Nova

Sixty-three floors up, the skyline stops being a view and becomes a map.

Nova is the rooftop to take someone to on a clear night when the point is height: Level 63 of 1 Raffles Place, billed as Singapore's highest rooftop bar at around 282 metres. Come at opening to watch the city switch on, and pick a quieter night if you want to talk. The compromise is weather and noise: haze spoils the view, which is the whole product, and the busier nights belong to the DJ.

At that height the Marina Bay skyline stops being a backdrop and becomes a map. Getting there is part of the ritual: you head to HighHouse on the 62nd floor first, then take a separate lift the last stretch up. The steel star crowning the building is the thing everyone photographs. It has a name, ASTRA, and an author, Kuala Lumpur light artist Jun Ong, and it gives the deck an otherworldly glow that photographs better than it has any right to.

It is not a hushed sort of place. The bar is split over two levels, with a DJ booth and a clearable floor below and the main seating above. Nova bills the whole thing as a “festival-in-the-sky”, which tells you how the later hours go, and the drinks list is built on Pacific Coast flavours.

The signatures lean playful: a mango sticky highball inspired by Thai mango sticky rice, a gin-based Trippple Lime Sling, and a Roselle of gin, sour roselle, sweet vermouth and soda. To soak them up there are tom yum fries and Indonesian-style noodles, exactly the right bar snacks for 63 floors up, plus oysters, churros and a sharing platter. The tom yum fries are the order; nobody climbs this high for a sensible snack.

How to do it well. Check the forecast and the haze before you commit, because a grey night here is just an expensive lift ride. Book through the bar's online link, arrive near opening and take the upper deck for the view. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays run latest, and an entry charge including drinks has applied on those nights in the past, so the other evenings are the ones for conversation. Raffles Place MRT is directly underneath, which means the only climb is the one in the lift.

Good to know Nova is on Level 63, 1 Raffles Place; Raffles Place MRT is underneath. Go to HighHouse on Level 62 first, then take the separate lift up. Check the bar's website or Instagram for current opening and any entry charge before you go.

Nova | Level 63, 1 Raffles Place, Singapore 048616 | Nearest MRT: Raffles Place