TacoCat's TrEats #58: The Cheapest Meals in Town!

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Cover image source: GrabFood

Hey Hive!

We have some interesting choices for contests this week. I was thinking of a takeaway I could write about, but since this Palatable Beauty of Chinese Cuisine contest is still unclaimed, I decided to give it a shot.

So in my past entries for this contest, I always wrote about some fancy high-class Chinese restaurant, like TungLok or one of the Paradise Group restaurants. This time, I decided to share a place that is quite the opposite.

And that place is called Just Acia!

Source: Singapore Women's Weekly

If you're familiar with this place in Singapore, you'd know what I'm talking about. Just Acia is known for being very budget-friendly, with meals as low as SGD$5.90 that also include free flow soft drink floats, cappucinos, soft serve yogurt and ice cream!

And the menu features many different types of Asian cuisines, not just Chinese. They have different types of ramen and udon, as well as Korean dishes like Bulgogi beef and kimchi soup.

But, they also have a myriad of spaghetti sets as well!

I would say most of their dishes are Chinese cuisine or at the very least, the Chinese interpretation. I've never tried the spaghetti before though, so don't quote me on that.

Anyway, one of their largest outlets is in the city at Dhoby Ghaut, which isn't too far from where we are currently staying. Since we couldn't decide what to eat for dinner after our grocery shopping, we finally gave this place a try.

Located underground in Dhoby Xchange, a short escalator ride from the MRT station, this Just Acia outlet is an open concept eatery, and has actually been here for more than 10 years!

There are plenty of seats available, so getting a table wasn't an issue.

They were having a promotion for a special curry chicken rice set, so I decided to give it a try. While Sean opted for the Seasonal Greens and Spinach Tofu rice set (which was also one of their vegetarian options).

While waiting for our food, we were reminiscing about the times we patronised Just Acia, back when we were secondary/high school students. As you can imagine, the low priced meals coupled with free flow desserts make Just Acia a hotspot for students, especially as a study area. So we would often visit Just Acia while cramming for exams with our friends, some 10 years ago.

We then went to check out the drinks available, and got some ice lemon tea and lemonade.

After a little while, our food arrived!

This was my curry chicken rice, which came with a small bowl of kimchi and miso soup.

And this was Sean's vegetarian set, which also came with kimchi and miso soup.

The food was actually not too bad! Especially for the prices. I mean it wasn't anything fancy, and it might've been my hunger talking, but it was pretty alright. I'd say it's about food court standard. But they also give some vegetables, which is good.

The curry rice actually wasn't spicy at all. I didn't eat the red chili, but I expected the sauce to be spicy since the menu had a warning on it. But it was pretty mild. Nevertheless, it was pretty tasty.

And the spinach tofu (which was actually egg tofu) was pretty legit. It wasn't super crispy, but still pretty good all the same.

After we finished our meal, we waited for a bit to digest before hitting the ice cream bar.

They had 8 different flavours to choose from: mango, raspberry, tropicana, blueberry, mint chocolate chip, rum & raisin, lemon sherbet and milk tea. I was pretty full from the dinner and drinks already, so I decided to try the milk tea ice crem.

They also had the soft serve machine, which I thought would serve yogurt, but is actually just vanilla ice cream.

The milk tea ice cream was kinda bitter actually, but mixed with the vanilla soft serve it became pretty alright! It was like eat boba ice cream, but less sweet. 😅

All in all, we had a pretty full meal. And all for less than $20! For 2 meals, drinks and dessert, that's pretty good. And while it may not be the 'Best in Asia', the variety and prices are kinda unbeatable. So if you're not picky with food and find yourself looking for a cheap meal in the city, definitely check out Just Acia!

Thanks for reading!