S$17.50 meal at hot pot stall shocks diner; she regrets not reading the food reviews first before ordering

SINGAPORE: A woman was shocked upon being charged S$17.50 for a meal she had at a hot pot stall at the food court at VivoCity.

A Facebook user who goes by Indah wrote in a Nov 6 post that she only ordered “1 potato, 1 tofu, 4 okras, 2 tofu skin, a little bit of chicken, and 1 rice,” and added that she did not know why it was so expensive.

She then asked the stall staff about the price and if she had been charged wrongly. The staff told her that the price of an order at their stall was based on its weight.

“This means for the veggies, 45 (gram) x 0.22 = $9.9. I don’t understand why they put (10g) on the veggie and meat.  I thought they were charging $0.22 per 10 grams of veggies or meat,” she wrote.

Later, she added that it was her fault that she ended up paying so much. If she had read stall reviews beforehand, she would have known about the stall’s pricing.

However, since she was “very” hungry, she did not bother to check the reviews.

“I will be more careful next time,” she added.

In a later edit to her post, Ms Indah added that she is not from Singapore and has “no idea how much food should cost here.”

However, she found it “very odd” and decided to post about it.

Commenters on her post reiterated that the orders for mala hot pot are based on weight. One commenter who ate at Mala Hot Pot at Paya Lebar Square wrote they ended up paying S$38.

A group member chimed in that Mala can cost between S$27 and S$30. Another wrote that they had a similar experience, calling it the first and last time.

Others said that with these prices, buying their own ingredients and cooking and eating at home is better.

Some Facebook users wondered what “vegetables 45x” means, joking that every peanut or sesame seed could have been counted and added to the charges.

One commenter urged the post author to complain directly to the stall management if she’s unhappy with the meal or its pricing. Still, others agreed that the price she paid for the dish was quite expensive.

The Independent Singapore has contacted to Ms Indah for further comment or updates./TISG

Read also: Man orders mala hotpot online, receives ‘utterly disgusting bag of rubbish’ instead