The Cheapest Thing on the Menu- Fishbowl

Cost: $11.90

Location: Various

Eating out is so expensive these days! Thus, writing a food blog and recommending others to try a restaurant’s signature dish with all the trimmings almost feels irresponsible these days. Therefore, I got it into my mind that I wanted to help myself and others to try save a few bucks here and there when dining out. No, I’m not going to only eat at fast food chains (although today’s establishment is), however we’re still going to dine at all our usual places, and try the new fads, but I’m just going to make a conscious effort to order the cheapest thing on the menu. And then evaluate how good it can be, is it cheap because it’s a tiny portion? Is it still tasty and appealing? Are they cutting corners to maintain the lower cost? And is it value for money? And the plan is to keep this up till the end of the year (7 more months). So here we go!

The criteria is that I must order a main (no snacks or starters); if the cheapest is always the veg option, then I’ll choose the next cheapest item with meat in it;  I must also try my best not to make my wife feel guilty when she watches me eat the most basic version of a dish, while she has something nice like Wagyu beef (as this is my own crazy challenge- not hers); and I mustn’t complain, as inevitably the cheapest item on the menu might not be what I was hanging out for on that day, but since I’ve set myself this challenge I’m sure I’ll be eating things which I don’t like or want from time-to-time.

So, before embarking on this challenge, I just did a quick Google search to see if another web-site or blogger was doing something like this, purely focusing on the cheapest dish on a restaurant’s menu, and the first thing I read was some discussion thread stating that it was offensive to a restaurant if you order the cheapest dish on their menu. Like what the!? If it’s on the menu, you should be able to order it? Right? It’s not like I’m an adult and I’m ordering the kid’s meal. And if anything, it’s offensive to me, if a restaurant decides to charge me $26 for a pretty standard bowl of noodles- like cost of living pressures, it’s ridiculous at the moment! BTW, there wasn’t a site which focuses just on the cheapest item on a restaurant’s menu.

So, my first go round at this was lunch last Sunday, the previous day I had the pre-aforementioned $26 bowl of noodles and I wanted to even out my lunch cost over the two days by going cheap on Sunday. So, I suggested Fishbowl to my wife, as we had previously tried their ‘House Favourite Boxes’, the cheapest thing on their menu and it was ok.

Fishbowl is all about being a healthy option for people, priding themselves on their fresh ingredients- however oftentimes healthiness comes at a cost. And I guess why Fishbowl has introduced this new menu range is to appeal to the cost conscious consumer (or just those who are looking for a lighter lunch).

In this range of street food boxes (at the lowest price point) there are 4 options (2 chicken, beef and a vegetarian option). Each option comes with the same base ingredients of house slaw, sushi rice, cashews, sesamiso and sesame seeds, while your choice of protein is added on top and mixed in.

Portioning: It’s not a bad size, the box is the same size as an old school regular sized takeaway container- it definitely felt substantial enough, but I had to force myself to eat slower to make it last.

Tastiness: It was full of flavour, this day I had the Tom Yum Chicken box, it was umami and spicy, and when mixed in with all the other ingredients it made each mouthful different and interesting. Previously I had tried the Lemon chicken box, and that was also tasty and moreish.

Quality: Could you tell that you’re having the cheapest item off their menu? I guess so, just because their regular bowls always seemed so premium with raw salmon and countless other ingredients with different textures and flavours (I always ordered the OG). But with the Tom Yum box, there weren’t real chicken pieces, instead it was chicken mince, and the Tom Yum chicken came out of a tub, scooped out like ice cream with an ice cream scoop, then dolloped on top of the rice before mixed through and served cold. So, a bit of a contrast to their fresh poke bowls.  

Value for money: These days, where can you find anything under $12? So, from that perspective it was value for money at $11.90. But when you break it down to its components, I wouldn’t be surprised that Fishbowl were probably making a higher profit margin off these boxes, compared to their standard menu items.

In conclusion, would I go back? Would I try it again? Yeah, I would, although it was pre-cooked (and I wish I didn’t know how they served it up), but in the end it served it’s purpose- it met my basic need of hunger, it was tasty enough to delight the senses, and it was dirt cheap at $11.90! Funny how $11.90 is considered cheap these days, 5 years ago $5 was the definition of dirt cheap!