Is the food at 7-Eleven vs Cheers better? I wrecked my body to find out

Judging by the response to a previous blog post about the best things to buy at 7-Eleven, I gather that quite a few of you are closeted fans of convenience food, just like me. High five!

You might not realise this, but Cheers, too, has a range of packaged convenience foods that can give 7-Eleven serious competition. So which chain delivers more gastronomic bang for your buck?

7-ELEVEN VS CHEERS SINGAPORE - BATTLE OF THE CONVENIENCE FOODS

7-Eleven and Cheers don't sell exactly the same things, so to keep things as fair as possible, I picked 5 common ready-to-eat items to compare. Here's how they stack up in terms of price range:

* My colleague told me that although 7-Eleven doesn't have a promo price tag, they also sell Hanjuku eggs at 2 for $4.50! Try this "cheat code" and tell me if it works.

It's a close fight: Cheers "wins" in 3 of the categories, but 7-Eleven has a dramatic edge over its rival in both the Indian food and rice dish categories. Alamak, how like that?!

There's only one way to resolve the age-old conundrum of trying to decide between Cheers vs 7-Eleven food.

That's right - I sacrificed my body and soul to taste-test a statistically significant amount of nutritionally-questionable food from both sources to decide.

7-ELEVEN SANDWICHES VS CHEERS SANDWICHES

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Going by how the sandwich section of the 7-Eleven chiller is always wiped clean when I pop by at 2pm, I'm guessing that sandwiches are one of the most popular convenience food items, despite the fact that I have never seen another soul eat one IRL.

Ever since I started going to a yoga studio right next to a 7-Eleven, I have developed a mild obsession with the convenience chain's sandwiches. Apart from the generic fillings like egg and cheese ($2.90), they have ~exclusive~ flavours like Japanese-style chicken katsu ($3.50) and my favourite prawn salad sandwiches ($3.50).

Cheers has cheaper sandwiches than 7-Eleven, and to my surprise, there's actually a wider variety of fillings (although they tend to revolve around the theme of "chicken", e.g. teriyaki, Mediterranean, honey glazed, roasted, etc. etc.)

Cheers' sandwiches range from $2.70 to $3.50, which is on the cheaper side compared to 7-Eleven, and some even come in a multi-grain option.

Winner: Cheers wins in all 3 aspects: Price + variety + healthiness.

7-ELEVEN HANJUKU EGGS VS CHEERS AJITSUKE TAMAGO

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One of 7-Eleven's cult convenience food items are the Hanjuku eggs, i.e. ramen eggs. These cost $2.50 for a pack of 2, which is not cheap, but they are one of the most delicious things you can find in the 7-Eleven chiller.

If you're a hardcore ramen egg devotee, though, you'll be very glad to know that Cheers has a near-identical product called the Ajitsuke tamago eggs, which are also sold in packs of 2. They taste exactly the same as 7-Eleven's - I'm convinced they all come from the same factory.

The standard price is $2.50 each, but Cheers seems to run a perma-promotion where they're 2 for $4.50.

I have heard that 7-Eleven also runs the same 2 for $4.50 promotion, but I'm unable to find a price tag stating this promotion, so I'll have to give this one to Cheers for now.

Winner: Cheers wins the ramen egg category in this straightforward price contest.

7-ELEVEN BUTTER CHICKEN BRIYANI VS CHEERS CHICKPEA PULAO

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Another cult 7-Eleven product that I was sceptical about Cheers being able to top is the famous butter chicken biryani.

Everyone I know is ga-ga about it, even the butter chicken and biryani aficionado that is my husband, so I think it must be super worth the $3.90 price tag.

But can Cheers come close to the glorious 7-Eleven butter chicken biryani?

The answer is: YES! I was legit amazed by Cheers' answer to 7-Eleven's cult product. The $4.50 chickpea pulao with masala chicken may be more expensive, but personally, since I prefer tangy South Indian flavours to North Indian-style butter-bombs, I loved it.

Winner: Price-wise, 7-Eleven wins. But taste-wise? Let's just say I'd happily fork out $0.60 more for Cheers' pulao anytime. Now if only they made a vegetarian version of this…

7-ELEVEN RICE DISHES VS CHEERS RICE DISHES

Like their sandwiches, the ready-to-eat rice dishes at 7-Eleven and Cheers are another staple food for convenience store lurkers in Singapore.

It's a bit of a tough sell, this one. I mean, you can get rice + 2 veg 1 meat for $3 at your local cai png stall, so I imagine it's these rice dishes are not all that attractive to most.

7-Eleven has cheaper rice dishes than Cheers. Here, you can find basic dishes like fried rice ($3), nasi lemak ($3.20) and curry chicken with rice ($3.50) at affordable rates. The price-to-quantity ratio isn't great, but if you've got a hankering for nasi lemak at 2am, then no choice, right?

7-Eleven also tries to diversify with more "premium" offerings like mapo tofu with rice ($3.80) and Japanese curry rice ($4.90), but they're not exactly restaurant-quality - it's hard to justify paying more for such a utilitarian meal.

Meanwhile, Cheers has its own range of rice dishes, and they're all a bit more expensive than 7-Eleven's. For example, Cheers' fried rice is $4.50, which is way more pricey than 7-Eleven's $3.

However, Cheers does have some unique offerings like gong bao chicken + rice ($4.50), lemongrass chicken + rice ($4.50) and even steamed fish + brown rice ($4.90), which do taste a bit better in my opinion than 7-Eleven's. Your mileage may vary.

Winner: 7-Eleven wins for price, but Cheers' rice options are more appetising. Bonus points for offering brown rice meals!

7-ELEVEN PASTA VS CHEERS PASTA

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Pasta is kind of the last thing I'd go to a convenience store for since it's so easy to make at home, but I think eating sandwiches and curry rice can get old for some people. For variety's sake, I decided to try the pasta options at both convenience stores too.

I'm not very impressed by 7-Eleven's pasta selection. It's just what you'd expect: Basic chicken spaghetti bolognese ($3.90, waaaay too sauce-y) and mac & cheese ($4.20, tastes OK).

Cheers actually sells a mac & cheese that's cheaper than both, at just $3.80.

But I was more drawn to the atas ($4.90) "buttered chicken with salted egg spaghetti" purely because it looked so gimmicky and bad. Imagine my shock when it turned out to be actually good! 10/10 would eat again.

Winner: Cheers for both price and taste.

CONCLUSION: THIS MAY BE THE MOST BO LIAO COMPARISON I'VE EVER DONE

TBH, there's no real reason to compare 7-Eleven and Cheers, because it's not like they even sell the same things. Besides, convenience is the main factor here - if 7-Eleven is on your way home, you're not going to detour 2km to go to Cheers to save $0.50 on your ramen eggs.

But if you happen to have both options, then Cheers is actually, in my opinion, the better convenience store for food.

Cheers has several convenience items that are cheaper than 7-Eleven, for one thing. But more importantly, I've found the quality of Cheers' food to be consistently better and seemingly more healthy than 7-Eleven's, so if you're eating at convenience stores on a regular basis, it's probably a better idea to stick to Cheers.

Cheers or 7-Eleven? Tell us which convenience store chain has your heart.

This article was first published in MoneySmart.