Chicken Hot Pot 鸡公煲 - One Hotpot, Two experience!

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 10 PM
• Address: Multiple Locations
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Located outside Fairprice supermarket at Novena Square 2, there is always a corner where you can see people crowding around during lunch / dinner time.

Chicken Hot Pot is a overseas franchise originated from Shanghai, China. They used to serve only three types of hot pot - Chicken, Beef and Prawn. We were quite suprised to see the new addition to their hotpot menu — fish hotpot and pig stomach soup hotpot.

We waited for about 20 minutes before we were being assigned to a table.

We ordered the large signature Chicken Hotpot during our visit. You can choose the spicy level you want in your pot. The spicy level was very manageable in our opinion. The pot of goodness is paired with thick savory sauce, with small chunks of chicken, capsicum, onion, celery and chilli in it. When we first started eating, the sauce was very concentrated and slightly towards a saltier side, more like the texture of the usual gravy that goes very well with a bowl of fragrant rice. When we were eating halfway, the staff initiated to fill up our pot with clear soup, it was then gradually became a pot of soup which was tasty and acceptable to our taste buds.  

There are also many types of steamboat items available in the fridge for you to add into your pot. Ranging from $1 to $3 each plate, each item added will enhance the taste of the soup, creating a different hotpot experience all in one pot. The portion of the chicken in a large pot was just nice for two pax. It would be better if they can be slightly more generous on their portion of meat given.

The aromatic pot of chicken were served piping hot, and will continue to stay scalding hot throughout your meal, thanks to the wax and fire underneath the pot. Definitely a plus point!

The service received from the staffs were pretty good as well. They were very prompt to your request which makes the overall dining experience a good one.

Chicken Hotpot may be very familiar with many of us as it has been around in Singapore for more than 10 years to date. If you are around that area, do drop by the shop and give it a try!

Steamov Shi Shang Lao 食尚撈旋转小火锅 - Conveyor belt concept steamboat restaurant!

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 4 AM
• Address: 325 New Bridge Road, S 088760
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A newly opened restaurant in September 2017, Shi Shang Lao 食尚撈 is a conveyer belt concept hotpot restaurant in Singapore.

Located near Outram Park MRT, it is conveniently located at Chinatown area. Shi Shang Lao’s interior looks like a grand room with a long table where diners can sit around, facing the conveyor belt in the middle. You can simply pick up the skewered ingredients you want. On the other side, they have tables catered to bigger groups of four & above. 

On a side note, you can rent a portable power bank to charge your phone at only $1!

We love how the conveyer belt has many fresh steamboat items on it. It is something not commonly found in Singapore and it is one of the main reasons we were there to try. They have also a big chiller where they would usually place the cut fruits in it. Fresh fruits such as dragon fruit, honeydew, rockmelon and watermelon are constantly replaced to ensure its freshness.

In the restaurant, you can choose to sit at the tables or counter seats, which both have their own conveyor belt at the sides.

So once you’ve settled down, a staff will ask for your preferred soup choice. Everyone gets their own individual pot of soup, so you don’t have to share the soup with your friends if you didn’t like their choice.

The 10 types of soup include the Extra Spicy Pot, Fragrance Pot, Herbal Pot, Triple Taste Pot, Spicy Pot, Tomato Pot, Herbal Duck Pot, Mushroom Pot, Sour Vege Fish Pot and Mushroom and Black Chicken Pot. 

All the drinks are displayed on the shelf above the conveyer belt, so grab the drink you want and ask the service staff for a glass of ice. The drinks are priced starting from $1.20. 

So for food, basic ingredients include hotdogs, crabsticks and fishballs on the wooden satay skewer are priced at $1 each, while premium ingredients with a flat wooden skewer are priced at $3 each.

They also offer seafood including prawns and salmon fillets. All the seafood we tried was fresh without the fishy taste.

We started with the Chicken Rolls which was out of the conveyor belt menu. Priced at $8, we were surprised it came with a big portion, with a total of 18 rolls piled on the plate. The chicken was fresh and lean, giving good texture.

First soup we tried was the Herbal Duck Pot. It has a little herbal duck taste and it was a little too bland for our liking. However, the taste will slowly get intensified in time after cooking with the steamboat ingredients.

We also tried one of the top recommended soups too - Tomato Pot. It is similar in taste to Haidilao's version but they are on a lighter and diluted version, which is also not a bad choice as it makes a better soup base for the steamboat ingredients as the soup will not overpower the original taste of the food.

Similar to most of the hotpot places, they have a self-serve condiment station with a wide range of home-made sauces for you to choose.

There were a lot more ingredients that we were not able to try because of the wide variety of choices here. We spent a total of $50+ for 2 pax, which is pretty much affordable for a good supper meal. And oh did I mention they are open until 4am daily as well?

Steamov is a modern steamboat concept which makes another good supper place if you are around Chinatown area. With so many steamboat places currently, Steamov distinguishes itself from providing a wide range of food, displaying on the conveyor belt. It is a no frill dining concept suitable for anyone who wants to have a cheaper alternative steamboat affairs with your family or friends.

Damiao Hot Pot 大妙火锅 - Steamboat in Clarke Quay

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11.30 AM to 4 PM
• Address: 3C River Valley Road, #01-11, The Cannery, S 179022
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Being a hot pot lover, we have decided to try the highly raved Damiao hotpot 大妙火锅 as many were saying it is more premium and comparable to Haidilao hotpot 海底捞.

We were there at 6:30pm on a weekday and we have no problem finding a table for two.

At Damiao, they have the daily special Sichuan Cultural Show at 7:30pm. Their performance include Sichuan Opera 变脸 and Tea Art Performance. It’s actually one of the highlights here to wait for if you are dining around this timing.

It has a mini platform for their performers.

Similar to Hai Di Lao, they have an area for various types of sauce. However, the variety of the sauce is limited. Each pax will be charged at $3 for the sauce.

The type of soup base you can choose at Da Miao. We took the traditional yuan yang soup pot.

You can customized your soup base to the level of spiciness you want. We requested for less spiciness and less salt for our pot.

We ordered a 1/2 plate pork collar. It was indeed fresh and nice and we decided to order 1 full plate later.

We have heard so much about the fried muah chee at Da Miao and so we decided to order it immediately after we sat down. At first we were unsure what is this called, and we looked through the iPad for quite some time before we finally found it.

You are suppose to dip inside the sweet black sauce, before you mix it together with the crushed peanut with sugar. It is fried to a perfection — crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. We quite like this fried muah chee, however, maybe because we were already having an expectation before we tasted it, we felt that it is decently nice— but slightly below our expectation.

We’ve noticed this cute little can of sesame oil from Da Miao and we decided to give it a try. It taste just exactly like sesame oil — which was different from what we expected (because of its packaging so we were kind of giving high expectation on it as well).

We ordered the 炸醬面 as our staple. It tasted like beef with noodle and the level of saltiness was just right. The portion of the minced meat given was not stingy.

Our full portion of pork collar! It was thinly sliced and very fresh, and it is good enough on its own after cooked without pairing with any sauce! They have pork belly too but we preferred lesser fat this we went for this.

After waiting for about 1 hour, the face changing performances is finally here! Other than the lighted platform, the performer will walk towards the entrance to perform as well. The whole face changing performance lasted for about 15 - 20 minutes. Something different and considered an eye opening performance to us as we do not have a chance to sit so close to the performer.

After another 15 minutes later, the tea appreciation performance started. We realized that it was the same person from the face changing performance. Really very talented.

Da Miao Hotpot provides a solid place for fresh food and nice ambience for gathering, and its good for business lunch / dinner with clients as it is spacious. Though the service from the staffs were good, we still prefer the service we get from Haidilao as the staff there is more attentive to little details of their customer, from giving you an apron, a ziplock bag for your handphone to even hair ties for ladies before sitting down. The condiment corner at Haidilao has much more variety as well. Unlike Haidilao, It took us a while for the waiter at Da Miao to realize that we needed their help to add on our order, as the iPad menu needs the password of the staff. It is something that Da Miao can consider removing if they want their customer to have a seamless dining experience.

Penang Bagus - Penang and Korean Food and Dessert Cafe

• Operating Days: Closed on Tuesdays
• Operating Time: Mon, Wed & Thu: 11.30 AM to 11 PM
• Fri & Sat: 11.30 AM to 11.30 PM
• Address: 232 Tanjong Katong Road, S 437020
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Penang Bagus is a newly renovated shop located beside Ponggol Nasi Lemak at Tanjong Katong, serving Penang street food, as well as serving Korean desserts and snacks.

Previously, this cafe serves only Korean Bingsu and other Korean snacks. It was only until recently, Penang Bagus took over the premises to sell Penang dishes, and still preserving the original Korean dishes.

This is an air-conditioned restaurant with a relaxing ambience. Most of the decorations from the previous Korean cafe were preserved, with adding of some Penang feel to it. Changes were quite a minimal as compared to previously.

One of the staffs informed us that all the food from the Korean menu will still be prepared personally by a native Korean.

So there is the Penang famous street art wallpaper with the real bicycle on it, very much similar to the original one located in Penang. With that, it felt almost like we were dining at a street-side stall in Penang, with the comfortable air-con ambience!

Penang Bagus is pretty much an all self-service restaurant. You order and pay at the counter, then collect your food when the buzzer beeps. There is no service charge here so the prices stated on the menu will be the nett price you pay.

 We ordered a Korean Injeolmi toast and a Chocolate Banana Bingsu.

The tiny mountain of shaved ice was covered with Milo powder and topped with banana slices, almond flakes, chocolate syrup, served with a scoop of vanilla flavoured ice-cream on top.

Like most bingsu, the ice shavings were milky and slightly sweet. Even with the ice-cream and chocolate syrup, the dessert was surprisingly not too overwhelming. In terms of texture, the shavings were more icy than creamy.

Next was the Injeolmi toast. It is actually a Korean rice cake sandwich. The toast was delicious, crusty and crispy on the edges and the cheese added a savoury dimension to it. It was thick with a good layer of rice cake sandwiched between the two bread slices. You can top it up with condensed milk but I liked it as how it is served.

The toast was slightly sweet, with the salty cheese layer which can be seen on the top. It was a nice combination in my opinion.

The air-conditioned dining space makes the overall dining experience a good one, with friendly staffs and the good service seen. We will be back soon to try out their Penang dishes.

OLEG - Cafe with waffle as sandwich

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 10 AM to 10 PM
• Address: 3rd Floor, Aeon Bandar Dato Onn, Jalan Dato Onn Utama Kempas, Johor, Malaysia
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We are back at AEON Bandar Dato' Onn in Johor Bahru, and this time round we have tried OLEG. OLEG is a contemporary casual eatery serving burgers, waffles, small bites, snacks, cold drinks and coffee. They have stalls at City Square, AEON Tebrau City and AEON Dato' Onn.

It is hard to miss this shop with its striking interiors located at level 3. This is mainly the reason why I visit them.

Everything is pretty much self service at OLEG. You order at the counter, pay and wait for your order number to be called. I had a hard time trying to communicate with the counter staff as they don’t really speak English. 

They also serve breakfast for just an hour. The price are so much cheaper than their normal menu. Chicken porridge for 5.90 RM?!

At OLEG, you can customise your burger or waffle by selecting either chicken or beef and then choose one of the following types of sauce to pair with. They have Teriyaki, Wasabi mustard, signature curry, mayonnaise, signature spicy, honey mustard, barbeque, cream of tartar, and cheese.

We ordered a Waffle O' grill set, priced at 17.90RM. The set meal comes with fries and ice lemon tea. Even though there were no crowd, our waiting time was 20 mins after placing our order.  You can’t expect too much from their service. 

The waffle came with cucumber slices, leafy lettuce, juicy tomatoes, and the sauce you chose. Their so-called home-made ice lemon tea tasted artificial to us which we didn’t like it. The fries given were also dry and cold when it was presented to us.

OLEG's waffle has medium thickness, is light and is slightly crisp. It has a slight saltiness in the waffle, unlike what I'm expecting (I was expecting a sweet waffle!). The chicken is tender but has not much taste by itself, it would be better if it is paired with the sauce they have in order to enhance the overall taste of this whole meal.

Overall, OLEG has a comfortable and casual ambience with food selling at reasonable prices. I would probably go back again only to try their signature soft shell crab charcoal burger.

Hawkerman - 3 Hawkers in 1 Trendy Food Court

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 10.30 PM
• Address: SingPost Centre, B1-128, 10 Eunos Road 8, S 408600
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At the basement of the newly renovated Singpost Centre at Paya Lebar, there are a good mix of established restaurants, and here we are to try out the Hawkerman restaurant that is opened by actor-host Ben Yeo.

Hawkerman is a restaurant that incorporate 3 famous hawker brands into 1, so that their customers can enjoy the best from each stall. It is definitely a new concept introduced in Singapore. I’m sure you are interested to know these hawker stalls are:

• Warong Kim's Hokkien Mee 金記福建麵
• Tenderfresh Fried Chicken 可愛雞
• Ah Boy's Good Chance Popiah 好彩薄餅

I would define Hawkerman as a trendy food court more than a restaurant itself as you do not need to pay for any service charges, which that means All the price listed on the menu are all nett prices.

After flipping through the menu, we were really spoilt for choices! As we didn’t know what to choose, we’ve decided to try their “Bao Ka Liao 包到完.” Just as what the name stated, Bao Ka Liao has everything in it: hokkien mee, fried half spring chicken, popiah, kimslaw (kimchi coleslaw) with fried muah chee, chicken karaage with salted egg mayo, fried XO carrot cake, and watermelon with citrus plum juice. Portion was big and it was enough to serve 2 hungry adults.

When you are ready to place your order you go up to the cashier to order and pay. 

At Hawkerman, everything was pretty much self service; you order and pay at the counter, wait for the pager to buzz and subsequently to collect your food at the kitchen counter when it is ready. The condiments and utensils provided were also placed at a corner for you to take.

The Bao Ka Liao presented was served in a large tray. Each item was very neatly placed. 

The first item we tried was their homemade citrus plum juice with watermelon. Both the citrus plum juice and watermelon were refreshing but I would prefer both items to not mix together. I guess it would be better if they were presented seperately.

The next item we tried was the Hokkien Mee. I like how the noodles was moist and tasteful but it still lacks a bit of wok hei taste. Overall, I will still return for this dish with other variety in future, maybe with chicken chop. 

This fried half spring chicken brought my childhood memories back where I had this - the exact same taste and texture of chicken bought at the coffeeshop nearby my house. It has crispy skin and the meat was tender. 

Karaage with salted egg mayo was not as crispy as the fried half spring chicken, and for tastewise was very normal. Nothing to shout about.

Popiah was very filling, the mang guang wrapped inside the popiah skin was very generous. It was one of my favorite dishes here.

Their homemade carrot cake - a tray of delicous radish cake with stir-fried egg and preserved radish was not served hot and we were a little dissappointed because of that. It would be a fabulous dish if it can be served hot.

Overall, Hawkerman provides a trendy concept to their customers, which at the same time, bringing in the best dishes originated from the 3 hawker stalls. We will be returning to Hawkerman to try other items on their menu, especially their Popiah and hokkien mee.