An Indonesian tourist claimed she paid S$21 for economy rice, also known as cai png, at a food court in Lucky Plaza in Orchard.

She proceeded to make her experience public in the Complaint Singapore Facebook group on Jun. 20.

"This mixed rice stall is where I tasted my most expensive mixed rice in Singapore," she wrote, posting under the moniker "Yuu Chan".

"I've no clue whether this is a typical scam in Singapore," she added, highlighting that tourists such as herself could be the ones targeted.

Wanted to try different cuisine

The housewife, 35, said she had always wanted to try economy rice here, along with other cuisine.

She chanced upon the stall inside the Asian Food Mall food court while at Lucky Plaza.

In Yuu's post, she revealed she ordered one-and-a-half servings of rice, sweet and sour chicken, braised pork, one serving of vegetables, and one additional serving of sweet and sour pork.

This amounted to three servings of meat and one serving of vegetables.

A photo of her food was shared in the comments section of her post.

Shocked by price

Yuu was shocked when she had to make payment.

"To my surprise, total bill for that order is S$21", she wrote.

She claimed that when she asked for a receipt, she was told that the stall's point-of-sale (POS) system was broken and they could only show the tabulation via a calculator.

Yuu had seen pricing information at the stall and reasoned that the price she should have been charged was S$5.80 for two meat items and one vegetable item, which would have been one meal for one person.

An additional serving of meat would set her back S$1.80 on top of S$5.80.

But when the stall assistant tallied the total in their "magic calculator", she said the amount became S$21.

"Amazing stuff," she said.

Unclear about what she could have done

In response to the numerous comments, Yuu said she was unsure where she stood as a consumer in Singapore and how she could have approached the situation as she was not familiar with the social norms here.

"I did ask why the price was different compared to the listed price," Yuu replied to one comment saying.

She claimed she was told by the stall assistant it was "not the same".

"What can we do then? If I knew the Singapore laws that would fight for me, I'd have definitely stood up to them," she wrote.

In another comment, she wrote: "This is a very bad experience for me as tourist. I thought Singapore is such an advanced country, but there is still these kind of people doing such business, especially in the city center!!"

"Such a shame."

In response to Mothership's queries, Yuu said she was confused as a foreigner, and wondered if a non-transparent way of doing things in the city centre is the result of a lack of enforcement.

However, she added:

“When the comments in Complaint Singapore started to flow in, I can see that Singapore is indeed a fast response country to maintain a good image. This kind of reaction is why I really see Singapore is still the best in Southeast Asia.

Not because of the government alone, but with participation of all the citizen. This is the only reason why this country is great.”

In response to Mothership's queries, Asian Food Mall said: "We are currently looking into the matter with our tenant."

Top photo via Yuu Chan