Dining out can be expensive these days, especially for office workers looking for a filling lunch daily. Even ordering economical rice can give us a mini heart attack when we get the bill, but there are still obscure eateries where you can get a very well-priced and hearty meal.

For those fortunate enough to be employed at a large company, there are sometimes staff cafeterias. These are usually employees-only, but not the canteen at Wilmar International, as 8days.sg has discovered.

The SGX-listed agribusiness group is headquartered at Biopolis Road in one-north, where it shifted to four years ago.

The company was co-founded by billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong, who is nicknamed the “Palm Oil King” as Wilmar is one of the world’s largest palm oil producers.

Other than palm oil cultivation, it also deals with refining edible oils, milling of rice, flour and sugar, and manufacturing food products.

Located on the fourth floor of Wilmar’s HQ, its WHQ Canteen is a brightly-lit and spacious spot with scenic views of the greenery outside.

What intrigued us the most was its menu, which includes a S$7 all-you-can-eat economical rice-style buffet inclusive of GST.

The canteen is open from Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm (last order is at 4.30pm). For a quiet lunch, we recommend dropping by at around 11am; the cafeteria gets crowded at noon with staff streaming in during their lunch hour.

The buffet is self-service, and you are required to pay upfront at the self-order kiosk. After paying, a staff member handed us a plate to join the queue to take our food.

The food is neatly displayed in trays, with eight options. There are two carb options (white rice or brown rice), and six types of meat and veggie dishes like chicken tonkatsu with Japanese curry, fried wontons, fried chicken, steamed egg with shallots and eggplant with beancurd sauce. You can heap as much as you want, as long as it can fit on your plate.

Each buffet plate also comes with a complimentary bowl of soup, which was a wholesome ginger seaweed bonito soup during our visit.

Now, the caveat is that you can only pile your plate once with an unlimited amount of food, but you can’t go back for more rounds after that. And it should go without saying that you should take only as much as you can finish.

The cafeteria doesn’t seem to penalise food wastage like a buffet restaurant would, but there is also no stopping diners from bringing their own container to bring back the unfinished food on their plate to make another meal. That said, since public diners are sharing this cafeteria space meant for Wilmar staff, it is good to practise graciousness.

We took a bit of everything to try, and found the food rather interesting. We wouldn’t call it healthy, as there was a good amount of fried items on our plate. But the food tasted freshly fried, clean and not too greasy or salty, unlike a lot of coffee shop cai fan stalls. While it may not win the tastiest cai png award, at S$7 with an unlimited portion, it is fantastic value.

The dishes like eggplant with beancurd, steamed egg and chicken tonkatsu were serviceable enough (you can help yourself to sambal, chilli sauce or ketchup from the condiment station, which even has maple syrup), and the free ginger seaweed soup was pretty nourishing.

What was particularly good was the spiced fried chicken, tender and juicy with shatteringly crispy flavourful skin. We regret not taking more (since we can’t go back for seconds). But at S$7, this is a lunch spot you can revisit without fearing for your wallet.

Other than the S$7 cai png buffet, there are also a la carte options like mee goreng and laksa. There is a patisserie counter too, serving snacks like curry puff (S$1.90), mini loaf-sized sugar-free brownie (S$2.50) made with the company’s own brownie mix, and banana cake (S$1.50) as well as a chiller stocked with pre-packed salads and desserts like Swiss rolls.

There is even a mini grocery store within the cafeteria (which makes sense given that Wilmar is an agribusiness company). It’s well-stocked with basic necessities such as rice, sugar, olive oil, sesame oil, apple cider vinegar, dried pasta and flour, mostly priced below S$15 for bulk size.

We even found Pakistan-imported pink Himalayan salt at S$2 for an 800g pack, which appeared to be very popular with Wilmar staff as the shelf was nearly emptied.

You can also buy frozen foodstuff like tempura chicken nuggets, garlic bread, sausages and buns. There is a little chiller filled with ice cream too, like a mini Magnum bar for S$2.10, as well as fresh fruits like XL-sized oranges (S$2 each). The offerings here appear to vary based on availability and a rotating menu, so expect slightly different options on different days.

WHQ Canteen is at 28 Biopolis Road, Level 4, Wilmar International HQ, Singapore 138568. Open Mon-Fri 8.30am to 5pm (last order at 4.30pm).

This story was originally published in 8Days.

For more 8Days stories, visit https://www.8days.sg/