There are many reasons people visit town, the extravagant shopping belt that spans Dhoby Ghaut, Somerset, and Orchard. For some, sauntering about malls and their grandiloquent walkways with schoolmates or colleagues is somewhat a delightful routine. For others, intimate activities like paktor-ing, skating, or visiting “tourist attractions” make town so wholesome.
In view of the opulence associated with town, it is not often that the consumption of affordable food is quoted as one of the above reasons, though that hardly implies that we can’t find cheap and good stuff around. When it comes to cost savings, it doesn’t take an MBA-holder to know that the shoddier a building looks, the lower its prices are likely to be.
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If, for whatever reason, you regard Orchard as a hangout and have been looking to tighten your belt, get those hands and feet ready to be frisky! We humbly present where in town you can find meals for no more than $5: (Excluding well-promoted fast food and identical food courts).
—–Lucky Plaza—–
1. My Favourite Cafe
Better known for Yong Tau Fu that requires a minimum of 6 items (60¢ each) is My Favourite Cafe, a name many will attest to. For $3.50, one is able to get a Wanton Mee or Fishball Noodle. With canned drinks at $1.50 each, a complete $5 meal here is most possible.
Address: #06-46/47 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road, Singapore 238863
Operating hours: 8am – 6pm
2. As Shifaa Cafe
An unforgettable fried chicken perfected from years of oil drenching gives the small eatery a consistent lunch crowd hungry for the $4 Nasi Ayam that pairs most harmoniously with the homemade sambal on the side.
Address: #06-52 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road, Singapore 238863
Operating hours: 11am – 5pm (Closed on Sundays)
—–Far East Plaza—–
3. Tasty Treats
Level 5 of Far East Plaza is abuzz with longstanding and cheap restaurants. One of these diners include Tasty Treats, which proudly features an assortment of $4 Chinese hawker food of a healthy serving. Offerings like the Roasted Duck Noodle and Chicken Cutlet Noodle give a respectably springy noodle that will have you coming back. Also, it is $1.50 per can drink.
Address: #05-96/97 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, Singapore 228213
Operating hours: 12pm – 9pm
4. Delicacy Food Centre
A $3 Yang Zhou Fried Rice is the least priced meal at Delicacy Food Centre, that is also home to other healthy Zi Char items such as Stir Fried Vegetables and Ginger Onion Fish Rice for $4. Again, it is $1.50 for a canned drink here.
Address: #05-99 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, Singapore 228213
Operating hours: 11am – 10pm
5. Kang Wang Fu 康旺福
Soupy fare like Ban Mian ($3.50), Fish Soup, and Yong Tau Fu appear to most entice fans of Kang Wang Fu who rave about the delicious soup stock, though noodles in their dried forms are also available. For most of the regular meals here, $4 will suffice.
Address: #05-111 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, Singapore 228213
Operating hours: 10am – 8pm
6. Hainanese Delicacy
The only thing that is sold here is Chicken Rice, available in both steamed and roasted chicken for a minimum of $4. Upon the order, one will notice that no other place prepares its chicken rice with such blinding speed and exactness. This no-frills restaurant with juicy chicken also contains the standard supplements of gizzard, oiled vegetables, and the likes.
Address: #05-111 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, Singapore 228213
Operating hours: 10am – 8pm
7. Puncak Muslim Food
Chinese-Muslim food on Puncak’s extensive menu opens the eatery to a really large audience, who mostly dig the fried items like Fried Wanton and Crispy Noodle. $4 is enough for a basic serving of Roast Chicken Rice or Oyster Sauce Chicken Noodle. For a divine package of spice, oil, and egg, try the Thai Fried Rice.
Address: #05-94 Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road, Singapore 228213
Operating hours: 11:30am – 9:30pm
—–Cuppage Plaza—–
8. Isle Cafe
If one didn’t know better, Isle Cafe could be mistaken for Ananas Cafe, just that instead of having over 20 outlets serving Chicken Rice and Nasi Lemak, there are only 5 Isle Cafes scattered around town specializing in Economic Mixed Rice and curried noodles. Essentially, 2 vegetables and 1 meat with rice adds up to just $3 at the popular eatery. The splendour of the sunny side up egg and thickness of curry here will certainly trigger recurring visits.
Address: #01-04 Cuppage Plaza, 5 Koek Road, Singapore 228796
Operating hours: 7:30am – 7pm
9. Orchard Tian Tang Eating House 乌节天堂美食餐厅
The basement of Cuppage finds another hole-in-the-wall joint serving hawker meals of the Chinese variety. For a scrumptious Chicken Wing Set that is plated with rice, an egg and luncheon meat, only $4.50 is required. Other popular meals include the Bitter Gourd Sliced Fish Soup and Beef Hor Fun.
Address: #B1-19/20 Cuppage Plaza, 5 Koek Road, Singapore 228796
Operating hours: 11:30am – 11pm
—–Orchard Towers—–
10. Orchard Deli Vegetarian Food
Past 3 levels teeming with lascivious nightclubs and tender exhortations, it’s hard to expect that a proper vegetarian stall, which displays a capsuled Buddha, lives on in this infamous building. At Orchard Deli where the items on sale correlate to the day of the week, most vegetarian meals like the mock Prawn Noodle and Sliced Fish Bee Hoon go for $4. For authentic Thai cuisine, one can also place orders at the adjacent stall but at a pricier cost.
Address: #04-02 Orchard Towers, 400 Orchard Road, Singapore 238875
Operating hours: 8am – 630pm (Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays)
11. Chopstix & Rice
Having once been featured on the Sunday Times, this restaurant has been gradually raising prices such that one could in a wrong state of mind file for cost misrepresentation on its signboard. Economic Mixed Rice, Tze Char, and Western are available at this 24-hour eatery, where now for $4.50, you can attain rice, 1 meat, and 2 vegetables.
Address: #04-37/38 Orchard Towers, 400 Orchard Road, Singapore 238875
Operating hours: 24/7
—–Killiney Road—–
12. Killiney Kopitiam
Loath as I am to allude to something so obvious, some credit is to be given to the restaurant chain, whose success is predicated on its Kaya Butter Toast ($2.40), for endowing Killiney Road with some street cred. For $4, classics like Mee Siam and Laksa can also be obtained, but do note that GST is applicable here but should still work out to be less than $5.
Along this historical road also lies S11 and miscellaneous shops with bite-sized meals such as Pau and Curry Puffs.
Address: 67 Killiney Road, Singapore 239525
Operating hours: 6am – 11pm (Mondays – Saturdays excluding Tuesdays) | 6am – 6pm (Tuesdays) | 6am – 6pm (Sundays and Public Holidays)
—–Midpoint Orchard—–
13. Jtown Cafe
For $5, this restaurant that vows to make Indonesians feel at home with homemade rice noodle serves the Bakmie Ayam (Chicken Rice Noodle) main course. Another 50¢ will upgrade your main to a set. We hear also that its Durian Martabak, an Indonesian style dessert, is selling like hotcakes right now (pun unintended).
Address: #B1-08, Midpoint Orchard, 220 Orchard Road, Singapore 238852
Operating hours: 8am – 7pm
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Editor’s End Notes
At the core of it, cheap and tasty food does not come easy, especially in town and the Orchard road area; one either must weather long distances on shady terrain or wait like a fool who repeatedly questions why he or she chose to be the fool. Nevertheless, we pray that you enjoy the food when it arrives.
Are there other such good meals below $5 around town? Let us know in the comments!
