Singapore named most affordable place for budget dining

Asian cities dominate the list of places with the cheapest meals.

Singapore is named as the most affordable city for budget dining for the local population, according to a report by international food magazine Chef’s Pencil.

The report revealed that in Asia, wealthy cities such as Singapore, Tokyo, Shenzhen, Doha and Seoul offer high affordability, but affordability plunges in South and Southeast Asia.

Singapore has an inexpensive meal to salary ratio of 0.2%. This is followed by Shenzhen (0.21%), Hong Kong (0.22%), and Doha (0.26%). Others on the list of cheap eats are Seoul, Shanghai, Dubai, Beijing, Muscat, Macao, and Tokyo.

Inexpensive meals are defined as simple meals at a casual restaurant. The inexpensive meal to salary ratio measures what share of the average monthly salary a cheap meal costs. A lower ratio means dining out is more affordable.

Sourcing data from crowdsourced platform and online database Numbeo, Chef’s Pencil analysed restaurant price data and compared it to local wages across more than 170 cities worldwide to uncover where eating out is most affordable—and where it’s the most expensive—for the local population.

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