers only. This requires a minimum AUM of S$1.5M, so it’s safe to say it won’t be for everyone.

Also, Standard Chartered has the highest FCY transaction fee in the market at 3.5% (versus the market average 3.25%), so you’re essentially buying miles at 0.42 cents each — which is still a great deal, mind you.

Dining is defined as MCCs 5811, 5812, 5813 and 5814. 

StanChart Smart Card

Apply

The StanChart Smart Card offers cardholders up to 9.28 mpd on fast food, streaming, public transport and EV charging.

Fast food is not defined by MCC, but rather covers the following specific chains:

• Burger King
• Domino’s Pizza
• KFC
• McDonald’s
• Pizza Hut
• Starbucks
• Subway
• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
• Toast Box
• Ya Kun Kaya Toast

An uncapped 9.28 mpd would be amazing, but that minimum spend is going to be an issue. Unless you can somehow spend at least S$1,500 in a month on fast food, streaming, public transport and EV charging, you’ll have to make up the difference with non-bonus spend that is rewarded at a much lower rate. 

A lower tier of 7.42 mpd is available with a minimum spend of S$800, but even that is a significant amount of spending to hit on bonus categories alone. If you’re eating that much junk food, you might want to get a credit card that offers bonuses on hospital bills too!

Other ways to save on dining

While this article is meant to focus on miles earning, here’s a quick reminder that there are credit cards which offer special dining privileges that can take a bite out of the bill:

• AMEX Platinum Charge, Platinum Reserve and Platinum Credit Card members have access to the Love Dining programme, which offers up to 50% off food at selected hotels and restaurants
• AMEX HighFlyer Card, DBS Vantage Card and StanChart Beyond Card (Priority Private only) members get a complimentary ALL Accor+ Explorer membership, which offers up to 30% off food at participating hotels

Alternatively, premium cards sometimes offer special 1-for-1 dining experiences. 

• Citi Prestige: Haute Dining
• HSBC Premier Mastercard: Savour Dining
• OCBC VOYAGE: VOYAGE Gourmet Experiences

These are very popular and are usually booked up within minutes, so you’ll need a bit of luck to get them.

Conclusion

Dining out is one category that banks are happy to reward, as seen from the wide variety of cards offering bonuses.

If you’re using a whitelist card to pay, however, you’ll want to be careful about MCCs because each bank defines dining differently. The simplest approach is to use a blacklist card, but it might be better to save those bonus caps for other categories of spending instead.