Are you a classic punter or a trendsetting night owl? In this battle of the booze joints, we pit older nightlife neighbourhoods against newer, hipper enclaves. Which is better? You decide

Boat Quay vs Clarke Quay

Let’s face it. Clarke Quay is an extreme makeover extraordinaire and Boat Quay seems desperately in need of one. But we also know looks can be deceiving on both sides of the river, because it’s not about what’s happening out front, it’s about the battle of the back alleys and the double C’s – The Cannery and Circular Road. Anita Kapoor

Are you more a Mohamed Sultan of swing, or a twee Robertson Quayer? While some may argue that Mhd Sultan has been on a downward spiral ever since the planning powers-that-be moved on to greener pastures (down the road), the street of nine lives is slowly, and surely, reincarnating. Still, it’s the adjacent stretch that’s gaining momentum as the spot where the other (cooler) half lives, sups, drinks and parties. AK

One has been touted as Singapore’s answer to bohemia and a centre for expatriates since the 1930s. The other is a plantation turned army camp turned lifestyle enclave that was officially given a new name (and chic status) in December 2006. Call them what you want; both are hot spots in their own right. Despite their age difference, they share several similarities:

Boat Quay gets a bad rap, but the call of the water could prove stronger than the call of the touts

Boat Quay isn’t what it used to be. But despite everyone’s knee-jerk dismissal of an evening at BQ, the old row does still have its charm. And part of that charm comes directly from the thing that makes it, at times, so annoying: the equally irksome, equally engaging scrubs of the nightlife world – the touts.

‘Brother ai lim mai?’ ‘Boss, you want good food?’ Beside vats of sleepy, tied-up crabs, equally sleepy-looking women suddenly become highly animated when you cross their turf. They follow you, menu in hand, spouting a constant babble of offers.

On a recent night, only one out of 15 people approached by touts actually stopped, and even then they rarely went into the restaurant, so clearly the usefulness is not what encourages businesses to maintain this trade. It’s peer pressure: everyone else has a tout, so we must have one as well. ‘We have to tell the tourist what we do, give discounts, otherwise no one stops,’ says Mrs Lee, who has been on the quay 40 years, originally as a trader and now as a restaurant owner. ‘53 restaurants chasing the cheese,’ she says. ‘Who is going to be lucky?’

Paid by the hour and watched over keenly by their bosses, touts – and Boat Quay businesses in general – are falling on less lucrative times. ‘It’s hard to make a living,’ says Mr Lim, who has touted for 13 years, a rarity in a business that has such low wages and high turnover. He’s worried about the dwindling number of tourists. ‘Sometimes they come, sometimes not.’ Mr Lazaroo at Pichon restaurant agrees that numbers are down, and he pins the fault on the noisy barkers and the arrival of newer, shinier Clarke Quay. ‘It’s managed by one company; they can control how it looks, the touting, the range of restaurants. People avoid Boat Quay because of the touts.’

There’s even disagreement on the quay itself. According to Mr Lee and Mr Prevost, the BQ Association is working to stop the touting and focus more on the restaurants’ quality of food. Can you imagine eating in peace next to that unarguably awesome view? Watch out, Clarke Quay. Natasha Golding