A new vending machine café was launched at Singapore's Lakeside MRT station on Friday, giving another grab-and-go option to the commuters. The Chef-in-Box VendCafe at Lakeside is the third all-vending machine cafe to open in Singapore and the second to be located in an MRT station.
Channel NewsAsia reported that the first outlet opened at Anchorvale Drive in August 2016 and the second was unveiled at Ang Mo Kio station earlier this month.
These vending machines offer more than 90 food and drink options, including local favourites such as nasi lemak and char siew rice to dishes from Thailand, Japan and Italy.
The Ang Mo Kio outlet had introduced new dishes like fried carrot cake, Thai green curry chicken and Spanish paella. The authorities said that these will also be available at the new Lakeside outlet.
According to a media statement announcing the launch of the café, all the dishes are priced below S$6. The machines are replenished twice a day and it produces fresh dishes daily. The customers can also avail cashless forms of payment including contactless credit cards, Android Pay, Apple Pay and transport cards like EZ-Link.
The statement said that Chef-in-Box VendCafe also uses "cook-chill technology", instead of "cook-freeze". Instead of the usual four minutes, each meal will be dispensed at shorter waiting times of around 30 seconds.
