Admiralty stall that allegedly imposed 'CNY surcharge' says fee was for extra curry

A Nasi Lemak store in Admiralty allegedly charged a customer a "Chinese New Year (CNY) surcharge" of S$1 on Jan. 5, 2026, more than a month before the Lunar New Year is celebrated on Feb. 17.

In a widely circulated Jan. 6, post on the Facebook page Complaint Singapore, a picture of the receipt included the "CNY surcharge S$1 (no further discount)".

The contributor of the post titled it, "is it right for them to charge CNY fees so early???".

He also captioned the picture with "honestly I'm crashing out, CNY surcharge for food? It's only January 2026".

The Facebook user told Mothership that his friend, who was the person who got the receipt, said the staff had purportedly replied that it was material costs when she brought up the fee.

On Jan. 7, Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang later explained that it was a misunderstanding in a response to a negative Google Maps review.

Misunderstanding due to extra curry

Commenters on the Facebook post called for a boycott, asking the contributor to share the stall's name and location. Netizens started posting negative reviews on the stall's Google Maps listing.

A one-star review asked "come on why got CNY surcharge already", to which the owner responded with their side of the story.

The stall owner explained that the CNY surcharge was due to the customer ordering extra curry, and there was no CNY surcharge.

The stall defended itself, stating that it did not have a button for curry sauce and resorted to using the S$1 CNY button instead.

They have since added the curry sauce option.

Lianhe Zaobao reported that Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang responded to their inquiry on Jan. 7, stating that a spokesperson for the Nasi Lemak chain said the words "CNY surcharge" were due to a technical error of the cashier system.

The spokesperson added that the relevant issue had been resolved and that there was no issue with the cost as the extra item of "curry sauce" tallied with the surcharge amount on the receipt.

The spokesperson added that they would continue to pay attention to price transparency and ensure the cashier system accurately records all transaction items.

The boss of Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang, also provided Lianhe Zaobao with CCTV footage of the incident, showing that it was a misunderstanding.

According to an employee interviewed by Lianhe Zaobao, the CNY surcharge is only levied on the first and second days of the Lunar New Year.

Top photo from Abigail Ng/Google Maps and Complaint Singapore/Facebook.