Category: Food

Singapore is notoriously expensive for tourists. But fret not because here is my guide on where to eat on a budget in Singapore.

KOPITIAM

Kopitiam is the prime site where residents and tourists go to for a diverse range of affordable food and beverages. Founded in 1988, it has since expanded to 80 outlets in different locations across Singapore and is now a quintessential part of every Singaporean neighborhood.

There are plenty of local dishes that you can sample at Kopitiam but here are my top two favorites:

There’s no better way to start a day in Singapore than enjoying a filling breakfast meal consisting of kaya toasts, soft boiled eggs, and a hot cup of coffee that vaguely tastes like sikwate.

Price: 2.30 SGD (approx 90 PHP)

Laksa is a flavorful coconut curry noodle soup loaded with rice noodles, tofu puffs, fresh bean sprouts, meat (shrimp or chicken), and spices.

Price: 3 SGD (approx 115 PHP)

CRAWFORD LANE

Prepare to queue for Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle‘s bak chor mee. This Michelin-starred egg noodle dish is mixed with fish sauce, lard, chili paste, black vinegar, minced meat, pork liver, sliced pork, wonton, and fried fish bones. It comes with a bowl of complimentary soup.

Price: Starts at 6 SGD (230 PHP)

LITTLE INDIA

Tekka Centre is a colorful, multi-level commercial complex in Little India which is a market, a shopping mall, and a food court all rolled into one. This is a place you definitely should stop by when it comes to eating on a budget in Singapore.

Stepping inside the food court of Tekka Centre may be a little overwhelming at first because the selection of food stalls there is aplenty. There’s just so much to see and taste!

But out of all the food options available there, my favorite has got to be briyani.

Briyani is an aromatic Indian one-pot rice dish prepared with fried onions, various fragrant spices, yogurt, meat, eggs, coriander, and mint leaves. One serving is enough to power you for the entire day.

Price: 4.50 SGD (approx 175 PHP)

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Make sure to try the local beverages in Tekka Centre too. All of them are refreshing and delicious. Mango lassi definitely should not be missed.

Average Price: 1.20 SGD (approx 50 PHP)

CHINATOWN

Another must-visit spot for budget-friendly meals is Chinatown. There you can find street kiosks, restaurants, and hawker stalls offering the most authentic Singaporean dining experience.

Located in Chinatown Food Complex, Liao Fan is a humble hawker stall known for serving the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred meal. Their iconic chicken noodle dish is definitely worth the long queue! You can customize the dish by selecting your preferred meat cut or by adding more ingredients.

Price: Starts at 4.80 SGD (approx 185 PHP)

ORCHARD ROAD

Orchard Road is world-famous for its long stretch of glitzy shopping malls where affluent consumers shop and dine. Yet, if you look hard enough you can still find something to eat there without breaking the bank.

Ice cream sandwiches are a delight to have after walking all day round in the humid streets of Singapore. These bricks of ice cream come in different flavors (green tea, chocolate chip, peppermint chocolate chip, durian, mango, chocolate, raspberry ripple, red bean, blueberry ripple, vanilla, sweet corn, yam) and you can choose if you want them served in a cup or between two slices of rainbow bread or wafer biscuits.

Price: 1.20 SGD (approx 50 SGD)

LUCKY PLAZA

Along the glittery Orchard Road, there’s a nondescript mall named Lucky Plaza filled with souvenir shops, remittance centers, money changers, boutiques, and food stalls which mainly caters to the Filipino diasporas.

Classic Pinoy masa favorites like Jollibee and Tapa King can be found here. But apart from Filipino food stalls, there are also other local homestyle food options to choose from.

Nasi Padang serves an eponymous rice meal with various choices of delicious pre-cooked Indonesian viands.

Price: 3.80 USD (approx 200 PHP)

7-Eleven

Last but definitely not the least on where to eat on a budget in Singapore is 7-Eleven. This ubiquitous convenience store has a lot of tasty ready-to-eat meals at prices everyone can afford.

Price: Starts at 2 SGD (approx 80 PHP)

Traveling to Singapore for the first time? Click here to read my travel guide.

On our trip to Iloilo last year, we navigated the marketplace of La Paz district to visit two classic holes-in-the-wall which played a significant role in the social life and food history of the Ilonggos, namely, Madge Cafe (where we had our afternoon pick-me-up as mentioned on my previous post) and Netong’s.

Netong’s is known and beloved by the Ilonggos for their batchoy, an unpretentious and comforting noodle soup made with meat scraps.

Leonito “Netong” Guillergan, the namesake of the eatery and great-grandfather of the present day owner, was married to a butcher’s daughter. He took discarded slivers of meat and used them to create the batchoy that we know of today. Legend has it that this dish is of Chinese origin and the word batchoy is allegedly derived from 肉粹 (ba-chui) which literally translates to “meat water”.

Netong’s maintained the original recipe of batchoy since they first introduced it to the public in the 1930s. It was meant to be a simple, lowbrow grub but it got so popular that it eventually became Iloilo’s landmark dish and pride.

What is seemingly a simple dish actually has a complex depth of flavor that comes from the slowly cooked bone broth, spices, pork meat, pork offals (kidney, liver, and spleen), Ilonggo ginamos (salted, fermented shrimp) and miki (oriental egg noodles). It is then topped with chopped scallions, crushed chicharon (pork cracklings), ground black pepper, fried garlic bits and an optional cracked egg. The contrasts of flavors and textures make it a unique and delicious meal.

This hearty, historical dish is affordably priced – 80 PHP for Super Special, 100 PHP for Extra Special and 120 PHP for Mega Bowl. Puto (steamed rice cake wrapped in banana leaves) makes a superb accompaniment to this dish and it is best-enjoyed piping hot. Soup refills are available upon request.

Netong’s is only a few steps away from Madge Cafe which is absolutely convenient for us tourists who want to hit two birds with one stone. I was pleasantly surprised that Netong’s is fully air-conditioned which makes for a more comfortable atmosphere and their service is lightning fast. They also have branched out in Mandurriao at Iloilo’s newest lifestyle hub, The Shops at Atria.

Madge Cafe is a small, open-air coffee house that is perpetually packed with customers. With almost 80 years of service (as of this writing) under their belt, they are considered to be the oldest running coffee shop in the city. They started brewing locally-grown Arabica coffee in the 1940s and since then this unpretentious watering hole has become a center of social interaction for people from all walks of life.

During our Iloilo excursion last year, we hit the bustling marketplace of La Paz to tick off two items from our bucket list – one of which is to visit a coffee shop that has been a staple of the community for generations.

We browsed around the market as we zigzagged our way in and asked some vendors along the way for directions. In the words of someone I know, “Basta na’y baba, dili mawala.” For non-Cebuano speakers that roughly translates to “you’ll never get lost if you just ask for directions.”

Despite the incidence of urban development in Iloilo, this area has been left untouched by gentrification. And thankfully so. Its traditional charm, that has withstood the test of time, makes it welcoming to the common man and a great tourist haunt.

Their walls boast their rich history by displaying mugs marked with the names of their most notable patrons through the years.

The barista manually brews coffee using a colador – a reusable cloth sieve filled with fresh grounds which is then wet with hot water. This method allows the natural oils of the grounds to pass through while filtering out the sediments – allowing for a more rich, smooth coffee. I was pleasantly surprised that their coffee is actually at par with other modern artisan cafes for a fraction of the cost. Every drop was satisfactory. I now understand why Madge Cafe is an institution.

Their hand-crafted coffee blends, which can be enjoyed hot or cold, include Media Cafe (strong coffee with milk), Media Regular (regular coffee with milk), Media Tab-ang (mild coffee with milk), Media Puro (strong black coffee), Puro Regular (regular black coffee), Puro Tab-ang (mild black coffee), Cappuccino and Vanilla Latte. They also serve non-coffee beverages, sandwiches, pasta, rice meals, noodles and other snack items.

I love how everyone can enjoy a nice cup of coffee here without burning a hole in the pocket. Prices start at 40 PHP only.

Madge Cafe has now branched out in Mandurriao at Iloilo’s newest lifestyle hub, The Shops at Atria.

After enjoying my first Michelin-starred restaurant in Taipei, my good friend Jude Bacalso took me to The Pig and Palm – a casual dining restaurant owned by Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur Jason Atherton for our first meal back in the Philippines. Who says no to that? No one.

Located at the MSY Tower in Cebu Business Park, The Pig and Palm is the 16th restaurant of the internationally renowned British chef who once worked alongside with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Atherton’s critically-acclaimed restaurant group, The Social Company which he co-manages with his wife, Irha, operates in UK, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia, Dubai and New York.

As the name suggests, the menu of this 80-seater restaurant mainly revolves around pork. Jason Atherton together with Manila-born chef Tim de la Cruz developed modern European dishes with a Filipino twist using only the freshest ingredients sourced from local farms.

Their breakfast selection is to die for!

Let’s start off with their avocado toast. This fantastic warm toast is topped with a solid smear of avocado and two perfectly poached eggs – an excellent match for my foamy cappuccino.  I finally understood why avocado toast has amassed a cult following on Instagram. I was once a doubter but now I’m a convert. It’s definitely something one should try at least once in their lifetime.

Their open faced smoked bacon sandwich topped with perfectly seasoned scrambled eggs and house baked beans is basically everything you want for breakfast served on a piece of warm, crunchy toast.

Another thing Jude and I tried was their maple bacon sandwich stuffed with fried egg and tomato chutney. Think of it as a hearty gourmet breakfast burger that can be enjoyed at any time of the day.

Pig and Palm also has a bar that serves signature cocktails in true hipster fashion.

Coff Medicine is a caffeine-fueled drink that comes in a medicine bottle which you have to pour yourself into a well-chilled cocktail glass. It makes a great pick-me-up to liven up your mood and energy. Dill or No Dill is a refreshing sweet and sour gin-based cocktail with botanical and fruity notes and comes in a glass with a sprig of dill pinned on the side. This cocktail makes a great digestif and is, of course, dill-icious!

Should you find yourself in Cebu, make sure to include Pig and Palm in your itinerary. Service and portions are satisfactory. Food is great for sharing, drinks are fantastic and the atmosphere is relaxed. Brunch averages 150~250 PHP, all-day dining will cost 300~500 PHP per dish and drinks around 250 PHP each.

Restaurant Hours
Tuesday – Friday 7:30am – 12am
Saturday – Sunday 8am – 12am

Bar Hours
Tuesday – Thursday 12pm – 12am
Friday – Saturday 12pm – 2am