From Sunday, 1 November 2026, A-PRICE Singapore at 120 Tanjong Pagar Road plans to stock eight Japanese ready-to-eat (RTE) meals priced from S$1.80 to S$6.80, and the store now opens on Sundays. Every meal comes with its own recipe card, so the more interesting question for anyone on a tight budget is whether to buy the bowl or buy the ingredients and make it at home.
A-PRICE is a Japanese cash-and-carry marketplace run by TOHO Singapore. “Cash-and-carry” means a wholesale-style store where you pay on the spot and take your goods home yourself, instead of ordering in bulk and waiting for a delivery. The Singapore outlet is open to the public. The company is pitching its new range as “not boring Japanese food”, which is a bold promise to make in a city with this many Japanese lunch options.
Eight Meals, One Fridge
| Meal | Price |
|---|---|
| Deluxe Crab and Ikura Rice Bowl | S$6.80 |
| Loaded Unagi Rice Box | S$6.80 |
| Loaded Salmon Poke Bowl | S$5.60 |
| Korean Spicy Salmon Bowl | S$5.60 |
| Japanese Hijiki Salmon Delight | S$4.80 |
| Colourful Tomato Gazpacho | S$2.80 |
| Green Harvest Potage | S$2.80 |
| Umami Salt Cabbage Salad | S$1.80 |
A quick glossary helps here. Ikura is soy-cured salmon roe, those glossy orange beads that pop when you bite them, and unagi is freshwater eel, served glazed over Japanese rice in the rice box. The Hijiki Salmon Delight is inari sushi, meaning sweet-tangy sushi rice tucked into seasoned, deep-fried tofu pouches, mixed with hijiki, a sea vegetable that A-PRICE says has long been part of the Japanese diet.
The rest of the range reaches further afield. The poke bowl borrows from the Hawaiian dish of seasoned, cubed raw fish served cold, while the Korean Spicy Salmon Bowl coats salmon chunks in a spicy Korean-style sauce. The two soups are both served chilled: a tomato-led gazpacho in the Andalusian tradition and a smooth French-style potage.
Where Your Money Goes Furthest
The Deluxe Crab and Ikura Rice Bowl is the one to buy ready-made, and A-PRICE’s own numbers make that case: cooking it at home costs S$0.41 more than the S$6.80 bowl itself. When the shop’s maths says cooking costs extra, let someone else do the assembling.
The Loaded Unagi Rice Box is the opposite story. It sells for S$6.80, but A-PRICE estimates you could recreate it for S$2.10, the widest gap on the menu at S$4.70 per serving. If you have a rice cooker and a free Sunday afternoon, that’s the recipe card worth taking home. Pairing it with the cabbage salad brings the bill to S$8.60 for the pair.
As for that S$1.80 headline price, it belongs to the Umami Salt Cabbage Salad, an izakaya-style side of crisp cabbage tossed with sesame oil, garlic and salt. (An izakaya is a casual Japanese pub, the kind of place built around small plates and drinks.) Japan calls it yamitsuki cabbage, meaning “addictive”, and it’s a great add-on, though no one should mistake it for a full lunch.
Doing the Recipe Card Maths
Only three of the eight cost between 40% and 50% of the RTE price to make at home: the cabbage salad (about 47%), the gazpacho (about 45%) and the potage (about 46%).
Elsewhere, the picture shifts. The poke bowl comes in at about 51% and the Korean Spicy Salmon Bowl at about 55%, so both are close enough to call a fair saving. The Hijiki Salmon Delight sits at about 66%, which is a much smaller win. Then there are the two outliers: the unagi box at roughly 31%, a better deal than promised, and the crab bowl at roughly 106%, a worse one.
Making a meal at home for less than S$1.80 works only for the same three cheapest items, a salad and two soups. Every rice bowl costs more than that to make at home, according to A-PRICE’s estimates. Treat the recipe cards as a useful bonus for the unagi and salmon dishes, and as a curiosity for the crab bowl.
Who’s Behind the Counter
A-PRICE opened its first store in Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture, Japan, in 1987, as a way for restaurants outside delivery zones, or too small to meet minimum order quantities, to buy professional-grade ingredients directly. It belongs to TOHO Co., Ltd., a Japanese food distribution group founded in 1947.
The Singapore arm, TOHO Singapore, was set up in 2019 by combining a local food supplier first incorporated in 1990 with two Japanese suppliers. According to the company, it now carries more than 2,000 food products and imports air-flown seafood from Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market, supplying hotel groups, sushi chains and fine-dining restaurants. Its house brands, including EAST BEE, S.E.A LION, Bread ‘N Better and FRESHdirect, sit on the same shelves as the new RTE range.
For anyone whose weekday lunch gets decided by whatever Grab has on offer, the appeal is simple: a takeaway bowl priced between S$4.80 and S$6.80, with the recipe card in hand if you’d like to cook a cheaper version later. The new Sunday hours help too, since that’s the day most people finally have time to cook.
The Details
🗓️ Date: From Sunday, 1 November 2026, according to A-PRICE
⏰ Time: 11am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday (closed on public holidays)
📍 Location: A-PRICE Singapore, 120 Tanjong Pagar Road, #01-01, Singapore 088532
💰 Prices: S$1.80 (Umami Salt Cabbage Salad) to S$6.80 (Deluxe Crab and Ikura Rice Bowl, Loaded Unagi Rice Box)
📝 Bonus: A recipe card with every RTE meal, with all ingredients sold in store
📞 Contact: +65 8977 8873 (calls and WhatsApp)
A Japanese lunch counter that hands you the recipe along with the meal is a rare kind of generosity, and the launch date conveniently falls on the store’s newest open day. Grab the crab bowl ready-made, take the unagi recipe card home, and check the latest range and opening hours on A-PRICE Singapore’s website before you head down to Tanjong Pagar Road from 1 November!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of A-PRICE Singapore.
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