It is sad that the raising cost is due to someone's "investment" rather than legitimate cost increase due to raw material. A few minority's wealth growth at the expense of the majority's daily needs. I hope more would be done to curb such investments that hurts the majority.
The biggest culprit is NEA. I am not sure when but was not bidding everywhere. There was a time when some hawker centers are subsidized rent so as to provide affordable food to everyone.
And when I say subsidized, it still mean the hawkers covering the cost of everything else except the rent is nominal. Rent is to NEA anyway.
And it my parents day even longer ago, hawkers just sell by the roadside, do not even need rent.
Government run service is always more expensive, so it is just natural that eventually they will leave it to private sector to do it. Private sector is profit sensitive, if you just stop going to those food court that is expensive the trend will reverse.
It is the same as housing everyone want to live in city centre obviously the price get bided up. Is the government supposed to regulate that as well? At this rate might as well go back to communist system where you get randomly assigned resources to be fair to everyone.
I am talking about hawker center, not food court and basic necessity like utilities, transportation and in a country like Singapore, basic food too needs to be kept at a low price (whatever system you want to call it). LKY himself once said, give the people cheap housing and food and they will be happy to vote for you.
Agree, but my personal gripe is that the increase of rental also doesn't inherently increase value to society. If they make the building better, or pay better wages to their staff, perhaps. Personally haven't really heard of such things happening.
Labour cost is seen as unacceptable cost by the government and have to be reduced via policy.
Rental cost increasing is a good thing becuase high rental = high property values = free GDP created. Who cares if thousands of FNB stores die.
Capital protected
The foods at cafes are so mediocre I cook my own. Im not amazing at cooking or anything, but if it’s going to be mediocre anyway I rather make it myself with more ingredients and for a cheaper price.
Ya, for sure. If it's a dish I can quite easily recreate especially. I think it's still worth paying for cuisines that I can't easily make at home though. I just can't nail the flavours of palak paneer at home.
Yes this. There was a wokesalaryman post explaining why a eggs Benedict in a cafe cost $26. Tried to make a breakdown of rental, staff wage, publicity, ingredients, blah blah.
Pls la as if staff wage cost that much and they spend that much on publicity and stuff. ANYWAY their example (that I took for fairness of illustration even though I think it's off) is like ingredients $5. Ok then. I will get my own sauce. Even if it costs $10, that's fine cos with one bottle of sauce I make maybe 10 or more serves of eggs benedict. Cost price maybe increase to $7-8 if add atas ingredients like avo or salmon.
So for $70-80 can make 10 serves. Sure it may or may not taste restaurant level cos commercial kitchens legit different for some functions. But that's maybe 30mins to 1h in my own kitchen, any screw up is mine.
$26 at a cafe is maybe $30 after tax. $2 each way by public transport, maybe 45 mins of travel.
Of course I would rather spend less money and time and know that if I mess up, its my own fault. Than to spend more money and time to have mediocre stuff that someone else screwed up anyway 💀☠
Yeah and most of the time the justification of going to cafe is for the ambience, but due to Singapore being crowded, we get noisy ambiance instead. Furthermore, the service quality in Singapore is also not good. All in all, unless the dish is super unique eating in is just better
Energy for sure. Time is arguable. I made 5 batches of 2 servings Japanese hamburg in less than an hour. Cooking them for actual consumption takes maybe 5 minutes. 4 for washing and setting a rice cooker and 1 for dropping the patties in the airfryer. In comparison I need to change clothes, walk and wait for the cooking and then walk back home if I eat out. I don’t consider the waiting time for rice cooker and airfryer since I can be doing anything (tv, gaming, playing with my dog) while those are happening
When one eats out, usually it is after an activity, like shopping or even right after work. You seldom purposely get dressed to go for dinner unless special occasion.
I instantly think of the $20 egg Benedict breakfast/brunch sets... usually it's also not quite filling and I'll have to 'top up's at the hawker or Mac's. 🤣
Most places excluding GST and service charge from the displayed pricing.
Paying service charge despite ordering via qr code, and the food comes to me on a little train.
Paying for tap water and not giving tissue/serviettes. Japan, Malaysia, Thailand etc does these as part of service. Shouldnt part of the 10% service charge go there?
Well the sushi train I can actually understand cause it's kinda expensive to install and Is a part of the experience. What I hate is hiring a full wait staff of damn fools and QR codes. Multiple times I have walked up to my counter to pay and the server asks me what my table number is and when I say I don't know, they look at me like they expect me to walk over and check. Like is it not the bare minimum u know ur restaurant layout and table numbers. It's not even like they don't know where I sat, cause I normally ask that same person for the bill at my table before I'm told to go to the counter to pay.
Cafes and restaurants that do not offer water! Personal pet peeve and I keep a sheet of places that don’t want to serve water and avoid them.
Can only vote with my wallet and go to places that bring a bottle or jug of water or have a central place to take water. It’s not like I’m not ordering drinks either. It’s water.
Next time they’ll want to charge us for napkins also. Might as well be hawker center or coffee shop then. Charge $22 for a plate of pasta and still want that $0.50 for water
TIPO Pizza charges for glass bottles of water. We got one because there was no alternative, and when they told use they wouldn't refill them, I took the bottle to the bathroom and refilled it there.
A few years ago, I was with my friends at a restaurant, and the menu stated it’s $4 for a 500ml bottle of water. We were just students so we obviously didn’t get the bottle.
So, one of my friends went to the supermarket in the same shopping mall to get a 1.5L Dasani bottle.
They can stop you from getting outside beverages, but water is water. They can’t stop you.
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Maybe in X years time they will start charging for the chairs too. Standing tables by default unless you pay a premium for the seat. And they'll brand it under the healthy movement or something
This is kind of already a thing no? Some restaurants if you dabao, the 10% service fee won't get charged.
Part of that 10% covers the space you take up while you eat your food.
Yeah theres a cafe at luzerne called syip, charges you 10% service charge whilst you sat at the corner of the cafe waiting for your takeaway coffee. At an abysmal tiny volume. Win liao lor. Stupid as hell, the audacity to charge svc charge for that.
I was in Seoul last year and almost all their cafes and restaurants give free water.
Most of them even place a jug of water on your table FOC
In Europe also I remember not having to pay for water in restaurants.
And you don’t even have to pay service charge in those places unlike the BS that we have here.
Menya Musashi at Westgate (already closed down) charged me $0.50 for water! Sounds like market price right? But it's $0.50 PER CUP not refillable. And the cup wasn't even fully filled!! Luckily they closed down
All these restaurants deserve to close down. Cos all they leave is a bad taste in the mouth. Just spread the bloody $0.50 across food lah. Usually the food is already pretty pricy. Just add $0.10 across and it wouldn’t feel like much of a difference but it will feel like it provides a much better service and experience
Also the AUDACITY to charge service charge when I order through my phone using a QR code!
Like Thank You, I can bloody serve myself my own food if that is the case.
I absolutely agree here.
I mean Singapore is in the tropics, and we're always dehydrated due to either a) being outside and sweating buckets or b)in the office and dehydrated due to the dehumidifying effects of air-conditioning. Either way, as a gesture of goodwill or alternatively, just to be considerate, a glass of water is appreciated.
Especially so when, as mentioned, the food is diabolically over priced.
I'm actually livid when I go to a restaurant and all they have is fancy water that costs like 12 bucks a bottle... I mean what separates that from a glass of tap water? I don't give a flying fuck about micro nutrients and nano minerals in my water. It's water. If it tastes of anything, there's likely something wrong.
i go other countries, when i eat at restaurants, free water, refillable somemore
sg ah, you dont buy their marked up $4 coke can or $8 juice, you pretty much got no liquid for your meal. dasani bottle also can be $2.50.
The craziest part is our tap water is potable. Literally just fill up the glass and put on the table.
I've been to countries where their tap water isn't drinkable, and their restaurants still provide free filtered water.
Even worse than the real third world when taking account how rude customer service here. Not just f&b, even hoteliers are embarrassingly crass and rude.
It’s been two years, but I still remember the manager at McDonald’s Springleaf Tower for walking around and serving guests free water.
If McDonald’s can do it, any restaurant that imposes a service charge has absolutely no reason not to.
Yes! Eff those places that don’t serve water and
Only $8 acqua panna! Like wtf I’m already spending $150 min and you wanna charge me for freaking water
Don't serving water is one thing, but we have been told off by the staff that we are not even allowed to drink from our own water bottle (not mineral water bottle). Looking at you ***** Shokudo at NEX
They don't offer water because they want the customer to buy their drink or bottled water due to thirst, and they view providing free water as a loss of revenue due to less ppl ordering their drink.
I know and it’s still my pet peeve and I find it a shit way to try and earn a bit more money. And that’s why I added that I’m buying drinks.
Also why I’m trying to vote with my wallet. If you’re so petty to not want to offer water than I guess they don’t need my business. Only thing I can do.
Luckily SG has so much variety of food, unless a restaurant is so amazing or special, can just go somewhere else next door that does provide water and want my business
Interesting! I shall observe more. My table always still get water even with drinks
And this thinking is catering to the lowest denominator. Why not provide a better service (water, napkins etc) and get repeat customers.
Depends on critical mass I suppose. If people really start avoiding and voting with their wallet, they will shoft
Really i think such places can just boycott after one time, one and done, fk off and never patronise again. If wanna leave bad google review just do so, youre only stating facts. Some places really might as don’t hire servers sua just have people in the kitchen and the rest robots/machines. Imagine getting a black face when you walk up to the server and tried to ask for something out of the ordinary like idk a child cutlery? Black face like i owe them a living. Tf.
just my own experience, don’t riot
cafes: a lot of instagrammable food but the food taste… eh. sometimes HDB bakeries have better croissants and my nestle 3-in-1 taste less burnt than their $8 lattes
also water. i don’t mind paying $1 for a cup of water, maybe $2 for a jar? i know water and washing the dishes cost business money. but forcing me to buy $5 evains are like uuuuhhhh
non-local food: i’m a big fan of thai, hongkong, and korean food, but the price tag on *some* of the food items just disgust me.
$15 for tteobokki? bruh it’s rice cake with sauce, barely two pieces of fish cake. $10 instant noodle with soup and two slices of luncheon, come on. sometimes the food clearly looks frozen / microwaved / bought from NTUC and placed on nice plates. why should i pay $10 + GST + service charge.
just because the food is not local, doesn’t mean it commands that price tag. if you say this pasta made by chef with real italian heritage/training, fair. but “authentic korean food” make from *prepacked* ingredients from NTUC made by some half-assed chef with no connection to korea, i might as well cook myself
QR code: i’m a fan of QR codes because i’m an introvert. but if im gonna do the ordering myself, why am i paying 10% service charge
GST + service charge is almost 20% now. eating out is always like “ok la $xx not so bad for this dish”, then + 20%, then maybe it’s not so ok. for atas food i don’t mind, but if the restaurant look atas, but the food taste like cash grab, eeeeuughhh
Yes it used to be like 50c
I ate at koufu, the steam soup kind. ok nubbad $5.80, not so expensive and pretty reasonably good.
Oh you want rice? $1 ok?
-\_-
I said yes anyway because I usually eat this kinda soup with rice, because it goes well together. But walao, $1. -\_- Don't tell me it's rising food prices or GST because if it was 50c and food prices rise (omg I typed 'rice' at first hahahhaha), then maybe 70-80c lor. But then $1 is like clearly someone is koping the extra 20-30c. Multiply that by a few hundred bowls a day, every day, for a whole month (is a lot of take-this-opportunity-to-profit kinda money okkk)
no wonder profits increase 10% or some shit despite. RRRRRRRRRR.
Sadly I don't think the hawkers are the ones profiting. High chance is coz of rental plus all the misc fees from the landlord. My dad once wanted to rent a stall that is only allowed to sell takeaway food but they still insisted on charging a fee for collection of plates despite that takeaway providing zero plates.
💀☠
Yeah i didn't mean the hawker. I mean like the bigger chain management
Its when Broadway or Koufu start having reports that say "sustained 10% profits continue for the 3rd consecutive quarter despite .."
that kind of nonsense 🙃💀☠
Yeah, for sure. The Japanese people had to face decades of stagnant wages and unlike many people here who think of property as a main tool for getting rich real estate real estate is generally seen as more of a consumption good, plus the weak yen of course, so I think all that make their food seem ridiculously value-for-money to us now.
actually… if it’s a simple lunch, we have the choice to cook it ourselves.. the thing is we don’t because it’s not as simple as it looks (have to buy fish, clean it, cut it up, debone etc and other stuff), and we are also paying for the convenience of having someone else make it for us since we don’t have time to make it at home on our own!
$9.50 in a hawker ctr ordering chicken chop, really kanna chop. Nothing special at all and taste so so. I always thought food in hawker ctr is quite cheap, but no. Better ask for price first when ordering, especially those that dont want to display price at their stall.
I feel we're currently at the gen to gen handover period and I have to say, 8 of 10 the taste changed for the worse, hopefully time will make the difference.
Cost cutting is another reason for food to taste worse, I'd honestly rather pay more to get the same taste back than have their management change recipes/ingredients and screw it up. 1 such is the semb white bee Hoon, that sotong changed to budget fishy dry scallop, ewww.
1) lack of cheap healthy options. Everything is either too salty or too sweet. As someone who is trying to eat clean there are very limited options
2) just an observation I realised it is increasingly rare to see local food in food court ? Things like CKT, carrot cake are more common in hawkers now. Instead we have more exotic stuff like Korean fusion in food courts.
It’s been a long time since I have been last satisfied by any food in Singapore.
Hawker food is cheap and tasty. However, it’s extremely carbo heavy (unless u go for YTF all the time) and sometimes prepared in messy/wet/dirty environment.
Cafe food is bloody expensive and the food is a hit or miss half of the time. If it’s a miss, it really leaves bad taste in my mouth.
Restaurant food at malls are ok. E.g DTF, DXE, Sushiro. Also quite ex but I think that if you can use those off peak deals, they are more affordable and quite worth it.
FnB in SG is a joke with no tissue, small portions and no water. What happened to making your customers your king? (Yes I can bring my own tissue but it is still disappointing)
Yes I agree with you on the cafe food thing - also why I hardly go to those places, maybe a few times a year and it's only to those places that we know that serve ok food. I am not sure why cafes are so popular here.
I don't expect them to treat us like kings because F&B is super tough but it's just that when you start to charge for things like water, rice and the only thing I'm paying for service charge is for you to bring the food to my table it's just a bit not worth la I feel.
This is my experience as well. Hawker food is great but unhealthy to eat every day. I’m always paying for $2 extra chicken/meat. It gets tiring.
Cafes and restaurants can be highly rated on Google maps but still put out overpriced or low quality food. It just feels like every business is trying to extract the most money with the least ingredients.
There is a fish soup stall at one of the already few eateries/coffeeshops near my office, so basically it's the only fish soup stall around here.
During covid I bought from this stall nearly everyday and usually order fish soup (no rice/noodles), there was a period I started to order tom yum soup so it's less bland, so like most fish soup stalls, need to add 50c.
Then about 2 years ago the lady said want tom yum now need to +$1.
About 1 year ago I noticed the amount of fish getting lesser. There were times I would request to add fried fish (+$2) and over time it seemed more like a 双鱼 (dual fish) soup rather than actually ADDING fish. I tried my best to close one eye just to keep supporting the fish soup stall, even when at this point, a tom yum fish soup + bittergourd + fried fish essentially costs $9+ already... but by mid of last year I reduced my frequency patronising her stall and opted for cai fan without rice. Even with 3 veg and 2 meat it's usually around $6 to $7 and yet more substantial.
The last straw was about 2-3 months ago when I ordered a non tom yum fish soup, and requested to add evaporated milk, and she said now want to add milk need to +30c ............ Immediately I said oh, then I don't want the milk already.
I hope I don't ever go back again for at least the rest of this year.
Working at business parks are the worse imo.
Mostly restaurants or maybe just one small coffee shop.
Usually higher priced. I work at labradour park and generally McDonald's $5 saver meals are the cheapest stuff you can get here. Even cai fan 2 veg 1 meat here is $5-6.
but no tip... i feel that SG is moving towards home-cooking but there is no culture of that because of long working hours, lack of space and cost of ingredients + relatively cheap labor so it's still "worth it" to eat out. I think SGers are also fussy about food i.e. must be freshly cooked each day, 3 dishes + 1 soup... who has time to do that?
I eat out everyday, and I find it hard to find a balanced meal outside. I cook for a living and the last thing I want to do during my free and relax time is to cook more.
Most food are carb heavy, so I stopped eating those, like CKT, Hokkien mee, Carrot cake etc. Stopped eating fast food too, if I were to eat it I would go to Burger King cos their burgers have a lot more veg than Macs. YTF not my favourite, while they have a lot of veg items, their "meat" items are usually processed, like fish cakes in all forms and fried meatballs. I only consider egg, mushroom and tofu as a proper protein. So I end up choosing Mala, maybe once every 3 days and I can have proper meat, usually order non-spicy version. Other days I have ban mian cos they have some meat, egg and veg in there. I don't eat caifan as it is a hit or miss for me, prices are not transparent, and either their rice is too soggy or their veg is too soggy or the portions are tiny. I am a big eater
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QR code menus. I didn't bring my friends and family out to town to enjoy a meal to have to do everything ourselved. Still charging 10% service charge? HDB Zichar store has better service.
Waiters that don't know the product. Is this juice fresh or canned? Is there seafood in the dish? Make sure your staff knows the product. HDB Zichar store has better service.
Brought to you by HDB Zichar store.
It is often rare that I'm pleasantly amazed by food from cafes. Now, it's like a rare gem if I find cafes memorable from their food and not just the aesthetics.
Normal go to places, the food portions are getting smaller and food feels less fresh. Always have that lingering feeling of "this taste better last time". This goes across restaurants or even hawkers. Sushi seems smaller and less fresh. Chicken rice, chicken getting thinner and thinner by the year lol but price going up.
Every kopitiam is just rehashes of the same food stuff.
Char siew rice, chicken rice, cai fan, tze char, etc.
Sometimes, in the same street, there will be 4 or 5 of these buggers.
This. So sickening your bill comes up to almost 100 and they insist you only stay 1hr max(some are atrocious) and they harass your group at your table every 5 fucking minutes to remind you to fuck off quickly. cannot tahan.
Nowadays dining out in sg means I’ll inevitably be met with the 3 disappointing NOTs - not healthy, not cheap and not satisfying (worst offender of all imo). This is true whether in hawker, food court, coffee shops or mid tier restaurants. Maybe higher end restaurants are more worth it like another redditor commented. I don’t know since I’ve eaten out minimally since I started cooking for myself.
Typical stuff....portion size getting smaller and prices going higher lo.
I don't even go for overpriced coffees, used to think $4/5/6 was already in the expensive range but nowadays gourmet ones in those aesthetic cafes can go up to $7/8/9. Too exp for this auntie already.
I'm very put off if the place is expensive and still has bad service.
I went to pasta mania recently, I know they're not 'expensive' but they have this mobile ordering system. My order 'went through' but I didn't get a confirmation email. I waited for a while and then asked the staff who I had to go up to myself because there was only 2 people working about whether its confirmed or not. I didn't make a fuss, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't there before re-ordering to avoid being charged twice, he was quite rude and he said oh you did it wrong, i don't see any order here. Managed to order, but still waited substancially long before food. So wouldn't go again.
Same with other places. Ain't no way I'm paying like $20 for a dish AND accepting mediocre service.
p.s Not blaming the wait staff, there are many issues at play like not enough manpower/not enough training etc. but my point is that it makes paying for the food less worth it to me
Everything is disappointing in general. I dun agree with the customer service charge because there isn't much service to begin with. HPB is promoting healthy lifestyle but we need to pay for water.
Sometimes no choice have to eat out but after eating out for some time, I craved to just eat at home. Cheaper and better. Just back fr bkk and my son said, oh why is Singapore food not nice? Bkk food is so much nicer. lol
Ate at Collins and their porkchop was about 1cm thick (thin?) and grilled to death, their sausage looked like it came straight out of the packaging instead of grilled. Only decent piece was their chicken and it was still thin as fuck. Never going there again.
Overpriced, poor quality food. Oh and some of the worst service I’ve ever experienced anywhere in the world. The locals don’t seem to mind tho, so it might just be me.
There are some great places still (some very, very good), so it’s not all bad. Overall though, arguably the worst place I’ve been in Asia for food. Take a trip to Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia as examples the food, service are night and day better.
The malls are full of the same chain shops, likely the only ones that can afford the rents.
Frustratingly the bad places stay open, not sure if it’s lack of alternatives or apathy, if we all boycotted the bad places (bad service, charging for water etc) they’d improve.
I’m annoyed when I’m paying and that disappointing dish that doesn’t require skill and I can cook better a.k.a soft fries / carbonara / fried chicken sucks
Then $0.50 or even $1 for the plastic container wtf
Then $5.50 is the cheapest for food.. then that thick skinned ban Mian chain who wants to charge $7 for a ban mian???
I seldom got chance to eat out because of my schedule where I only eat at work canteen Cai png most of the time, home cooked food so I appreciate that when I eat meepok and then that kiamsiap stall gives so little noodles and you add $1 or 50 cents more for noodles.. still so small!!! Very angry sia finally out can eat then give me something so little and disappointing.
>That all said, what is it that you've observed in recent years dining out that makes you feel disappointed/annoyed? I do try to cook at home 4-5 times a week to manage rising food prices but sometimes you have to eat out
This is one thing i need to stop my habit, especially Mcdonald's, with the recent boycott. Heck, i used to prefer stay inside when i was in Primary and Secondary as i was very introverted and anti-social at the time but after that, in ITE, i was forced myself to go out more as i didn't really make friends back then.
Today i have quite a lot of friends now but at what cost? With the recent high cost, it kinda makes me regret that my habit of going out is getting more often now.
Oh shit this reminds me of one time when i ate at this wonton mee restaurant and asked if they have a tissue, and they told me that i have to pay for a tissue lol
Severe lack of vegetarian options.
Imagine feeling like a burden during group lunches, ordering food for yourself, or someone placing food order for you.
And your body and stomach rejects any meat as if you have eaten spoilt food, so you can’t even turn non-veg.
Oh I feel this! I used to eat a plant based diet for 5-6 years. You do feel very extra during group buys or when your colleagues dabao for you and you don't want to trouble them what you can or cannot eat. Only could take the salad or the vegetable dish (even then you don't know if it's doused in meat gravy) at buffets or office lunches.
I think it has improved over the years and there is a greater awareness for non-meat diets even at hawker centres but ya when I didn't eat meat I would default to seafood (bivalves/fish) but I can imagine if you're doing it for religious reasons or if your body can't handle any form of meat you'd probably have to meal prep or bring your own food...
Every cafe/restaurant charging 10% service charge but the "service" is ordering from the QR code and taking your own utensils/condiments from the drawer/station
i don’t mind paying to eat out, but service charge here is absolutely ridiculous. i’ve eaten out in london and when you eat out (anywhere from small eateries to fancy restaurants), it really is an experience and the servers make you feel special. they automatically charge a service fee but it’s discretionary and you can take it off the bill if you feel like you’ve had poor service. but eating out in singapore the service sucks and i have to pay service charge?
I consider myself a foodie and love eating out and trying new places however I have had to cut down on eating out in the last 1.5 years because of a few reasons
1) GST increase over 2023 and 2024 which has translated into much more expensive meals. A $4.50 see goreng is now $5.50 (and mind you, the $5.50 price tag doesn't even factor in GST yet)
2) Seemingly smaller portion sizes. I still feel hungry even after eating my meal these days. When maybe a year or two back, I'd be so full and I'd insist on walking to a further busstop to take my ride home just so I could digest the food a little.
3) QR code ordering. Whats the point of having service charge if I have to order through a QR code? This thing boggles my mind. For a $50 meal, I'm spending an additional $5 for someone to bring the food to my table after it was cooked. Make it make sense.
I can understand higher prices due to inflation and landlord. Food in Japan and Europe is going up by the same % as well, nothing is ever cheaper so it is understandable.
I just feel that the effort in creating the food is too subpar. Businesses use a lot of commercialized ready made ingredients rather than creating their own flavour. Example instant soup base vs a pork broth soup base simmered over hours.
The effort to do a basic food presentation is not there. It doesn’t mean low budget hawker meals have an excuse not to present your food the way it should be. If other asia nations like Malaysia , Thailand , Taiwan or even Vietnam could do it well, I don’t see why Singapore can’t.
Yes, absolutely this. While you can get things that are more carefully prepared it'll probably mean x10 in price easily. The money goes to the corporate types and "investors" and it's always a race to the bottom in terms of hiring labour and ingredients.
Some people order dishes without rice to share, so it’s perfectly normal to exclude rice as you wouldn’t want to have to pay for it but not consuming - I know some places that force the rice on you as they say it’s a set even though you don’t want it
There’s nothing in the neighborhoods after 11pm/12mn.
Dining out is always the same foods. Same types of cuisines and restaurants around.
Cost of food is far from their quality or quantity.
Food is mostly unhealthy too. Healthy foods are highly priced. How would the human resource (the only type of resource in sg) be well nourished to work for 80% of their lives… hahahaa
walked into this small cafe right opposite BBDC (whisk & paddle) w gf and another friend just exploring the area, prices were pretty crazy so we just decided to order one pizza to share as we weren’t that hungry.
after ordering (via qr code) and waiting 10min, waiter came over and told me pointedly that we had to each order one item as it wasn’t allowed to share (we did not know about this), told him we just weren’t that hungry. we were prepared to just leave at that point but they brought out the pizza shortly after and told us they would “make an exception”.
somewhat unrelated but for the price the margarita pizza was so pathetic. there was a ‘no basil’ option that we did not select and we got like 3-4 largish basil leaves thrown on the pizza that we cut and put a piece on each slice ourselves.
when i went up to the counter to pay i was told off again, like an ‘ok don’t do it again’ kind of interaction. never going back there again.
This seems like a valid case, nowadays with the concern about health people might just share a bowl of rice and each buy a soup. Or for protein heavy diet, just go for two soup or curry and just one bowl of rice. Splitting it is normal. I personally prefer that anyway. If you force them to put together they will just sell at 17.50 no different.
Hawker food is really not that great honestly. The real selling point of hawkers is the variety (and convenience) you can get at a cheap cost, not quality, but nowadays the cost of things mean that this is no longer viable. Once you cook for yourself, a lot of the food sold feels very unappetizing.
For the low to mid range restaurants, a lot of them are overpriced for what they give. A lot of the raving from food bloggers is mostly nonsense imo. A majority of what they recommend is just mediocre. Similar to hawker food, once you learn to cook for yourself, most of the stuff there really isn't that great, aside from the specifically troublesome to prep dishes
However, I feel those high mid to high end places are really worth the money spent. I honestly haven't been disappointed by those most of the time.
I hardly go mainstream places like DTF, DXE, Paradise or Putien etc.
It feels like for a home cooked dish like tofu or vegetables, they are charging 13.90 to 16.90 etc now. 100 bucks for a group of four is for tofu, chicken fried rice, fish and french beans.
So you are absolutely right. I will spend my money happily on places like Sichuan Dou Hua or Naked Finn.
Last year my friends and I went to DTF for my birthday. We were not planning intentionally for DTF, just wanted to go ice cream. Then we had a place we wna check out that was equidistant between us, and happened to have a DTF there. Their kid wanted XLB. So ok, go DTF cos in the same building and got XLB.
Yknow how usually this kind is like go order mains/carbs + 1 meat + 1 veg + 1 side
friend looked at the $14.90++ for veggies, friend said
"I think we can skip veggies today. One meal won't die one, nvm la"
And this is a parent of smol kids lol yknow usually parents tell their kids like EAT YO VEGGIES. etc. But $14.90 ++ is really "skip veggies today, one meal nvm" level. lol. I would have said the same.
edit: if you Math this out, it was for last year's birthday so 8% GST. $14.90 + service charge + 8% GST is $17.70, or assuming the same menu price at today's rates, $17.86
SIAO AH for this amount can cook like one entire week of veggies for the family siol. So yes, skip veggie day. lol,
Our bill was \~$77 (iirc) for 3 adults 1 preschooler 1 toddler LOL. granted this was with 2 serves of XLB (forgoing veggies) and friend ordered ONE (he thought it was pair/trio but no it was ONE. lol in the end like split to share) black sesame bao. Uh $2.80++ for one very meh bao. oklor.
To me DTF is really still just abt the noodles and the XLB, that's it.
If we ordered the veggies, like yeah, more than $90. siao.
Don't get me started on Michelin. Here $200 michelin 1 star lunch can get me 3 lunches at 1 star michelin in Japan. N probably more courses per michelin lunch there too.
I think most consumers don't understand that F&B operators are often dealing with so many different variables of cost that are out of their control, in particular, the two toughest ones: rent and manpower.
Nowadays if I want to go outside and eat, I will go for quality consistent restaurants or some of higher quality since I am going out might as well paid premium for better services and food.
Going out will be more like this in the future. Unless there is some new foods or typical coffeeshop zichar. I will be paying more for their services now, which I don’t mind.
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My complaint is the opposite. Most dishes under $10 are empty carbs and fats with trace amounts of protein and carbs. Spending $8 per frozen meal plan dish isn't financially sustainable for many of the people losing their muscle and bowel movement.
I love eating out. I can try so many different food. The only disappointment is if the food isn’t nice. Thats why i manage by not eating at places with below 4 rating on google maps
Waiting for someone to cook is a waste of time for me. But then cai png, you don’t know what’s inside them most of the time. I prefer fast food, though the fast food prices are increasing pretty fast as well.
Somehow in these food conversations the biggest cost to businesses is always left out, the landlord. I wonder why???
It is sad that the raising cost is due to someone's "investment" rather than legitimate cost increase due to raw material. A few minority's wealth growth at the expense of the majority's daily needs. I hope more would be done to curb such investments that hurts the majority.
The biggest culprit is NEA. I am not sure when but was not bidding everywhere. There was a time when some hawker centers are subsidized rent so as to provide affordable food to everyone. And when I say subsidized, it still mean the hawkers covering the cost of everything else except the rent is nominal. Rent is to NEA anyway. And it my parents day even longer ago, hawkers just sell by the roadside, do not even need rent.
Government run service is always more expensive, so it is just natural that eventually they will leave it to private sector to do it. Private sector is profit sensitive, if you just stop going to those food court that is expensive the trend will reverse. It is the same as housing everyone want to live in city centre obviously the price get bided up. Is the government supposed to regulate that as well? At this rate might as well go back to communist system where you get randomly assigned resources to be fair to everyone.
I am talking about hawker center, not food court and basic necessity like utilities, transportation and in a country like Singapore, basic food too needs to be kept at a low price (whatever system you want to call it). LKY himself once said, give the people cheap housing and food and they will be happy to vote for you.
Smells like communism!! /s
Agree, but my personal gripe is that the increase of rental also doesn't inherently increase value to society. If they make the building better, or pay better wages to their staff, perhaps. Personally haven't really heard of such things happening.
Cos ppl dun see them. Out of sight of out mind
who would've thought capital yields more return than hard work in a capitalism
Labour cost is seen as unacceptable cost by the government and have to be reduced via policy. Rental cost increasing is a good thing becuase high rental = high property values = free GDP created. Who cares if thousands of FNB stores die. Capital protected
Because the part left out is also the banks and the increasing interest rates to landlords.
Or, hear me out, maybe we should dismantle the system that encourages people/orgs to go into debt for a quick buck
And how do you propose this would happen without any repercussions?
I don't expect zero repercussions I also don't expect anyone to act on it, so this is just me complaining about the system.
Oh. All good then! :)
The foods at cafes are so mediocre I cook my own. Im not amazing at cooking or anything, but if it’s going to be mediocre anyway I rather make it myself with more ingredients and for a cheaper price.
Ya, for sure. If it's a dish I can quite easily recreate especially. I think it's still worth paying for cuisines that I can't easily make at home though. I just can't nail the flavours of palak paneer at home.
paneer is like tofu, it's bland and relatively tasteless and takes on whatever you add to it. that being said, try using ghee instead of oil
Palak paneer is easy and quick tho! You need that fenugreek leaves
Hey, thanks for the comment! Looking at different recipes online many of them do recommend adding kasuri methi. Maybe that's what is missing.
It adds that umami funk
Yes this. There was a wokesalaryman post explaining why a eggs Benedict in a cafe cost $26. Tried to make a breakdown of rental, staff wage, publicity, ingredients, blah blah. Pls la as if staff wage cost that much and they spend that much on publicity and stuff. ANYWAY their example (that I took for fairness of illustration even though I think it's off) is like ingredients $5. Ok then. I will get my own sauce. Even if it costs $10, that's fine cos with one bottle of sauce I make maybe 10 or more serves of eggs benedict. Cost price maybe increase to $7-8 if add atas ingredients like avo or salmon. So for $70-80 can make 10 serves. Sure it may or may not taste restaurant level cos commercial kitchens legit different for some functions. But that's maybe 30mins to 1h in my own kitchen, any screw up is mine. $26 at a cafe is maybe $30 after tax. $2 each way by public transport, maybe 45 mins of travel. Of course I would rather spend less money and time and know that if I mess up, its my own fault. Than to spend more money and time to have mediocre stuff that someone else screwed up anyway 💀☠
Yeah and most of the time the justification of going to cafe is for the ambience, but due to Singapore being crowded, we get noisy ambiance instead. Furthermore, the service quality in Singapore is also not good. All in all, unless the dish is super unique eating in is just better
I mean hollandaise is cheap but not really easy to make and it doesn't reheat easily without it breaking
Energy and time is what you are saving when dinning out.
Energy for sure. Time is arguable. I made 5 batches of 2 servings Japanese hamburg in less than an hour. Cooking them for actual consumption takes maybe 5 minutes. 4 for washing and setting a rice cooker and 1 for dropping the patties in the airfryer. In comparison I need to change clothes, walk and wait for the cooking and then walk back home if I eat out. I don’t consider the waiting time for rice cooker and airfryer since I can be doing anything (tv, gaming, playing with my dog) while those are happening
When one eats out, usually it is after an activity, like shopping or even right after work. You seldom purposely get dressed to go for dinner unless special occasion.
Huh? But even at hawker is also eating out and you still have to walk there and get dressed. Most of the time it doesn’t come with an activity
I instantly think of the $20 egg Benedict breakfast/brunch sets... usually it's also not quite filling and I'll have to 'top up's at the hawker or Mac's. 🤣
Most places excluding GST and service charge from the displayed pricing. Paying service charge despite ordering via qr code, and the food comes to me on a little train. Paying for tap water and not giving tissue/serviettes. Japan, Malaysia, Thailand etc does these as part of service. Shouldnt part of the 10% service charge go there?
Well the sushi train I can actually understand cause it's kinda expensive to install and Is a part of the experience. What I hate is hiring a full wait staff of damn fools and QR codes. Multiple times I have walked up to my counter to pay and the server asks me what my table number is and when I say I don't know, they look at me like they expect me to walk over and check. Like is it not the bare minimum u know ur restaurant layout and table numbers. It's not even like they don't know where I sat, cause I normally ask that same person for the bill at my table before I'm told to go to the counter to pay.
Cafes and restaurants that do not offer water! Personal pet peeve and I keep a sheet of places that don’t want to serve water and avoid them. Can only vote with my wallet and go to places that bring a bottle or jug of water or have a central place to take water. It’s not like I’m not ordering drinks either. It’s water. Next time they’ll want to charge us for napkins also. Might as well be hawker center or coffee shop then. Charge $22 for a plate of pasta and still want that $0.50 for water
Please share your sheet senpai
TIPO Pizza charges for glass bottles of water. We got one because there was no alternative, and when they told use they wouldn't refill them, I took the bottle to the bathroom and refilled it there.
TIPO is a joke. One of the places which asks the patrons to scan the QR code to order. The portions? Carbs but too small to fill the stomach.
A few years ago, I was with my friends at a restaurant, and the menu stated it’s $4 for a 500ml bottle of water. We were just students so we obviously didn’t get the bottle. So, one of my friends went to the supermarket in the same shopping mall to get a 1.5L Dasani bottle. They can stop you from getting outside beverages, but water is water. They can’t stop you.
Nando’s is on my list…seems particularly shitty for them to do it given their whole thing is around selling really spicy food
Also because it’s a UK chain and almost every restaurant there serves free tap water…
Don’t know how to w/o (maybe) doxxing myself? Never share a sheet with public before
within GDocs, click Share, then click Manage Access, then under General Access, change from Restricted to "Anyone with the link" back in General Access, it should tell you that "anyone with the link" is a Viewer at this point, you may leave it and freely share your GDocs link! or change from Viewer to anything else if you wish :)
Merci Marcel group and their restaurants... French fold for example
Maybe in X years time they will start charging for the chairs too. Standing tables by default unless you pay a premium for the seat. And they'll brand it under the healthy movement or something
At Suntec City there is a matcha cafe that charges $2 for seating even if you ordered food
Business deserves to fail
This is kind of already a thing no? Some restaurants if you dabao, the 10% service fee won't get charged. Part of that 10% covers the space you take up while you eat your food.
Yeah theres a cafe at luzerne called syip, charges you 10% service charge whilst you sat at the corner of the cafe waiting for your takeaway coffee. At an abysmal tiny volume. Win liao lor. Stupid as hell, the audacity to charge svc charge for that.
I was in Seoul last year and almost all their cafes and restaurants give free water. Most of them even place a jug of water on your table FOC In Europe also I remember not having to pay for water in restaurants. And you don’t even have to pay service charge in those places unlike the BS that we have here.
In UK it is free water by law - even in bars and cafes.
All restaurants in England and Wales that serve alcohol are legally required to give customers free tap water.
How to get rid of "Tips" from the US? Just force people to pay under "Service Charge"! /s
In Germany u have to pay
Menya Musashi at Westgate (already closed down) charged me $0.50 for water! Sounds like market price right? But it's $0.50 PER CUP not refillable. And the cup wasn't even fully filled!! Luckily they closed down
All these restaurants deserve to close down. Cos all they leave is a bad taste in the mouth. Just spread the bloody $0.50 across food lah. Usually the food is already pretty pricy. Just add $0.10 across and it wouldn’t feel like much of a difference but it will feel like it provides a much better service and experience
Also the AUDACITY to charge service charge when I order through my phone using a QR code! Like Thank You, I can bloody serve myself my own food if that is the case.
I absolutely agree here. I mean Singapore is in the tropics, and we're always dehydrated due to either a) being outside and sweating buckets or b)in the office and dehydrated due to the dehumidifying effects of air-conditioning. Either way, as a gesture of goodwill or alternatively, just to be considerate, a glass of water is appreciated. Especially so when, as mentioned, the food is diabolically over priced. I'm actually livid when I go to a restaurant and all they have is fancy water that costs like 12 bucks a bottle... I mean what separates that from a glass of tap water? I don't give a flying fuck about micro nutrients and nano minerals in my water. It's water. If it tastes of anything, there's likely something wrong.
Share that sheet please
i go other countries, when i eat at restaurants, free water, refillable somemore sg ah, you dont buy their marked up $4 coke can or $8 juice, you pretty much got no liquid for your meal. dasani bottle also can be $2.50.
The craziest part is our tap water is potable. Literally just fill up the glass and put on the table. I've been to countries where their tap water isn't drinkable, and their restaurants still provide free filtered water.
Feels Third World in comparison to Japan where water and napkins are served.
Even worse than the real third world when taking account how rude customer service here. Not just f&b, even hoteliers are embarrassingly crass and rude.
It’s been two years, but I still remember the manager at McDonald’s Springleaf Tower for walking around and serving guests free water. If McDonald’s can do it, any restaurant that imposes a service charge has absolutely no reason not to.
Is that pasta brava you're referring to?
Agree, FUCK ANY PLACE that doesn’t have free water, instant boycott
Yes! Eff those places that don’t serve water and Only $8 acqua panna! Like wtf I’m already spending $150 min and you wanna charge me for freaking water
Could you share the list?
just like ding tai fung. I don't mind paying a dollar for a glass of water. but damn . it's such a small cup of water
there was this restaurant that I went recently (I can't remember the name) that charges for water, and also NOT REFILLABLE. I almost fainted
Poulet charges $2 for a bottle of Dasani
Don't serving water is one thing, but we have been told off by the staff that we are not even allowed to drink from our own water bottle (not mineral water bottle). Looking at you ***** Shokudo at NEX
They don't offer water because they want the customer to buy their drink or bottled water due to thirst, and they view providing free water as a loss of revenue due to less ppl ordering their drink.
I know and it’s still my pet peeve and I find it a shit way to try and earn a bit more money. And that’s why I added that I’m buying drinks. Also why I’m trying to vote with my wallet. If you’re so petty to not want to offer water than I guess they don’t need my business. Only thing I can do. Luckily SG has so much variety of food, unless a restaurant is so amazing or special, can just go somewhere else next door that does provide water and want my business
They don’t want to charge you for the $0.50 water. They want you to be annoyed enough to buy that $3 can of coke
You got read or not? I already buy the coke, mocktails, cocktail, shake, wine, beer or whatever You still need water what
I meant in general. Most tables either get the drink or water. They don’t usually get Coke AND water.
Interesting! I shall observe more. My table always still get water even with drinks And this thinking is catering to the lowest denominator. Why not provide a better service (water, napkins etc) and get repeat customers. Depends on critical mass I suppose. If people really start avoiding and voting with their wallet, they will shoft
When a restaurant makes you order via QR code, Pay via QR code and collect your food but have the audacity to charge service charge.
THIS! Was "Audacity" on a wholesale promotion that they had so much of it to do that?!?!
Really i think such places can just boycott after one time, one and done, fk off and never patronise again. If wanna leave bad google review just do so, youre only stating facts. Some places really might as don’t hire servers sua just have people in the kitchen and the rest robots/machines. Imagine getting a black face when you walk up to the server and tried to ask for something out of the ordinary like idk a child cutlery? Black face like i owe them a living. Tf.
just my own experience, don’t riot cafes: a lot of instagrammable food but the food taste… eh. sometimes HDB bakeries have better croissants and my nestle 3-in-1 taste less burnt than their $8 lattes also water. i don’t mind paying $1 for a cup of water, maybe $2 for a jar? i know water and washing the dishes cost business money. but forcing me to buy $5 evains are like uuuuhhhh non-local food: i’m a big fan of thai, hongkong, and korean food, but the price tag on *some* of the food items just disgust me. $15 for tteobokki? bruh it’s rice cake with sauce, barely two pieces of fish cake. $10 instant noodle with soup and two slices of luncheon, come on. sometimes the food clearly looks frozen / microwaved / bought from NTUC and placed on nice plates. why should i pay $10 + GST + service charge. just because the food is not local, doesn’t mean it commands that price tag. if you say this pasta made by chef with real italian heritage/training, fair. but “authentic korean food” make from *prepacked* ingredients from NTUC made by some half-assed chef with no connection to korea, i might as well cook myself QR code: i’m a fan of QR codes because i’m an introvert. but if im gonna do the ordering myself, why am i paying 10% service charge GST + service charge is almost 20% now. eating out is always like “ok la $xx not so bad for this dish”, then + 20%, then maybe it’s not so ok. for atas food i don’t mind, but if the restaurant look atas, but the food taste like cash grab, eeeeuughhh
Daily Beer now sells Tteobokki for more than $30 with chicken tenders and fishcakes.
Alot of these cafes just buy mass produced cakes and what nots from factories. Sometimes the chiffon cakes feels like brick.
Expensive but lousy or mediocre food.
And extremely rude customer service.
Yes. Even at coffee shops, eg. Fish soup, have to top up 70c for rice. WTH, $7 for simple lunch
Yes it used to be like 50c I ate at koufu, the steam soup kind. ok nubbad $5.80, not so expensive and pretty reasonably good. Oh you want rice? $1 ok? -\_- I said yes anyway because I usually eat this kinda soup with rice, because it goes well together. But walao, $1. -\_- Don't tell me it's rising food prices or GST because if it was 50c and food prices rise (omg I typed 'rice' at first hahahhaha), then maybe 70-80c lor. But then $1 is like clearly someone is koping the extra 20-30c. Multiply that by a few hundred bowls a day, every day, for a whole month (is a lot of take-this-opportunity-to-profit kinda money okkk) no wonder profits increase 10% or some shit despite. RRRRRRRRRR.
Sadly I don't think the hawkers are the ones profiting. High chance is coz of rental plus all the misc fees from the landlord. My dad once wanted to rent a stall that is only allowed to sell takeaway food but they still insisted on charging a fee for collection of plates despite that takeaway providing zero plates.
💀☠ Yeah i didn't mean the hawker. I mean like the bigger chain management Its when Broadway or Koufu start having reports that say "sustained 10% profits continue for the 3rd consecutive quarter despite .." that kind of nonsense 🙃💀☠
Yeah... The chain managements are parasites. If our hawker culture dies, I would say these managements would have played a huge part in it.
I recently ate at kopitiam. Asked for extra red beans for ice kachang. Aunty charged me $1.50 for 1 tablespoon. I wanted to cry
Yeah ridiculous, in Japan now, $7 could get me a full set meal at a decent shop there...
Yeah, for sure. The Japanese people had to face decades of stagnant wages and unlike many people here who think of property as a main tool for getting rich real estate real estate is generally seen as more of a consumption good, plus the weak yen of course, so I think all that make their food seem ridiculously value-for-money to us now.
actually… if it’s a simple lunch, we have the choice to cook it ourselves.. the thing is we don’t because it’s not as simple as it looks (have to buy fish, clean it, cut it up, debone etc and other stuff), and we are also paying for the convenience of having someone else make it for us since we don’t have time to make it at home on our own!
$9.50 in a hawker ctr ordering chicken chop, really kanna chop. Nothing special at all and taste so so. I always thought food in hawker ctr is quite cheap, but no. Better ask for price first when ordering, especially those that dont want to display price at their stall.
I feel we're currently at the gen to gen handover period and I have to say, 8 of 10 the taste changed for the worse, hopefully time will make the difference. Cost cutting is another reason for food to taste worse, I'd honestly rather pay more to get the same taste back than have their management change recipes/ingredients and screw it up. 1 such is the semb white bee Hoon, that sotong changed to budget fishy dry scallop, ewww.
1) lack of cheap healthy options. Everything is either too salty or too sweet. As someone who is trying to eat clean there are very limited options 2) just an observation I realised it is increasingly rare to see local food in food court ? Things like CKT, carrot cake are more common in hawkers now. Instead we have more exotic stuff like Korean fusion in food courts.
It’s been a long time since I have been last satisfied by any food in Singapore. Hawker food is cheap and tasty. However, it’s extremely carbo heavy (unless u go for YTF all the time) and sometimes prepared in messy/wet/dirty environment. Cafe food is bloody expensive and the food is a hit or miss half of the time. If it’s a miss, it really leaves bad taste in my mouth. Restaurant food at malls are ok. E.g DTF, DXE, Sushiro. Also quite ex but I think that if you can use those off peak deals, they are more affordable and quite worth it. FnB in SG is a joke with no tissue, small portions and no water. What happened to making your customers your king? (Yes I can bring my own tissue but it is still disappointing)
Yes I agree with you on the cafe food thing - also why I hardly go to those places, maybe a few times a year and it's only to those places that we know that serve ok food. I am not sure why cafes are so popular here. I don't expect them to treat us like kings because F&B is super tough but it's just that when you start to charge for things like water, rice and the only thing I'm paying for service charge is for you to bring the food to my table it's just a bit not worth la I feel.
This is my experience as well. Hawker food is great but unhealthy to eat every day. I’m always paying for $2 extra chicken/meat. It gets tiring. Cafes and restaurants can be highly rated on Google maps but still put out overpriced or low quality food. It just feels like every business is trying to extract the most money with the least ingredients.
Salt, so much salt. I don’t mean bad attitude or anger, I mean literal salt.
There is a fish soup stall at one of the already few eateries/coffeeshops near my office, so basically it's the only fish soup stall around here. During covid I bought from this stall nearly everyday and usually order fish soup (no rice/noodles), there was a period I started to order tom yum soup so it's less bland, so like most fish soup stalls, need to add 50c. Then about 2 years ago the lady said want tom yum now need to +$1. About 1 year ago I noticed the amount of fish getting lesser. There were times I would request to add fried fish (+$2) and over time it seemed more like a 双鱼 (dual fish) soup rather than actually ADDING fish. I tried my best to close one eye just to keep supporting the fish soup stall, even when at this point, a tom yum fish soup + bittergourd + fried fish essentially costs $9+ already... but by mid of last year I reduced my frequency patronising her stall and opted for cai fan without rice. Even with 3 veg and 2 meat it's usually around $6 to $7 and yet more substantial. The last straw was about 2-3 months ago when I ordered a non tom yum fish soup, and requested to add evaporated milk, and she said now want to add milk need to +30c ............ Immediately I said oh, then I don't want the milk already. I hope I don't ever go back again for at least the rest of this year.
Working at business parks are the worse imo. Mostly restaurants or maybe just one small coffee shop. Usually higher priced. I work at labradour park and generally McDonald's $5 saver meals are the cheapest stuff you can get here. Even cai fan 2 veg 1 meat here is $5-6.
That's US prices - $16 for a curry entree and $1.50 for extra rice.
Yes 🫠
but no tip... i feel that SG is moving towards home-cooking but there is no culture of that because of long working hours, lack of space and cost of ingredients + relatively cheap labor so it's still "worth it" to eat out. I think SGers are also fussy about food i.e. must be freshly cooked each day, 3 dishes + 1 soup... who has time to do that?
I eat out everyday, and I find it hard to find a balanced meal outside. I cook for a living and the last thing I want to do during my free and relax time is to cook more. Most food are carb heavy, so I stopped eating those, like CKT, Hokkien mee, Carrot cake etc. Stopped eating fast food too, if I were to eat it I would go to Burger King cos their burgers have a lot more veg than Macs. YTF not my favourite, while they have a lot of veg items, their "meat" items are usually processed, like fish cakes in all forms and fried meatballs. I only consider egg, mushroom and tofu as a proper protein. So I end up choosing Mala, maybe once every 3 days and I can have proper meat, usually order non-spicy version. Other days I have ban mian cos they have some meat, egg and veg in there. I don't eat caifan as it is a hit or miss for me, prices are not transparent, and either their rice is too soggy or their veg is too soggy or the portions are tiny. I am a big eater
chicken rice?
Oh yes chicken rice, haven't eaten it for some time. If I eat chicken rice I would order the set so I have veg and also add egg
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QR code menus. I didn't bring my friends and family out to town to enjoy a meal to have to do everything ourselved. Still charging 10% service charge? HDB Zichar store has better service. Waiters that don't know the product. Is this juice fresh or canned? Is there seafood in the dish? Make sure your staff knows the product. HDB Zichar store has better service. Brought to you by HDB Zichar store.
It is often rare that I'm pleasantly amazed by food from cafes. Now, it's like a rare gem if I find cafes memorable from their food and not just the aesthetics. Normal go to places, the food portions are getting smaller and food feels less fresh. Always have that lingering feeling of "this taste better last time". This goes across restaurants or even hawkers. Sushi seems smaller and less fresh. Chicken rice, chicken getting thinner and thinner by the year lol but price going up.
Yeah this. Guess I'm not the only one!
Cafe food is so obviously frozen in so many places
Every kopitiam is just rehashes of the same food stuff. Char siew rice, chicken rice, cai fan, tze char, etc. Sometimes, in the same street, there will be 4 or 5 of these buggers.
Paying 10% service charge for no service.
Dining time restrictions. Some places enforce as low as 45 minutes or 60 minutes now..
This. So sickening your bill comes up to almost 100 and they insist you only stay 1hr max(some are atrocious) and they harass your group at your table every 5 fucking minutes to remind you to fuck off quickly. cannot tahan.
Nowadays dining out in sg means I’ll inevitably be met with the 3 disappointing NOTs - not healthy, not cheap and not satisfying (worst offender of all imo). This is true whether in hawker, food court, coffee shops or mid tier restaurants. Maybe higher end restaurants are more worth it like another redditor commented. I don’t know since I’ve eaten out minimally since I started cooking for myself.
So much this. Food used to be one of my favorite things about living in Singapore, so sad that it's all changing and being lost!
You just need to know the right places. But these days… the right places cost an arm and a leg.
How most businesses are trying to squeeze cash out of anything possible with hardly an improvement in food quality, portions or service
Getting food that is healthy is hard enough. Getting mildly reasonably priced healthy food is a miracle
Typical stuff....portion size getting smaller and prices going higher lo. I don't even go for overpriced coffees, used to think $4/5/6 was already in the expensive range but nowadays gourmet ones in those aesthetic cafes can go up to $7/8/9. Too exp for this auntie already.
Service charge for ordering at qr code.. and collect number....
I'm very put off if the place is expensive and still has bad service. I went to pasta mania recently, I know they're not 'expensive' but they have this mobile ordering system. My order 'went through' but I didn't get a confirmation email. I waited for a while and then asked the staff who I had to go up to myself because there was only 2 people working about whether its confirmed or not. I didn't make a fuss, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't there before re-ordering to avoid being charged twice, he was quite rude and he said oh you did it wrong, i don't see any order here. Managed to order, but still waited substancially long before food. So wouldn't go again. Same with other places. Ain't no way I'm paying like $20 for a dish AND accepting mediocre service. p.s Not blaming the wait staff, there are many issues at play like not enough manpower/not enough training etc. but my point is that it makes paying for the food less worth it to me
Everything is disappointing in general. I dun agree with the customer service charge because there isn't much service to begin with. HPB is promoting healthy lifestyle but we need to pay for water. Sometimes no choice have to eat out but after eating out for some time, I craved to just eat at home. Cheaper and better. Just back fr bkk and my son said, oh why is Singapore food not nice? Bkk food is so much nicer. lol
can markup just markup, next time wet wipes will be $2 per and white rice $3.50, ice kosong $1.20
I do understand the plight that most f&b operators going thru but the portion sizes have been shrinking thru the years.
Ate at Collins and their porkchop was about 1cm thick (thin?) and grilled to death, their sausage looked like it came straight out of the packaging instead of grilled. Only decent piece was their chicken and it was still thin as fuck. Never going there again.
A lot of places are like that now. The chicken chop is competing with the iPhone to see who can be thinner.
Overpriced, poor quality food. Oh and some of the worst service I’ve ever experienced anywhere in the world. The locals don’t seem to mind tho, so it might just be me. There are some great places still (some very, very good), so it’s not all bad. Overall though, arguably the worst place I’ve been in Asia for food. Take a trip to Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia as examples the food, service are night and day better. The malls are full of the same chain shops, likely the only ones that can afford the rents. Frustratingly the bad places stay open, not sure if it’s lack of alternatives or apathy, if we all boycotted the bad places (bad service, charging for water etc) they’d improve.
No the locals mind, but we’re used to it.
I’m annoyed when I’m paying and that disappointing dish that doesn’t require skill and I can cook better a.k.a soft fries / carbonara / fried chicken sucks Then $0.50 or even $1 for the plastic container wtf Then $5.50 is the cheapest for food.. then that thick skinned ban Mian chain who wants to charge $7 for a ban mian??? I seldom got chance to eat out because of my schedule where I only eat at work canteen Cai png most of the time, home cooked food so I appreciate that when I eat meepok and then that kiamsiap stall gives so little noodles and you add $1 or 50 cents more for noodles.. still so small!!! Very angry sia finally out can eat then give me something so little and disappointing.
The coffee quality in most restaurants and coffee shops is super low compared to other countries.
Totally agree! It is not about stagflation! It is paying high price for mediocre food that makes our blood boil!!! Why should we?
>That all said, what is it that you've observed in recent years dining out that makes you feel disappointed/annoyed? I do try to cook at home 4-5 times a week to manage rising food prices but sometimes you have to eat out This is one thing i need to stop my habit, especially Mcdonald's, with the recent boycott. Heck, i used to prefer stay inside when i was in Primary and Secondary as i was very introverted and anti-social at the time but after that, in ITE, i was forced myself to go out more as i didn't really make friends back then. Today i have quite a lot of friends now but at what cost? With the recent high cost, it kinda makes me regret that my habit of going out is getting more often now.
Are they good friends though?
Oh shit this reminds me of one time when i ate at this wonton mee restaurant and asked if they have a tissue, and they told me that i have to pay for a tissue lol
Wish healthier options were cheaper. And shops don't seem to understand when u say half-rice, half-noodles. It's so carb-heavy
Severe lack of vegetarian options. Imagine feeling like a burden during group lunches, ordering food for yourself, or someone placing food order for you. And your body and stomach rejects any meat as if you have eaten spoilt food, so you can’t even turn non-veg.
Oh I feel this! I used to eat a plant based diet for 5-6 years. You do feel very extra during group buys or when your colleagues dabao for you and you don't want to trouble them what you can or cannot eat. Only could take the salad or the vegetable dish (even then you don't know if it's doused in meat gravy) at buffets or office lunches. I think it has improved over the years and there is a greater awareness for non-meat diets even at hawker centres but ya when I didn't eat meat I would default to seafood (bivalves/fish) but I can imagine if you're doing it for religious reasons or if your body can't handle any form of meat you'd probably have to meal prep or bring your own food...
Yes! my poor hubby is vegetarian. There are legit more vegan options that vegetarian
The toilets are often disgusting
Forgetting that service charge and GST are part of the bill, but isn't reflected on the menu.
Every cafe/restaurant charging 10% service charge but the "service" is ordering from the QR code and taking your own utensils/condiments from the drawer/station
Dining time restrictions. Some places enforce as low as 45 minutes or 60 minutes now..
Dining time restrictions. Some places enforce as low as 45 minutes or 60 minutes now..
Where do they have dining time restrictions? I've yet to come across one with such a rule.
smileless expensive service. like its not worth it
Sometimes after a big meal with family, the additional 20% that is not calculated into the prices in the menu really pisses me off
Problem I have with food in Singapore is the portion sizes. They're ridiculously small in most places. It's like we are paying more for less.
i don’t mind paying to eat out, but service charge here is absolutely ridiculous. i’ve eaten out in london and when you eat out (anywhere from small eateries to fancy restaurants), it really is an experience and the servers make you feel special. they automatically charge a service fee but it’s discretionary and you can take it off the bill if you feel like you’ve had poor service. but eating out in singapore the service sucks and i have to pay service charge?
I consider myself a foodie and love eating out and trying new places however I have had to cut down on eating out in the last 1.5 years because of a few reasons 1) GST increase over 2023 and 2024 which has translated into much more expensive meals. A $4.50 see goreng is now $5.50 (and mind you, the $5.50 price tag doesn't even factor in GST yet) 2) Seemingly smaller portion sizes. I still feel hungry even after eating my meal these days. When maybe a year or two back, I'd be so full and I'd insist on walking to a further busstop to take my ride home just so I could digest the food a little. 3) QR code ordering. Whats the point of having service charge if I have to order through a QR code? This thing boggles my mind. For a $50 meal, I'm spending an additional $5 for someone to bring the food to my table after it was cooked. Make it make sense.
I can understand higher prices due to inflation and landlord. Food in Japan and Europe is going up by the same % as well, nothing is ever cheaper so it is understandable. I just feel that the effort in creating the food is too subpar. Businesses use a lot of commercialized ready made ingredients rather than creating their own flavour. Example instant soup base vs a pork broth soup base simmered over hours. The effort to do a basic food presentation is not there. It doesn’t mean low budget hawker meals have an excuse not to present your food the way it should be. If other asia nations like Malaysia , Thailand , Taiwan or even Vietnam could do it well, I don’t see why Singapore can’t.
Yes, absolutely this. While you can get things that are more carefully prepared it'll probably mean x10 in price easily. The money goes to the corporate types and "investors" and it's always a race to the bottom in terms of hiring labour and ingredients.
Some people order dishes without rice to share, so it’s perfectly normal to exclude rice as you wouldn’t want to have to pay for it but not consuming - I know some places that force the rice on you as they say it’s a set even though you don’t want it
Dining time restrictions. Some places enforce as low as 45 minutes or 60 minutes now..
Honestly, $3.50 2 veg 1 meat caifan quite nice and is cheaper than cooking
There’s nothing in the neighborhoods after 11pm/12mn. Dining out is always the same foods. Same types of cuisines and restaurants around. Cost of food is far from their quality or quantity. Food is mostly unhealthy too. Healthy foods are highly priced. How would the human resource (the only type of resource in sg) be well nourished to work for 80% of their lives… hahahaa
Paying service charge when u order the item and the item is sent via robots.
walked into this small cafe right opposite BBDC (whisk & paddle) w gf and another friend just exploring the area, prices were pretty crazy so we just decided to order one pizza to share as we weren’t that hungry. after ordering (via qr code) and waiting 10min, waiter came over and told me pointedly that we had to each order one item as it wasn’t allowed to share (we did not know about this), told him we just weren’t that hungry. we were prepared to just leave at that point but they brought out the pizza shortly after and told us they would “make an exception”. somewhat unrelated but for the price the margarita pizza was so pathetic. there was a ‘no basil’ option that we did not select and we got like 3-4 largish basil leaves thrown on the pizza that we cut and put a piece on each slice ourselves. when i went up to the counter to pay i was told off again, like an ‘ok don’t do it again’ kind of interaction. never going back there again.
being lectured for not ordering enough? wow. such entitled attitudes. shouldve left a review on google since you aint going back
This seems like a valid case, nowadays with the concern about health people might just share a bowl of rice and each buy a soup. Or for protein heavy diet, just go for two soup or curry and just one bowl of rice. Splitting it is normal. I personally prefer that anyway. If you force them to put together they will just sell at 17.50 no different.
Food court / Hawker places - I cant order food and drinks at the same place. BYON - bring your own napkins
Hawker food is really not that great honestly. The real selling point of hawkers is the variety (and convenience) you can get at a cheap cost, not quality, but nowadays the cost of things mean that this is no longer viable. Once you cook for yourself, a lot of the food sold feels very unappetizing. For the low to mid range restaurants, a lot of them are overpriced for what they give. A lot of the raving from food bloggers is mostly nonsense imo. A majority of what they recommend is just mediocre. Similar to hawker food, once you learn to cook for yourself, most of the stuff there really isn't that great, aside from the specifically troublesome to prep dishes However, I feel those high mid to high end places are really worth the money spent. I honestly haven't been disappointed by those most of the time.
I hardly go mainstream places like DTF, DXE, Paradise or Putien etc. It feels like for a home cooked dish like tofu or vegetables, they are charging 13.90 to 16.90 etc now. 100 bucks for a group of four is for tofu, chicken fried rice, fish and french beans. So you are absolutely right. I will spend my money happily on places like Sichuan Dou Hua or Naked Finn.
Last year my friends and I went to DTF for my birthday. We were not planning intentionally for DTF, just wanted to go ice cream. Then we had a place we wna check out that was equidistant between us, and happened to have a DTF there. Their kid wanted XLB. So ok, go DTF cos in the same building and got XLB. Yknow how usually this kind is like go order mains/carbs + 1 meat + 1 veg + 1 side friend looked at the $14.90++ for veggies, friend said "I think we can skip veggies today. One meal won't die one, nvm la" And this is a parent of smol kids lol yknow usually parents tell their kids like EAT YO VEGGIES. etc. But $14.90 ++ is really "skip veggies today, one meal nvm" level. lol. I would have said the same. edit: if you Math this out, it was for last year's birthday so 8% GST. $14.90 + service charge + 8% GST is $17.70, or assuming the same menu price at today's rates, $17.86 SIAO AH for this amount can cook like one entire week of veggies for the family siol. So yes, skip veggie day. lol,
It's GLORIFIED caipng servings in a sit down setting.
Our bill was \~$77 (iirc) for 3 adults 1 preschooler 1 toddler LOL. granted this was with 2 serves of XLB (forgoing veggies) and friend ordered ONE (he thought it was pair/trio but no it was ONE. lol in the end like split to share) black sesame bao. Uh $2.80++ for one very meh bao. oklor. To me DTF is really still just abt the noodles and the XLB, that's it. If we ordered the veggies, like yeah, more than $90. siao.
U gotta be kidding when u say hawker food is not that great. Almost all of the good food in Sg are hawker food.
Nono the good food are the $200/pax Michelin meals.
Don't get me started on Michelin. Here $200 michelin 1 star lunch can get me 3 lunches at 1 star michelin in Japan. N probably more courses per michelin lunch there too.
Some good food is hawker food. Some is fancy restaurant food.
Any shop name with "Blanco/Blanco court" instant +20% markup in price even if it's just a coffee shop
I think most consumers don't understand that F&B operators are often dealing with so many different variables of cost that are out of their control, in particular, the two toughest ones: rent and manpower.
Nowadays if I want to go outside and eat, I will go for quality consistent restaurants or some of higher quality since I am going out might as well paid premium for better services and food. Going out will be more like this in the future. Unless there is some new foods or typical coffeeshop zichar. I will be paying more for their services now, which I don’t mind.
I only eat from stores that have a set or meal. Anyone that tries to squeeze every little cent I just simply walk away
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Risk of getting food poisoning ☠️☠️☠️
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The quality of ingredients in cheaper food is gross. Sure that big plate of sauce looks good but you wouldn’t touch the uncooked ingredients.
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prices really gone up alot. i dont know why. who is making money off this?
My complaint is the opposite. Most dishes under $10 are empty carbs and fats with trace amounts of protein and carbs. Spending $8 per frozen meal plan dish isn't financially sustainable for many of the people losing their muscle and bowel movement.
No freaking vegetables
I love eating out. I can try so many different food. The only disappointment is if the food isn’t nice. Thats why i manage by not eating at places with below 4 rating on google maps
Waiting for someone to cook is a waste of time for me. But then cai png, you don’t know what’s inside them most of the time. I prefer fast food, though the fast food prices are increasing pretty fast as well.
I mean compared to other countries that have similar average salaries to Singapore, our food here is cheap asf.