1). Interesting that you get that impression so soon.
2). I don’t know if you’re enjoying alcohol with the meals you mention, but that is a good way to really crank up the cost. For example a passable (no harsh or offensive aspects) quality bottle of table wine from a high-street supermarket (NTUC etc) might start at about hmm $30. Restaurant margins are made mostly on the peripherals, i.e. appetiser, dessert and drink. That bottle of wine in a restaurant might be ... $75, or more. That’s a reason why we don’t, or veeeeery rarely, get a bottle of wine when dining out out here, which is a shame. Usually an aperitif, and later occasionally a digestif if the meal is a special one. Water during the meal, and I might add a beer, more likely if it’s something a bit special like a craft beer.
The other facet is that the market here is largely transient. The average visitor stays 2.5 days. There is not enough local demand for gourmet non-local food to support it’s reliable supply. There are faddy younger western-type food places that pop up, but most don’t last long, are over-hyped, and are popular due to their newness or the brief promise of respite they offer from the local offerings. In some ways it’s like expecting to go to a railway station or airport and find persuasively good food. Rather than overpriced and average if not poor food. It’s like a tiny captive transient market, and most people are never coming back anyway, ‘so to hell with the quality’.
There are some decent places out there, it’s just that they’re hard to find. I think most published reviews are difficult to rely upon. Many such articles are paid-for or advertorials. As for the Joe on the street, he’ll probably write a rave review about being allowed into KuDeTa on the top of Marina Bay Sands and paying $100+ for some nachos and chicken fajitas. The door-staff have never let him before, and he’s never had a proper fajita before, so 5* ratings all around woo-hoo!! Morton’s Steakhouse is another notorious example... read the reviews of that place from visitors on the likes of Tripadvisor, and they’re truly shocking! Flipside: Read the reviews from locals of non-celeb restaurants that are good but $$$, and observe the legion paragraphs criticising the place solely upon it’s prices. Thus a plate of awful fajitas in a gawdy and vulgar celeb-joint, are elevated far above the understated but immaculate dinner that one can find elsewhere.
For these reasons I think you will come to form your own personal shortlist of places that you enjoy, in a 360-degree sense. Product, ambience, offering, etc. That was why I started a thread a while back polling for suggestions re: such places. ‘Diamonds in the dust’. Doesn’t matter if it’s a $10 or $200+ meal, it’s more about the overall experience vs expectations, IMO. For example: The chicken murtabak from the food court at Raffles City (upstairs) is excellent. But as I recently discovered the one from my local heartland hawker centre is a positive health hazard, so much MSG it floored me for 36hrs!!
3). Agreed, it is great. Then you’ll soon figure out how to get a taxi at times when you need one, so that’s that sorted. It’s not like having your own car, no, but most people adjust and manage. You could also consider getting yourself a compact car. Even 2nd hand it is neeever going to be cheap vs the US (or most other places), but after 4+ years here carless, I’m rather intrigued how recently buying an old hatchback is opening up F+B and daytrip options that would not have been practical before.
4). Early days and you’ll settle in further I’m sure. Cheer yourself up by looking at a map of this part of the world and contemplating the places that you can visit, even for a w/e or long w/e, from here that you couldn’t from home. Our current to-do list is a 4-day Tokyo weekend coming up soon. Plus a trip up to Tioman Island, Malaysia, maybe a long w/e for my wife and a week for me. This is my ‘SCUBA-home’, and a place where we can both unwind, exhale, and feel refreshed/renewed. And lastly Micronesia; exotic, not exactly cheap, incredible diving, a final treat/reward for us for our time successfully spent here, and something we would never do from Europe. Well, that’s my very personal list. But I do find having a note of such near-future aspirations helps perk you up even after the roughest of days
Some people can eat things and enjoy it by the taste, and have to not analyze the existential qualities of the entire dining experience.
