However, recently, my wife chanced upon this app called "Too Good to Go".
In this app, eateries, supermarkets, bakeries, restaurants, etc, will upload their unsold food to sell for cheap prices.
So we decided to try this out for once.
Below is a set which we bought at €3.99.
This is after lunch. So the cafeteria packs their unsold lunch portions into containers and sells "mystery" packs. All shops sell their unsold food as "mystery" packs, so there's no choosing at all the shops.
There are sushi restaurants, supermarkets selling their precooked food, etc...
So we pay €3.99 and we don't know what we will get. We collect it around 3+pm after their lunch hours and I brought it home for dinner.
The dessert is a typical size dessert which you would find anywhere. Probably bigger than the circular tarts found at Chateraise.
The main course is a side dish of sauteed vegetables along with a fish mashed in potatoes. It's like mash potatoes with fish bits. It's quite a lot of fish so it's not like its just a mash potato side dish.
At €3.99, there's little to complain about. A ready to eat meal for dinner, just pop it into the over/microwave. The quantity is quite a lot.
Overall it's a good buy.
Typically, shops will sell their unsold food at much cheaper prices. Even though buyers don't know what they are going to get, usually the shop will make it worth it for the consumer. Cos it's an initiative to reduce food waste. Also the shops want repeat customers so there's no reason for the shop to short change the customers using this app.
So if you aren't fussy, it's a good deal to use the app over here in Paris.
If I'm not getting free food, this is a total steal. The food is reasonable in taste, a lot in quantity, cheap in price. There's really no where else to get such a good deal. Considering eating anything besides a sandwich will set me back over €15.
Remember, over here, a sandwich costs around €4-€6 depending on the ingredients of the sandwich.
Eating at any sit down place will cost me more than €15. So any warm food will cost me quite a lot.
This is like... well... it's not a sit down place and the food isn't warm, but I can take it home and heat it up and it's really cheap, and this price is pretty much unavailable anywhere else in Paris.
So if I wasn't getting free food, I would likely be using this app everyday to get my meals.
Apparently shoppers can also get "mystery" bags worth of groceries and all that kinda stuff. So it really helps to supplement the food for any one staying in Paris...
Unless the person gets their food for free... then of course it's not entirely worth it.
I'll likely use this app once or twice more to see what other meals I can get just for the fun of it.
It's fun to experiment with other resources and opportunities.
Free is good. But I also like to try other things cos even though I get free food, cos there are things I don't get, and I hardly eat out when I'm in Paris, so this gives me the opportunity to eat outside food cheaply before I leave Paris.
Unfortunately, I doubt this will take off in Singapore.
Cos in Singapore, food is too cheap. There's little incentive for people to buy leftovers at discounted prices. Unless the discount is really really worth it.
Over here, if I use the app, I'm getting around 70% discount. Cos I don't have cheap food alternatives.
But in SG, food can easily be found at $3. So unless it's some expensive restaurant selling the food at 70% discount, I doubt it's worth it for Singaporeans to take up such an offer.
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