Restaurant app MealPal Singapore launches a subscription service today, offering 12 meals a month for a set fee.

The two-year-old app says the restaurant meal subscription price of S$95.88 equates to $7.99 per meal. For an extra $2 a month, the company will add two hawker meals.

For diners, the price equates to a discount of around 40 per cent. For restaurants it boosts sales and potentially exposes new customers to their brand and menu.

Delivery is not included in the program: customers must order lunch before 10.30am and dinner before 4pm and stipulate the time they will stop by to collect their meal.  

In an interview with Channel News Asia, MealPal’s manager of international markets, Paul Clifford, said the company has already signed up more than 250 food and beverage partners to the platform, including restaurants like Teppei Syokudo, Tuk Tuk Cha, Soup Spoon, Grain Traders and Folks Collective, and half a dozen hawkers each at Amoy Street Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre and Lau Pa Sat.

The new service has made its debut at four business hubs in the city: Orchard, Novena, Buona Vista and the CBD.

But there is a catch: restaurants will only offer one dish per day under the MealPal Singapore subscription plan and no customisation is allowed, which Clifford says brings participating businesses economies of scale in return for the discounted price.

“By identifying which dish to serve, restaurants are able to prepare the orders in advance without having to hire more people or change their processes,” he told Channel News Asia. “The service is on top of their usual business, as they will continue to serve walk-in customers…so they can expect additional revenue.”