Can’t get home in time to cook, but don’t wanna eat out all the time? Fret not, home-cooked styled food is just a subscription away with tingkat delivery services, delivered right to your doorstep.
If both you and your spouse are working parents and don’t engage a helper, chances are that you rarely have time to prepare home-cooked meals on a daily basis. This is especially if you work on-site at regular office hours, even more so if your workplace is far from home.
Enter: tingkat delivery, a meal delivery service that provides you and your family with home-cooked styled food on a daily basis (usually on weekdays only). This service gets its name from the tiffin carriers the meals are delivered in, where tingkat means ‘levels’ in Malay, referring to the multi-level compartments of a carrier. Tingkat meals usually consist of three to four dishes with fixed menus throughout your subscription period. However, you can always inform the service provider about your dietary requirements and preferences prior to your subscription. Personally, I like that there’s fixed menus as it takes away the headache of meal planning and figuring out what to eat (often the question of the day).
Looking for tingkat delivery services that are suitable for families with kids? We’ve listed down some of the best ones in town here.
1. Tingkat Delivery
If you have a penchant for local nostalgic flavours (think: the home-cooked dishes you used to love from your childhood days), then Tingkat Delivery by RichFood is a good choice. This caterer specialises in preparing classic dishes, all cooked in traditional methods with absolutely no MSG. There’s Hong Kong style steamed fish and yong tau fu (tofu stuffed with fish or meat paste), as well as nutritious soups like chicken soup with watercress and red dates. Tingkat Delivery also offers a healthy tingkat option, with a cleaner menu featuring more herbal options, and dishes that are prepared using only fresh ingredients (no canned food here). Plus, this is one of the few caterers that deliver both lunch and dinner.
Tingkat Delivery, from $5++ per day per pax, order online.
2. Select Catering
At a price point of $5.50 per pax per day, Select Catering’s tingkat delivery service is one of the most wallet-friendly options in town. The best part? It doesn’t skimp on quality. All dishes are thoughtfully prepared by the caterer’s chefs, using less oil, lower sodium salt, and absolutely no added MSG. So you can rest assured that your kiddos’ dinners are wholesome and healthy. Do look out for Select Catering’s Tuesday menus, as it keeps things thematic with cuisine-specific dishes like black pepper chicken chop, dory fillet with lemon sauce, and seasonal veg, paired with mushroom soup; or ayam masak merah, sambal egg, and seasonal veg, paired with soto ayam soup.
Select Catering, from $5.50++ per day per pax, order online.
3. FattyDaddyFattyMummy
Love variety? FattyDaddyFattyMummy has four tingkat menus for you to choose from, one of which is its Delightful, Tingkat that serves a different cuisine every other day. Picture this: you and the kids come home to an Italian meal on Monday, feast on Chinese favourites on Tuesday, fulfil your family’s Japanese food cravings on Wednesday, and so on! What’s more, FattyDaddyFattyMummy does not use processed food in its cooking at all.
FattyDaddyFattyMummy, from $6++ per day per pax, order online.
4. Shiok Healthy Tingkat
As parents, we definitely prioritise feeding our children nutritious food. That’s where Shiok Healthy Tingkat shines: not only does it specialise in serving healthy tingkat meals (which are also diabetic-friendly), it’s also halal and allows you to customise your meals too! The latter is a big win for families with young kids, whom we know can sometimes be a little picky with their food. Though Shiok only delivers twice a week, it covers Sundays so you don’t need to worry about braving the weekend crowd for meals.
Shiok Healthy Tingkat, from $5.50 per dish, order online.
5. Homely Delights
As its name suggests, expect delightful home-cooked style food from Homely Delights. A glance at its menu reveals comforting everyday favourites like hot plate egg tofu, kung pao pork, and bak kut teh soup. While this tingkat delivery service mainly does Chinese dishes, look out for surprises throughout your subscription period where you’ll receive grilled garlic pork chops paired with mashed potatoes.
Homely Delights, from $8++ per day per pax, order online.
6. Mom’s Cooking
This one has got lots of rave reviews, all of which praise the taste of the meals and quality of ingredients used. Mom’s Cooking is led by a chef who specialises in preparing home-cooked meals for more than 30 years. This tingkat delivery service doesn’t use MSG in its cooking, and each dish is tasted by the ‘boss chef’ before packing for delivery. And if you love homemade soups, Mom’s Cooking should definitely be on your radar as many customers have praised its tasty and nutritious soups too.
Mom’s Cooking, from $9++ per day per pax, order online.
7. Lagun Sari
Looking for a halal tingkat delivery service that delivers Malay dishes? Lagun Sari does just that. While more known as a Malay cuisine caterer that specialises in weddings, it offers home-styled cooking for daily meals as well. There’s ayam masak kicap (chicken in soy sauce), udang gulai nanas (prawns in pineapple curry), asam pedas ikan (spicy tamarind fish), and more. Lagun Sari also keeps things interesting with dishes from other cuisines occasionally, such as beef stroganoff, teriyaki fish, and mutton briyani.
Lagun Sari, from $12.50 per day per pax, order online.
