A bone to pick: Man pays $6.80 for pork belly ban mian, gets 'pork bones' instead

He'd ordered a bowl of pork belly ban mian (noodles), but what he received, however, left much to be desired.

Facebook user Jonathan Oh posted about his unhappy meal to the Complaint Singapore Facebook page on Wednesday (March 8).

Describing his experience, Oh recounted that he had ordered the bowl of noodles from Qiu Lian Ban Mian, located at the Kopitiam food court within Changi Airport T4.

Calling the dish a "complete scam", Oh wrote: "Ordered a pork belly ban mian… all they gave are bones."

When he asked the staff member why the dish did not contain pork belly meat, she allegedly told Oh that they gave "the bottom part of the pork belly which are bones".

"Can't be bothered to argue with her," a disgruntled Oh stated, noting that the food received "is so different from [the] picture".

"Paid $6.80 for pork bones."

Photos of his bowl posted by Oh showed around three pieces of what looked to be soft-bone meat resting on some noodles.

In contrast, a photo of the Pork Belly You Mian dish printed on the stall's menu showed cubes of braised pork belly with the noodles.

Comments to the post seemed to commiserate with Oh's predicament.

One user stated that he would have "rejected the meal and asked for a refund", unless they served him another bowl with said pork belly.

"Unscrupulous. You don't deserve to be treated like this," wrote another.

Another commenter who wondered if it's a case of cheating or "failed biology" wrote: "Which animal belly got bones [sic]?"

But disappointment is bound to ensue when reality falls short of expectations, especially when one has paid good money for it.

Take the recent case of a customer whose Mao Shan Wang durian crepe cake looked vastly different from what had been advertised. 

Despite a disclaimer put up by the bakery that the presentation of the cake may vary, the cake "tasted old and nothing near Mao Shan Wang too", said the customer.

In another case, a diner who was looking forward to tucking into her packet of mutton kway teow goreng with egg was dismayed to find neither mutton nor egg in her meal.

What's worse was that she was charged $5 for what was basically plain kway teow goreng with some vegetables.

More common in recent times, however, have been complaints about high prices charged at food courts and economic rice stalls here.

ALSO READ: $5 or $9? Man gets varying charges for same 'cai fan' order on different days

candicecai@asiaone.com