Finding food at Suntec City isn’t hard, but if you’re visiting the Convention Centre, you might want something a little more convenient and less pricey. Food vending machine company, Chef-in-Box, officially launched its VendCafe at the Convention Centre this week, boasting the widest array of machines yet, and utilising technology in the best ways to bring delicious and affordable food to you.

So what’s new about vending machines? Well, the Chef-in-Box machines have been present for a while now, as are the snacks and drinks machines, but this week sees the launch of the new coffee machines, the refrigerator, as well as new additions to the World Chef Series menu by world-renowned chef Satish Arora.

So instead of buying food here, and drinks somewhere else, you can satiate all your cravings at one spot, just like if you were in a cafe or food court!

World Chef Series India

The World Chef Series is a collection of meals prepared by top chefs from around the world. Currently, this series includes dishes from Thailand, Korea, and now India. By packing these chefs’ recipes into vending machine meals, these high-quality dishes get to be available to the masses.

Chef Satish Arora, who was present at the event to launch his new meals, introduced 12 new dishes, bringing a diverse cuisine from around all of India. In particular, he introduced a chicken curry dish from his family’s recipe.

He worked with his son to design meals that would allow for his unique flavour to be easily packed and sold to the masses. Chef Satish was visibly emotional when speaking of his recipe, so you can expect his dishes to be filled with lots of love.

His butter chicken, which was praised by the Queen of England herself, lives up to the standard, even in microwaveable form.

Hot Meal Vending Machines

If you’ve never seen the hot food vending machines, they basically give you several menu options to choose from, including fried rice, chicken curry and bibimbap. The regular items are SG$4, while the World Chef Series options are SG$6.80 per meal.

From the machine, you can choose to have it heated up, which the machine does in 3 minutes, for a piping hot meal ready to eat. The machine is restocked daily with a rotating menu, so you won’t get bored. There’s also the option to buy it frozen, so you can bring it back to the office or heat it up later.

The prospect of having full meals ready to go in just 3 minutes is tempting, to say the least. We tried the bibimbap from the machine, and the smell was enticing. The spicy sauce awererice was about the same standard that you’d get at your regular hawker centre, maybe even better. The eggs were sort of dry and stringy, but that’s to be expected of heated up meals.

Unfortunately, our rice got a little burnt, but other packs of bibimbap didn’t have this problem, so maybe it was just our bad luck. Overall, it’s a decent enough meal to satisfy your cravings, and it’s convenient if you’re looking for a quick lunch. These machines at Suntec are currently open 24 hours, so it’s also great for workers who stay late.

Coffee Machines

Besides the new dishes, the new coffee machine is another interesting contraption that you’ll want to check out. Boasting freshly ground beans from inside the machine, you get the chance to customise your coffee order. You can adjust the sweetness level of your coffee, and can choose to have it served hot or chilled.

We tried the ‘chilled’ Americano just to see what would happen. Unfortunately, the gorgeous latte art in the pictures is misleading, since it’s basically just a paper cup that you get from most coffee machines. The coffee was decent, but the ‘chilled’ option just yields a room-temperature cup of coffee, with no ice. That’s horribly disappointing to say the least, but if you’re pressed for time, it might be convenient to get a coffee that you can chug right away.

With prices from $2-4, it’s definitely something worth trying if you’re heading to the Convention Centre any time soon. We wish we could look into the machine to see the beans being ground inside, though.

Juice Machines

You’ve surely seen those fresh-juice machines around, and Chef-in-Box capitalises on this trend, too, with the orange and coconut machines. Again, it’s disappointing that the process obtaining the juice or drilling the coconut isn’t visible from the outside, but it’s a slick new machine that yields a decent product.

If you’re a Singaporean, you might automatically pick up on the problem that the coconut machine only drills a hole in the husk, making it impossible to scoop up all the delicious meat on the inside.

Smart Refrigerator

But coolest of all the new contraptions is arguably the refrigerator that’s controlled by your phone. The refrigerator is locked, with no visible interface, except for a QR code on the front. If you scan the code, you’ll be redirected to a website notifying you that the refrigerator is open, and the refrigerator in front of you unlocks.

From there, you can take what you wish, depending on what’s available, be it desserts or frozen meals. The gantry system in the refrigerator will detect the absence of the items once you shut the door, and charge the items to your credit card.

It’s a neat piece of technology, and a cool way to incorporate the cashless, hi-tech concept with Chef-in-Box’s idea of convenient and tasty, food. All the machines are cashless, of course, but this turns it up a notch. Seems like an understated way to bring this sort of packed meals to your workplace without needing the fanfare of the hot meal machines, especially if your office is stocked with a microwave.

Unfortunately, the coconut machine and smart refrigerator are still in development, so don’t be surprised if it’s not in operation yet if you drop by the VendCafe.

Overall, Chef-in-Box is combining stuff we’ve seen before with even more innovation, and is definitely pushing in the direction of more progress, with the use of cashless payment for all its machines and the ways that they’ve managed to step up their game with this launch. Chef-in-Box is currently available in 9 locations around Singapore, and are open to working with offices to place more machines. If you’re curious, you can head down to the Suntec City Convention Centre to try out these machines your yourself!