of chinatown eatery charged $12 for chicken rice

Chinatown eatery charged $12 for chicken rice: Ms Elina Ciptadi wrote to Straits Times to complain that she was charged $74 for four plates of chicken rice and a plate of Char Siew at a Trengganu Street eatery.

Ms Ciptadi said,

On Tuesday, I took my three cousins from Indonesia to Chinatown for some sightseeing, and we had lunch at an eatery in Trengganu Street that sold chicken rice. As we were used to the hawker centre way of ordering food - the place did not look any fancier than a hawker stall - we went straight to the counter to order some chicken rice and drinks. I told my cousins that the last time I ate there, it had cost me no more than $4 a plate. Each plate of chicken rice cost us $12, and a plate of char siew cost $18. This was double the price we would have paid in the foodcourts of Ngee Ann City and Wisma Atria.

It is simply unthinkable that a simple eatery with outdoor plastic chairs and no air-conditioning could charge double what fancy foodcourts in Orchard Road charge. We complained about the bill to the staff and the owner, who curtly said that everything was on the menu, that each plate of chicken rice was either $8, $10 or $12.

Billboards displaying the menu also did not indicate the price. And it was not as if the staff could not explain the menu or prices to us earlier: At least one employee could speak English.

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