Sengkang hawker says photo of food is ‘for illustration purposes only’ after diner receives chicken instead of duck

SINGAPORE: The owner of a roast meat stall in Sengkang has come out to apologise after a diner called them out online for advertising duck as part of their set meal but giving her chicken instead.

On Tuesday (Nov 14), diner Venus Wee took to Facebook to blast the stall after she ordered their $18.80 SuperValue set, which consists of three types of meats, two bowls of rice and one bowl of soup. Wee said that the photo of the meal showed duck, char siew and roast pork, “But I ended up getting chicken, char siew and roasted pork. Is this even right? We kept staring at the image, and it’s really a duck picture”, she added. When Wee approached the stall holder to clarify, she was told that the meal included chicken, not duck. Because of this, Wee said that she felt rather cheated.

In replying to Wee’s Facebook post in a comment, the stall apologised for her unpleasant experience on Wednesday (Nov 15). It explained: “The picture in the poster is just for illustration purpose only. For the combo value set, we always allow customers to choose the meat that they want, we also do the same on the GrabFood delivery platform. You can always request for your favourite meats mixture for the combo set with our employee”. The comment also said that the stall holder that day was a new employee.

In a second comment, the stall wrote that Wee only approached them about the discrepancy in her order after she had consumed the food.  As such, they were unable to change the order. “You can always raise your changing request before you leave the counter or before you consume the food if you found out that the food prepared by our staff is incorrect,” they wrote.

Read related: Singaporean buys cai fan for $20.50 in Australia, says ‘My love for cai fan does not fade with distance’

“Did you guys know that the cai fan in Australia costs about twenty dollars?” asked Singaporean TikTok user Gilbert Zhuo on Monday (Mar 20). And when asked, “Why go all the way to Oz to eat caifan?” Mr Zhuo replied, “My love for cai fan does not fade with distance.”

In his cai fan video, Mr Zhuo noted that the meal he bought was not even “inside CBD (Central Business)”. Cai fan, also known as economy rice or mixed vegetable rice, is a staple in Singapore and Malaysia, especially at hawker centres, street vendors or food courts.

More importantly, it has a reputation for being a filling, delicious and cheap meal, which is why Mr Zhuo’s TikTok raised more than a few eyebrows. The $20.50 AUD he paid roughly translates to $18.30 SGD, whereas in Singapore, cai fan can still be bought for just a few dollars. /TISG