Heartland Boy is always on the lookout for reducing the cost of his meals without compromising on the quality of the food. He has successfully done this through Eatigo, Shopback Go and the HSBC Entertainer App. He struck gold again recently when he was introduced to MealPal during a promotional event. In the month of June, Heartland Boy was enjoying restaurant-quality lunches that only cost $3.99 per meal. Yup, you read it right and there is no typo mistake. Indeed, MealPal allowed him to have cheap lunch meals in the CBD and much more! Here is Heartland Boy’s review of MealPal and how you can also save on your meals expenses with MealPal.
How MealPal Works
MealPal originates from the US and is the brainchild of ClassPass co-founder, Mary Biggins. In Singapore, it offers both affordable lunch and dinner subscription plans in a 30-day cycle. MealPal members can reserve and pick up their meals from over hundreds of participating restaurants. Here is a step-by-step guide on how MealPal works.
1. Choose A Meal Package
For lunch, MealPal Singapore offers the (i) Basic Plan and the (ii) All-Access Plan.
- Basic Plan: 12 restaurant meals at $7.99 per meal for a total sum of $95.88 (before discounts/promotion)
- All-Access Plan: 12 restaurant meals + 2 hawker meals at $6.99 per meal for a total monthly sum of $97.88 (before discounts/promotion)
After purchasing your meal plan, remember to download the MealPal app (either iOS or the Android version) onto your mobile device.
2. Select Your Meal From Participating Restaurants
On the day that you purchase your meal plan, you are immediately good to redeem your first meal. As shown in Diagram 1, select any one of the delicious meals from the list of participating restaurants.
Diagram 1: List of lunch meals available on MealPal in Tanjong Pagar
Alternatively, instead of a list, you can also view the available restaurants using the map function to know how far they are located from your office/workplace. Some points to note:
- MealPal is only available on a working day (i.e. a weekday that is not a public holiday.)
- For lunches, the kitchen is open from 5pm onwards and closes at 10.30am the next day. As an example, if you would like to reserve your lunch on 23 July (Tuesday), you can start doing so anytime from 5pm of 22 July till 10.30am of 23 July.
- You are only allowed to choose 1 lunch item per day and any unconsumed meals will be forfeited upon the expiry of your 30-day subscription plan.
Do not worry about menu fatigue as the participating restaurants often change their menu to freshen up the variety. In addition, MealPal not only works in the CBD, there are also plenty of merchant restaurants located in areas such as Orchard, Newton, City Hall and Bugis.
3. Redeem Your Meal
Simply turn up at the restaurant at the time slot that you have indicated and scan the MealPal QR code to redeem your meal. As MealPal is only available for take-aways, you can return to your office pantry to enjoy your meal! Alternatively, don’t be shy to bring along your restaurant meal and join your colleagues at the hawker center to have lunch together. Pay particular attention to their envious glances as they gaped in awe at the ridiculous price that you have just paid for your restaurant-quality meal!
Benefits Of MealPal
1. Restaurant-Quality Meals For Possibly Less Than $4
The main benefit of subscribing to MealPal is the cost savings. Heartland Boy kid you not- you could be paying “Hawker Prices for Restaurant Quality Meals”. For instance, Heartland Boy seized on a good corporate promotion offer and paid $47.90 for 12 meals. That worked out to $3.99 for each meal. That’s pretty much the average price of a hawker meal in the CBD, but look at what Heartland Boy consumed in the past month as shown in Diagram 2.
Diagram 2: Examples of meals consumed by Heartland Boy
Most of us probably agree that it is almost impossible to pay $4 at the food centres and get quality ingredients like oyster blade steak, salmon, Poké bowls. However, with MealPal, you can enjoy restaurant-quality meals at affordable prices that will not put a dent on your wallets.
2. Beat The Lunchtime Crowd
Another advantage of using a MealPal subscription is that you will be able to beat the long queues during peak lunch hours. Simply walk past the queue, scan the QR code and collect your lunch box! In most cases, the lunches would have already been prepared before your arrival. No time wasted so that you can have a more productive lunch hour!
Diagram 3: Scan the QR code to redeem your meal via MealPal and skip the long queues
Tips To Maximise Your MealPal Account
1. Postpone Your Meals If You Need To
It is inevitable that you might be absent from office for a prolonged period- eg: travelling for work or for leisure or calling in sick. These situations could potentially hinder you from finishing your meals within the current cycle. Not to worry, you can contact MealPal and they can offer solutions such as pausing your account (taking a break) and then crediting the missed meals to next month’s subscription. Note that this is handled on a case by case basis by MealPal’s customer service team so acceding to your request is not always guaranteed.
2. MealPal Auto-Renews
Like most subscription plans these days, MealPal is no different by automatically renewing your meal plans. (Note that your credit card details will be stored) It will automatically renew at the end of the 30-day cycle or when all meals have been consumed, whichever comes first.
If you do not like to continue with MealPal (for whatever reasons), do buffer several working days to cancel your subscription in advance. Note that making changes such as cancellations can only be done by logging into your account on the desktop version. This request is not available on the mobile app.
Receive 25% Off MealPal
If you would like to have cheap lunch meals in the CBD, you can sign up for MealPal via Heartland Boy’s referral link and receive $20 off your first-month subscription. This works out to only $4.99 per meal! Note that this exclusive Heartland Boy readers’ promotion is only valid till 30 Jul 2020, so make sure that you register and pay for your subscription before that to be eligible for the discount! To receive 25% off, you must be a new user who signs up via this referral link:
https://mealpal.com/heartlandboy25off
If you have further questions, do refer to the FAQ section on its main website. Alternatively, write in to alison@heartlandboy.com and he would be happy to address your questions and share more in-depth on his experience (and even more tips) of using MealPal.
Disclaimer: Note that Heartland Boy earns a small referral fee for every successful sign-up within the promotion period
But after promo ends it becomes 7+ per meal
Hi William,
Yes it does. You can either cancel or wait for another promo. I waited a couple of weeks for another promo and renewed for another 2 months at $4.10 per meal.
This company is quite clearly a dishonest one. Their app provides no option to cancel subscription or remove your credit card details, so I wrote in and got written confirmation that my plan would not be renewed. Despite this, my subscription was auto renewed anyway after all credits were used! I had to then write in AGAIN to get the plan confirmed, and their response was that my credit card would only be refunded after a lengthy delay.
Their website is also deliberately set up so that there is no confirmation page – if you are an existing customer, your credit card is charged immediately on a page that doesn’t tell you the final total that you will be charged (it looks like you will be led to a final confirmation screen but your card is instead charged immediately – and remember, you can’t remove your credit card details from their system).
All these shady practices reek of a company that is desperately trying to scam money out of unsuspecting consumers. I would avoid, if I were you.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for providing your feedback. I will share them with MealPal and hope that these can be rectified.